Human rights work continues

Three Cork projects have been awarded funding for their human rights and equality projects.

Nasc, the Migrant and Refugee Rights centre will develop a suite of short videos, aiming to empower disadvantaged young people, who are unable to access further and third level education because of their immigration status, to become strong advocates for legal and policy change.

Susan Mackey, Nasc social worker said: “We want young people from migrant or asylum seeking backgrounds to feel empowered to talk about their experiences of education and the barriers they have faced. So many bright, creative and motivated young people are excluded from the education system because they don’t have the right immigration status and we want to help change that.”

West Cork Women Against Violence will capture the vision and voice of rights-holders who have experienced or helped someone who has experienced sexual violence and assess current sexual violence support service delivery through research and workshops. It's aiming, in partnership with Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, to participate in the design and development of services in rural West Cork, as well as using the findings to inform national legislation, policy and practice.

Good Shepherd Cork will build the confidence of people who face injustice or discrimination, using participatory budgeting, to decide democratically how a specific budget should be used, and to give them real power over real money to make decisions that affect their own lives.

Kelly Murphy, Manager, Redclyffe Family Hub, Good Shepherd Cork, said: “We hope that our project brings about a real and lived experience of equal opportunity and participation for the people we work with, who are often the most unheard in society. The project aims to build the confidence of individuals to take action in their own community.

“It will promote citizen participation. Individuals will be given the opportunity to take part in a process that gives people real power over real money to make decisions that affect their lives. It is a democratic process in which all services users will have the opportunity to directly decide how we should spend a specific budget in their community of Good Shepherd Cork. The process is based on the idea that nobody knows better about what you need more than the person that’s dealing with it,” added Kelly.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission awarded the three projectsfunding for work focused on human rights and equality under its Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme 2020.

Now in its fifth year, the 2020 grant programme awards small grants of up to €6,000 and general grants of up to €20,000 to support civil society organisations, rights-holder and community led groups, and trade unions in Ireland promote access to justice for people who face the greatest barriers to accessing their rights.