Change from the the ground up by Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR)

Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) was founded in 2006 by renowned trade unionist and human rights activist Inez McCormack (1943 – 2013). Since then, PPR has worked to place the power of human rights at the service of those who need it most. We support people to assert their rights in practical ways and make real social and economic change in their communities. PPR supports groups to use our unique Human Rights Based Approach to tackle the issues challenging them and have their voices heard. PPR’s methodology of developing grassroots human rights indicators to monitor change was recognised by the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights as a good practice example of ‘how communities can claim their rights‘.

Dedicated to the memory of our ferocious, funny, kind and trailblazing founder, Inez McCormack. She is missed immeasurably.

Table of Contents

Page

Foreword by Professor Paul Hunt,

Introduction by Nicola Browne and Dessie Donnelly,

UN Human Rights independent expert (1999 – 2013)

Co-Directors of PPR

Aiden Lloyd,

Áine Hargey,

Patricia McKeown,

Judith Robertson,

Fionntán Hargey,

Bec Fahy

Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin

The Rights Platform, Dublin

Belfast Youth Forum

UNISON NI

Scottish Human Rights Commission

Markets Development Association

Travellers of North Cork

Conradh na Gaelige

Foreword by Professor Paul Hunt, UN human rights independent expert (1999-2013)

Social and economic rights have always been neglected in the general human rights discourse. In some quarters, they have been dismissed as unrealistic aspirations. The current climate in which human rights NGOs and activists are operating (increasing privatisation, the rise of reactionary populist politics, and the uncertainty originating from Brexit) means that the principle and practice of human rights accountability is under even more threat than ever. However, making human rights, and social rights in particular, meaningful and operational has arguably never been more important than it is today. Since its beginnings in the communities of North Belfast and North Dublin, PPR has focused on that very task. My involvement with PPR stretches back more than 15 years to my time as a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. I was part of a discussion led by the late Inez McCormack, the founder of PPR, and we agreed that the real-life everyday issues of ‘ordinary’ people, such as access to a decent home, must be understood as vitally important human rights issues. They are subject to ‘progressive realisation’ which means, in essence, that things should be getting better. We agreed that the way to figure out whether this is happening is to measure progress, and that there was no reason why this couldn’t be done locally - people who are directly affected are best placed to gauge whether or not things are getting better. A provision – ‘progressive realisation’ - that is often seen as a hindrance to change, an ‘escape hatch’ for those in power, was now seen as a participatory catalyst for the empowerment of disadvantaged individuals and communities.

Fast forward 10 years, and PPR’s unique indicators and benchmarks methodology was included in a publication by the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights as a good practice example of how communities can effectively use indicators to measure progress and claim their rights. As the reflections in this pamphlet make clear, those involved in human rights activism must renew their efforts and refine their tactics and techniques so they remain effective for modern times. Change is always possible, but how we make it matters – if it is not properly rooted in the experience of the disadvantaged it might be inadequate, and even counterproductive. It is immensely gratifying to see how PPR’s work has grown and the obvious

Change

is always possible, but how we make it matters – if it is not properly rooted in the experience of the disadvantaged it might be inadequate, and even counterproductive.

demand and interest in it across a range of disciplines. In large part this can be put down to the tangible outcomes it brings to communities on the ground. Perhaps more importantly, this human rights work is building a culture of emancipatory activism among the people who need social change the most. PPR’s transformative model works and deserves to be well-known by everyone committed to community empowerment and the realisation of human rights for all.

Introduction by Nicola Browne and Dessie Donnelly, Co-Directors of PPR

hen PPR was established in 2006, it was as a pilot project. The early months felt uncertain as new staff met with numerous groups and organisations in North Belfast and North Dublin, and carried out research into what this terminology of ‘Human Rights Based Approach’ actually meant in practice. How could human rights standards and principles be used as practical tools, by people who needed change?

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But little was forthcoming until of the lessons a small group of women (mainly PPR have learned over young mothers) in New Lodge, the years, is that simple living in the high rise Seven Towers conversations are flats met up in a room to talk about where change begins. their housing conditions. Working with PPR these women began to get results – including a million pound replacement sewage system in the Seven Towers. One of the lessons PPR have learned over the years, is that simple conversations are where change begins. Our founder, Inez McCormack often described the moment of someone, a woman, realising that the poor housing or health service she received was down to a flaw in the system, not a flaw in herself. She called it the ‘glint in the eye’ moment – the change to seeing yourself as somebody when you previously assumed you were a nobody. This change is at the heart of a Human Rights Based Approach, and the belief that it’s not just what you get changed that’s important but how. That dignity and humanity in how

people are treated must be at the core of any rights based society. Around 2014 the approach began to be adopted more widely, evidencing its value to community groups, the language rights community, Travellers groups, Trade Unions, tenants’ groups and National Human Rights Institutions. We saw that our Human Rights Based Approach was effective beyond Northern Ireland, on a range of issues across the spectrum of social and economic rights. The dream of developing an approach that could bring change beyond PPR’s directly supported groups was taking shape. This publication marks the growth in PPR’s approach, just over a decade after our first campaign was launched in 2007. Interviews were conducted with people who have used or been influenced by PPR’s approach who reflect on their human rights activism, the reasons they were attracted to PPR and the learning that has come from our work together. Our hope is that it will provoke further thinking not only on the rights we seek to exercise, but the manner in which we go about realising them. With thanks to all the inspiring activists we work with every day.

In 2017, PPR delivered training to The Rights Platform and associated groups Glenshane Womens Group, Tallaght Travellers, and Clondalkin Travellers on a how participative human rights based approach could be used to make socio-economic change. Each group was assisted to develop monitoring tools to capture and assess the extent of the socio-economic rights failings they faced as the basis for a campaign.

Aiden Lloyd The Rights Platform, Dublin Describe your current work and how it relates to human rights/social justice? We are a network of inclusion organisations, basically community organisations, and previously we would have used a community development approach. There were huge cuts and reductions to community development programmes and funding and quite a hostile attitude from state towards advocacy etc so we decided to use a human rights approach to poverty. We have about 46 organisations registered in our network, various organisations working on some local issues, housing regeneration, housing conditions, a lot of Mandela’s famous people work on travellers and women’s quote is that ‘it’s the groups, lone parents etc. state that defines the nature of the conflict’. How does your organisation If they don’t want work to make change? to listen to you, it’s pointless pursuing that If you look back historically in Ireland particular way. That’s the community sector has been in when we moved to the partnership with the state or in conflict Human Rights Based with the state. When you were in Approach. partnership it was grand because you were built into structures, the planning and decision making structures and you kind of got a bit of movement then. But over the last decade, or longer, there’s been a move away from that kind of partnership arrangement. Now with a right-wing government, or certainly more right than centre, they’d be opposed to us and they don’t want to listen or anything. We’ve moved from a kind of advocacy, persuasive role to one where we’re forced into conflict. Nelson Mandela’s famous quote is that ‘it’s the state that defines the nature of the conflict’. If they don’t want to listen to you, it’s pointless pursuing that particular way. That’s when we moved to the Human Rights Based Approach.

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What kind of tactics do you use? What we’ve used to date is publicity, profiling things. We’ve taken on people at housing meetings, contradicting their viewpoints. In a way it’s probably still in transition from that partnership approach. The funding model (for the community sector) is moving to a commissioning model, and there’s a lot of private sector managerialism coming out, and people are fearful. They are given money for particular purposes, for agreed outcomes, but they are determined from above, and people are fearful of moving from that to a more conflictual or even a dual approach that people have used in the past. Like Travellers have always had to use a bit of conflict and a bit of persuasion, but people are reluctant to move towards a kind of oppositional role, which is understandable because the funding depends on it.

How would you describe PPR’s work?

The

I think PPR is very good. It’s certainly human rights helped us a lot and hopefully over time approach has been we can take ownership of it and develop bandied about for a it in a different way. At the moment it’s while, but it’s very hard very good as it mobilises people around to say what it is. their issues – it’s needs based. Secondly, it selects a rights issue and cast others aside that we can’t win on. Once it selects one then it goes after it and it’s very doable tasks, like we’ve been doing that work in West Tallaght with the women’s group and the pathway is set out for them, it’s very doable. They are involved in making a quilt and are going to bring it out on Human Rights Day at the Council offices and they’re doing a survey to mobilise people in the area about the conditions and repairs in houses. It’s very real and meaningful to people, and it’s very doable.

What made you want to work with PPR? I’m always on the lookout...I’m also involved in the Sheehy Skeffington school and PPR did an input on that a few years ago and it was quite impressive. The human rights approach has been bandied about for a while, but it’s very hard to say what it is. It’s very clear in South America

because they identify with things like trade union rights and fighting for land, but in Europe not so much, because to a certain extent you’ve had the ear of the state. This makes it real for people. So PPR have been good in that.

What outcomes have come about as a result of our work? A big awareness raising task is required. In a way human rights have belonged to lawyers and they are good and grand but they don’t quite connect with the ground. People who are pushing human rights on the ground, even though they don’t use the language are anti-poverty groups, so it will take a while. But I must admit, we did a general training here and PPR were at it, and I started off talking about what human rights were, and I was worrying that people wouldn’t get it, but they got it very smartly! People are getting into the language. We had to change the name of the group. It used to be called South Dublin Community Platform, we had recognition rights within the local authority and the various committees and that, and that was taken away from us and the funding was taken away. We realised very quickly that we needed to redefine ourselves. The group itself has changed, people are taking up the language and getting on top of the concepts. It’s pretty good. It will take time, but it’s ok!

What are the challenges that human rights activism currently faces? I think the challenge is about bridging the divide between legalitarians and people on the ground. I think some of the legal people are really good – bodies here like the Mercy Law Centre and Focus Ireland, they are issue based on housing. But we need to bridge that a little bit. They are not used to collective approaches and they speak a different language and the processes are different etc. So it’s a bit about joint working because you do need them. People on the ground need a bit of legal support as well, but the legal people need to understand the community development bit as well. I think that’s a big challenge but I think it will happen. And you do need the people on the ground. It’s always a battle working with groups who are disadvantaged and oppressed – it’s a struggle for them. When you are living on the edge it’s very hard to gather yourself in any kind of opposition - that’s difficult. 12

PPR worked with Belfast Youth Forum in 2016 to deliver training on social movements with a group of young people who then developed the ‘Manifesto For You’ – a vision of Belfast in with peace, equality and human rights at its heart. In 2017, PPR also delivered training on rights-based campaigning to the Youth Forum

Áine Hargey Young People’s Officer, Belfast City Council Describe your current work and how it relates to human rights and social justice. I work for Belfast City Council as a youth worker. The main part of my work is to co-ordinate the Belfast Youth Forum, which is made up of 40 young people who meet in Belfast City Hall twice a month and act as the voice of young people within Council. And a big part of that is working with young people to use human rights and campaigning to create change on social justice issues. So rights and social justice are central to our model of working.

Does that fit in with a youth work model? Yes, by using education as a tool to create social change. The idea that education is just to create young people for the the back of economy is really at odds with youth our work with PPR work and with the ethos of our Youth our young people are Forum. The youth work we do is about now using language getting young people to realise that when like ‘who are our they mobilize, get organised and assert influencers? ‘who are their rights, they are powerful agents of our decision-makers? change. For me, when young people and ‘who are our engage critically with the world around allies?’ them; when they question an accepted way of thinking or doing things; when they won’t accept that the way our society is structured is the way it always has to be; when they articulate that things can be different- that’s when I know I’m doing my job as a youth worker well.

Off

What tactics would you use in your rights based work, in your campaigns? It’s a real mixture of awareness-raising, lobbying and developing key asks for government. In everything we do, we make sure that our young people come up with specific asks of our decision makers; this means young people don’t just highlight a problem but they also identify solutions to fix it and can use these to push for change on the issue. I’d say we are great at the awareness raising side, and now we have to get better at influencing decisions taken by government. And I think that’s where PPR’s been helpful because off the back of our work with PPR our 14

young people are now using language like ‘who are our influencers? ‘who are our decision-makers? and ‘who are our allies?’ I can see a mindset change, when they know that for example, that just launching poverty research and putting it on social media isn’t enough. Now they’re coming to me wanting to set up meetings with political parties and Council officials to really progress their key asks for government in relation to poverty. They know this is more impactful. So our work with PPR, it has been really helpful.

How would you describe PPR’s work? Grassroots is the first thing that comes to mind. Just authentic and really grassroots. Sometimes when you work in a statutory agency or for government, you can be removed a few steps from real life and from working in communities. PPR received the contract to work with our young people because it’s based in communities, it’s grassroots, and has a track record of using human rights in work with local campaigning which is very well PPR actually helped known and respected. And I thought that me to push young if PPR work with our Youth Forum, it’s like people’s activism and quality assurance. We could have went participation up a gear. to a private consultancy firm and got

Our

training on lobbying, but they wouldn’t know human rights, they wouldn’t know what life is like for young people living in communities in Belfast and the countless obstacles and issues they come up against every day. It didn’t make sense for me to go to a place like that, I wanted an organisation who knows what they’re talking about and are well versed in grassroots human rights activism with people most in need of effective policies and social change. That’s what I got with PPR.

What outcomes have there been as a result of the work? It’s been very helpful in that our young people now are very well versed in how to link a human right to a social issue and organise a campaign around it. Also learning about Freedom of Information requests. They didn’t know anything about Freedom of Information requests before PPR came in. Also the idea of how to make a campaign ask, starting small and building a campaign, and also knowing that a campaign win doesn’t happen overnight. It can take years of grafting on a single issue to see 15

changes. And I’ve really seen their language and mindset change where awareness raising is good, but it’s not enough on its own. Our work with PPR actually helped me to push young people’s activism and participation up a gear.

What are the challenges that human rights activism and social justice work face at the minute? My biggest thing sometimes with young people I meet is they just feel powerless. I think so much, we’ve been so conditioned to think that what we have we’re stuck with. There’s a general consensus that that the gains we’ve made after World War II in terms of human rights, workers rights and so on are being eroded and we’re going backwards. There’s a whole generation of young people who think this is normal, that it is too much to ask for basic rights around things like the minimum wage, employment contracts or free third level education. And apathy is another big issue, the feeling that they can’t make a difference so what’s the point in trying. And there’s a challenge to make young people see that politics is more than political parties or casting a vote, all social issues are in fact political and so politics is also about social activism. We always try to make them see that they are powerful and they can have an influence in working towards a better world by engaging in rights based activism.

What is needed in the future in terms of human rights? Sometimes, human rights language is off-putting and people can think it’s beyond their grasp. So I think we need to make human rights meaningful and relatable. I think people’s lived experience is one of the greatest assets in human rights activism; so the trick is to tap into people’s lived experience and get them to understand that they already possess all of the knowledge and expertise needed. And it’s about doing it in small ways in communities so that we build a human rights culture at a very grassroots level and I think that’s what PPR try and do. Human rights is bottom up, and you can start to do that every day in communities by getting people active on those issues that impact people where they live. And by telling them about their rights. In my experience when people are informed about their rights they’re more likely to assert them. When the people and communities most in need of rights based policies and approaches are the ones to actually assert their own rights, that’s when I find human rights at its most powerful and effective. That’s where human rights needs to go, back to the grassroots.

PPR has delivered human rights campaign training to UNISON NI organisers, Ulster Community Hospital Branch, and on the UNISON Lifelong Learning Programme. In 2016 PPR began working with the Community and Voluntary Branch on a Human Rights Monitor of services being provided across the community and voluntary sector. Patricia McKeown worked closely with PPRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founder, the late Inez McCormack from the late 1970s until her death in 2013.

Patricia McKeown Regional Secretary, UNISON NI Describe your current work and how it relates to human rights/social justice? Advancing equality and human rights and challenging the patterns of discrimination has been core to our work. That does not change - it just becomes frustrating as what seems to be one step forwards is often two steps backwards.

How would you describe PPR’s work? I would describe it as a genuine organising model in communities based have on exactly those principles of equality been able to make and human rights. It is equipping seemingly impossible people with the knowledge of what their things to happen - like rights are, equipping them with the organising people understanding of how they might use from very divided them as tools for change, and doing it communities together in such a way that you make an effort to to support each other bring divided communities together on and to recognise the common issues that affect working common cause. class people - particularly the most disadvantaged. I’m thinking of the early projects around mental health, the housing work that started in the Seven Towers in New Lodge and spread across the traditional divides in our society, extending to the Shankill and then in more recent times to Rathcoole. You have been able to make seemingly impossible things to happen - like organising people from very divided communities together to support each other and to recognise common cause. I think that’s really important. It is about trying to break through the mindset of division in this place. Inez McCormack always did talk about there being more than one kind of wall – the wall in people’s minds.

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What are the challenges of our work? I suppose the challenges are always the same. Getting people to analyse their own situation and start to understand why it’s happening to them but also to put themselves in the position of others to whom it is also happening, and then working out how they might collectively challenge. When Inez and I started this work we were organisers with the National Union of Public Employees, some 30 odd years ago. What was very important for us was transferring the imagination of the women’s movement at the time into what was a traditional model of trade union organising. And also not allowing any restriction on what was put on the trade union agenda. The fact that we would put women’s rights such as positive action, domestic violence and rape within marriage on the agenda made us unpopular with the mainstream. When we pushed religious and political discrimination as a core issue we became an anathema to some. But these rights issues were all equally important, because in our view they were manifestations of a system that was simply inured in discrimination, and those carrying the greatest burden were always impoverished communities, low paid workers, and women. Inez had an embryonic idea of PPR in her head when we were debating the importance of participative democracy and how it was as important as representative democracy. When you think about it, unions are set up on the basis of representative democracy just in the same way that governments and local authorities are - people get elected. But they are only as strong as there is genuine participation. Otherwise they come to reflect the view primarily of those who are able to be in the room, but not the views of those who aren’t.

What opportunities do you see in our work together? There are all sorts of opportunities. I think that the kind of organising model PPR is using does make people think about their own circumstances, but also beyond themselves. As a union we’re probably at our most effective when we were using street theatre and imaginative action. For example I recall us convincing women from disadvantaged areas, particularly North and West Belfast during the height of the conflict, to picket the US Consul over the issue of cruise missiles at Greenham Common. I recall the local communities that supported the Miners’ Strike in Britain by contributing tins of food to feed them. These communities hadn’t money to contribute so they gave out of their own cupboards because they wanted to do something... there was that generosity of spirit as well as a solidarity. These 19

are big issues for us. Solidarity, generosity of spirit and understanding that we’ve got to challenge the circumstances our own people find themselves in - but we’ve got to think beyond that as well.

What are the challenges that human rights activism currently faces? We have our own peculiar take on it here for a start. We’ve still got a mountain to climb as politicians and parties label human rights as belonging to one community and not another. One of the things we strive for as a union and something which PPR does very successfully is to translate the formal technical legalistic language of rights and convert it into what it means for the daily lives of people. When people are thinking that there’s no way they can make a difference and that nobody is listening we have a mission to convince them that there is something we can all do, and that equality and human rights tools, particularly used collectively can make change for the better. This on-the-ground work, whether with workers or local communities, is absolutely essential and PPR are excelling at it. Thankfully, so too are others.

How do you see the future of human rights activism? We always envisaged a time when world class equality/human rights lawyers and experts worked pro bono alongside local communities, starting with those that most need the tools. We envisaged working with alliances and coalitions on strategic challenges with clarity about who can do what and when. That is happening now and needs to expand. Essentially we need to get to a place where communities and equality and rights activists support each other as the natural thing to do and the system itself begins to change its mindset as a consequence. PPR is carving out a real role for itself and a proper place. What you are doing is not being replicated by other organisations in the way that you are doing it. In unions we have a ready-made platform for developing this organising model. It’s not easy in workplaces but it is even more difficult in our communities. We all have a job to do to challenge a current political system that too often replenishes its power by appealing to the worst instinct in people – the ‘them and us’ instinct. We need to find a way of intervening in that. I think what PPR is doing has all the right ingredients for intervention and for encouraging people to ask questions about why they are being asked to swallow party lines rather than themselves being part of a new type of decision-making that will allocate rights and equality to all, starting with those who need them most.

In 2015, PPR, the Scottish Human Rights Commission and Edinburgh Tenants Federation embarked on a joint project to support tenants of a housing estate in Leith, Edinburgh to use PPRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Human Rights Based Approach to realise their right to housing. As a result of the residents campaign, the City of Edinburgh Council announced a multi-million pound programme of works and improvements to the estate in 2017.

Judith Robertson Chair, Scottish Human Rights Commission Describe your current work and how it relates to human rights/social justice? We are the National Human Rights Institution for Scotland and our mandate is to promote and build awareness of human rights, build civil society, public authority and build broad awareness across Scotland in relation to human rights. Everything we do is focused on that.

How would you describe PPR’s work? I would say it’s an organisation that uses community development practice, in terms of engaging directly with communities, with rights holders, who are experiencing difficulty accessing their rights to the full extent. PPR’s experience is around engaging with those rights holders, bringing human rights into that discussion and dialogue, using human rights to proactively support people to gain their rights, and I would call it an organisation working from the bottom up, rather than the topdown.

What made you want to work with PPR? All of that! To be honest it was the experience that my predecessor as Chief Commissioner Alan Miller had, as he understood a lot of the work that had gone on in Belfast around the Seven Towers project on the right to housing. Clearly he saw that as a very positive experience and he was looking to see if there was scope to either replicate or build on that in Scotland and in fact when we brought PPR over to Scotland that’s exactly what happened. It was picked up by Edinburgh Tenants Forum, and they themselves said ‘we know exactly where there is scope for this approach to be used’. And that’s what happened.

What outcomes have come about as a result of our work? There are a number of things. There are the direct outcomes for residents. The learning PPR has generated gives us confidence, direction, support as a National Human Rights Institution but also at many levels

and more importantly into the residents, into the communities and into the Edinburgh Tenants Federation. The experience PPR have generated through doing that work on the ground in Belfast is now being used to benefit other communities. The residents themselves are much more aware of their rights. The Council are being held to account.

What’s worked and what hasn’t? Having PPR on the end of the phone or in the room – and also PPR being careful not to say, ‘this is what works, you should do this’, but that ‘our experience would say this’ and that being borne out in reality. Also the sense of process has worked, that we’re on a journey, so when it gets rocky or difficult, having someone who’s been there before, and can let people a level PPR have know that this is not unusual. That it is got the whole package difficult, but it’s always difficult. Because from our perspective. you are working directly with people That’s quite unusual. for whom life is not delivering. Having And bringing that that confidence to stick it out and know policy-based, prothat hopefully there is a new day coming active community and that change will happen. That’s a development bottom hard road to walk without having people up approach into who haven’t walked it before. That for the room in the one me is a big thing, and I think I see that package, that’s our gold for other people as well. And just the standard. general experience of having done it before, practical aspects, like what it takes to build a rights based framework. At a level PPR have got the whole package from our perspective. That’s quite unusual. And bringing that policy-based, pro-active community development bottom up approach into the room in the one package, that’s our gold standard. As a National Human Rights Institution, we don’t have the capacity to do that. And to have an independent NGO with all of that is great.

What are the challenges that human rights activism currently faces? I think that awareness and understanding is a huge issue. But the challenge is the context we are working in and the context is very negative. The big picture narratives around immigration and people’s marginalisation and the idea that ‘we can’t support others because we can’t support ourselves’ makes it very difficult for a rights conversation to take place because rights are seen to belong to someone else. So giving people ownership of their rights I think is an immense challenge. In Scotland the language of rights is seen as confrontational by some and not something that people want to pitch up for so there’s loads of challenge there around how rights are perceived, and then the media discourse around it is very negative. And that is absolutely reflected back at you. The story often told about rights undermines rights.

How do you see the future of human rights activism? It’s about building civil society capacity to bring human rights into their narrative, their thinking and their ways of working and explicitly using the language of rights much more. We’ve seen a shift in government in Scotland around that, for example, the Minister who now has responsibility for the new social security powers in Scotland is talking about the right to social security and seeing that as a way of framing social security which is empowering for people, rather than folk benefitting from charitable handouts. I see the rights framework gaining credibility and being seen to offer something they haven’t had before and that helps people. It’s slow though. And one of the challenges is that human rights are a complex thing. There’s a lot to it -concepts of proportionality, balance of rights, how you work that through conversations, dialogues. And people want answers. Politicians want answers not dialogue. Human rights are not easy to communicate. It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult in a context where for years human rights have been undermined by the media so people have been disempowered from using their rights. So we need to change the terms of the debate around rights so people can feel more confidence in them.

In 2017, PPR worked with the Market Development Association (MDA) in South Belfast to deliver human rights training and organise residents to carry out a ‘housing drive’ to capture the hidden housing need in the area. They are currently spearheading the ‘Homes Now’ campaign against Belfast City Council’s decision to grant planning permission to build a hotel in their area on a site zoned for much needed social housing.

Fionntán Hargey, Development Officer, Market Development Association Describe your work and how it relates to social justice? I’m employed by the Market Development Association (MDA). The Market is one of the oldest working class communities’ still extant in Belfast. It was fairly unique among nationalist communities as being one of the very few that had industries weaved in throughout the structure of the area, so people would have always had employment. In the late 1960s and into the middle of the ‘70s the general perception was that the Belfast Corporation wanted to get rid of the area so a lot of those industries were gutted in the 70s and moved away up to Boucher Road against the will of both the businesses and local community. So that put the area into a nosedive. It’s a unique situation as we have two of the highest concentrations of wealth in the North in terms of the Gasworks development and Lanyon Place, but also one of the areas with highest levels of deprivation in the North sandwiched between them.

In terms of what your work is, can you talk about that? My work has 3 strands to it. The first strand is Community organising and engagement and we’re working with PPR on that, currently on a community survey and also a ‘Housing Drive’, which will go through every house in the area and just get a general feeling, what they like about the area, what they don’t like. And most importantly what they’d like to get involved in. So at the end of it we’d like one person for every cul-de-sac or street as an organiser and a link between the work we do on a daily basis and the wider community. The second strand is education and skills and we’re going to have a one day activist training with PPR, and then guerrilla filmmaking workshops. The third strand is economic development and training – employability training and focusing on jobs coming up in the Tunnels regeneration project.

How does your organisation work to make change? We work to make change in a number of ways from community organising at grassroots level through to education where you are trying to take key people and raise them to a higher and higher level. And what

you want to underpin in the long term through this is the development of worker co-operatives, social enterprises, that sort of thing.

How would you describe PPR’s work? The challenge we have is that most of our Committee are working nine to five Monday to Friday and they’re not just involved with MDA, they’re also involved in a range of different activities and groups, putting on plays or with sports teams, a whole range of activities constantly. So a lot of the time the community sector finds itself fire-fighting. You don’t have the time to take stock of things and really take initiative at the grassroots level because you are so busy, and then you are also dealing with things like apathy and demobilisation of the community and a range of other things. You don’t have time to plan things out and get people active. Where PPR would come in would be developing skill sets, particularly in terms of research that will maybe help us refine some of these ideas and these PPR projects. As well as that, PPR are going would come in would to be doing some of the preliminary be developing skill sets, research around unemployment particularly in terms statistics, anytime I go on the NISRA of research that will (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research maybe help us refine Agency) website I get lost! some of these ideas and these projects.

Where

How would you describe what PPR does on a daily basis? I think PPR are doing excellent work in terms of a whole range of things across the city. It’s an important link between different sectoral interest groups as there is a focus on issues like mental health. It’s really about linking in with communities and what the communities are doing but also linking in with the broader struggle that working class people are facing, which provides the unifying factor for all of it. PPR have a different perspective on these issues. We are looking at it from a development side, but the human rights side is another angle that strengthens the hand of the community. For example, the Housing Drive is something similar, in that we could just get people on the housing register, but PPR are able to bring the technical human right expertise to it which adds weight to the argument. 27

What are the challenges that human rights activism currently faces? You have broader trends, of criminalising and delegitimizing human rights activism and human rights law. I suppose that’s been the uniqueness here, in that that’s always been the case for human rights law, because it was seen as weapon against the British state and a way of undermining it. And it’s a similar process in Belfast City Council, where they tried to dissolve the equality legislation into a good relations narrative. The good relations narrative was developed in the USA as a way of stalling the black civil rights movement so instead of having racial equality it was about good relations, and everything has to be balanced out. And you have that in Belfast now; it’s no longer about equality but good relations, 50-50 carve-ups that kind of thing, so it’s a holding action by reactionaries to stall any kind of progress.

Do you think the rights framework speaks to that a bit? If you look at international comparisons people will agree that rights are the way to go, but when it gets to a domestic context it suddenly falls down for a lot of people, so I think that human rights arguments and rights based analysis is the way to push it. PPR has led on that in North Belfast around social housing issues.

How do you see the future of human rights activism? With things like Irish Language rights you are seeing green shoots appearing and activism popping up again. So I think especially around Brexit and the whole historical period we’ve entered into, that sort of activism is going to become more and more important. Particularly in terms of Brexit where it’s going to be things like human rights legislation which will be most contentious and the things the Tory government want to undermine most. It’s the responsibility of everyone in society to get active on these issues, and particularly the communities that are suffering the most.

PPR has been working with Travellers of North Cork since 2016, supporting them to gather evidence of living conditions of 95 families in the North Cork area. In May 2017 they launched their Accommodation Rights Charter in University College Cork followed by a protest at Cork County Council Offices.

Bec Fahy Primary Health Care Co-ordinator, Travellers of North Cork Can you describe your current work and how it relates to human rights and social justice? Travellers of North Cork is a human-rights-based organisation, funded primarily to look at health issues with Travellers. We’re funded through the Health Services Executive. I’m the primary healthcare coordinator and we cover a number of towns and rural locations in North Cork.

What kind of tactics do you use within your strategy for change?

The

Traditionally, years ago we would have work PPR used the Irish Traveller Movement’s legal has been doing with department to stop things like evictions, us has been quite but they lost their funding, as seems to dynamic in that it be the way with a lot of organisations makes us feel engaged that like to challenge the government. with other groups as The funding is the first thing that goes. well. It has made us Over a period of time the Equality realise we’re not on our Authority disappeared, Combat Poverty own Agency disappeared, so a lot of the ways we would have traditionally got support were eroded. This is a time when we’re looking at new methods, and the accommodation work has been really important for us in helping us find our feet again in that way.

How would you describe PPR’s work and what it does? Well, the work PPR has been doing with us has been quite dynamic in that it makes us feel engaged with other groups as well. It has made us realise we’re not on our own, that there are other groups throughout Ireland and Britain that are dealing with similar issues around actually having people’s human rights acknowledged, especially in terms of accommodation rights. That’s helping us look at other examples like “Okay, what’s happening in Edinburgh? Can we use any of that to affect our project?” 30

Was there anything in particular about PPR’s approach that made you want to work with us? It was the fact that it seemed to be very action orientated. You want to see some progression because Traveller accommodation is an issue that is affecting people’s lives. People believe that the suicide rate among the Traveller community is impacted because of the accommodation issue, so we felt we don’t really have time to sit and just keep chewing the fat over the whys and wherefores. We need to develop a campaign that actually sees results. The approach that PPR were offering showed us a way to engage with human rights that we didn’t know about before that we think might actually provide the leverage we need so that we can see results.

Can you talk about any outcomes that have come about as a result of our joint work?

until this point, I don’t think we really had a clear idea of how we could use human rights. We knew they were out there! But we didn’t know how they would apply to actually what the local authority was doing.

Certainly for some of the women within the group, I think it’s made them feel much more confident about their ability to actually make a difference, which, in terms of developing activism, is huge for us. If people feel that what they’re doing actually really means something, then it will be easier to get other people to engage in the future. In terms of the outcomes at a local level, I think even with our local authority, going in with our own evidence and statistics has made a difference in the way I feel some people are engaging with us because I feel in some ways we’ll be taken more seriously. I think they are quite shocked by some of the evidence. It’s given us a starting point for a discussion I think that we didn’t have before. We were feeling that we were just being stonewalled completely. Up until this point, I don’t think we really had a clear idea of how we could use human rights. We knew they were out there! But we didn’t know how they would apply to actually what the local authority was

doing. I think it’s given us much more awareness now than we had before. Now I think people are starting to feel a bit more invigorated by it. I’m seeing some of the Traveller workers and the volunteers from the Traveller groups engaged actually feeling that they really are making a difference now that I don’t think they felt before.

What do you think the challenges are for human rights activism? It’s actually getting the space to meet with other activists, and the proper time to actually share what we do and share tactics and have that discussion. That was what I liked about the conference in Belfast (PPR Conference ‘Housing and Accommodation Rights, Lessons from the Grassroots’ held on 22nd June 2017) is that I felt that it kept being tied back into something. There was an overview to it that helped. we need a way of actually In terms of human rights activism, I being able to support think sometimes it’s too easy for us to the learning around be separated off by distance, but also by human rights at a funding. I think a lot of organisations community level. get very frightened of their funding being pulled. Sometimes it’s about going back to how do we develop grassroots campaigns and volunteerism, so that people would still be out doing the campaign even if there wasn’t an organisation there leading it. How do we really go out and support people to develop the skills, grassroots wise? The thing that’s frustrating me at the moment is a lot of the human rights courses are fee-paying courses, and a lot of the people that need to be able to claim their human rights are the most vulnerable and marginalised, who won’t have access either to the education or the finances required. I think we need a way of actually being able to support the learning around human rights at a community level. I think that’s my biggest issue at the moment, is how do we get it out to people? We need more people who have gone through it out there sharing it with other groups.

I think

In 2014, PPR supported parents and students at Irish medium post-primary school, Coláiste Feirste, in a campaign called ‘Bus Anois! – Bus Now!’ for a bus to school for over 120 students in North Belfast. After initially refusing to do so, within five months the Minister for Education agreed to provide £210,000 over three years for the transport in line with their legal duty to ‘encourage and facilitate’ Irish medium education. This campaign informed the high profile An Dream Dearg campaign for an Irish Language Act.

Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin Advocacy Manager, Conradh na Gaelige Describe your current work and how it relates to human rights and social justice? I’m an advocacy manager with Conradh na Gaeilge in Belfast. Conradh na Gaeilge is an Irish language NGO, probably the oldest language NGO anywhere in Europe, established in 1883. We have always viewed the language as being a human rights issue. One of the things, for instance that we’ve learned from the PPR has been the importance of establishing what international law says about the issue at the starting point of any campaign. You find that that underpins then whatever campaign you’re going to do.

Is there a particular theory of change for An Dream Dearg?

Our

argument, in very simple terms, was that the reason that we have to lobby for transport operations for parents in North Belfast, is because we have no legislation that protects language here.

We’ve been campaigning and lobbying, I suppose, from the 1990’s around this specific question of an Irish Language Act. Again, looking at the PPR model, we had an overarching campaign around rights, recognition and respect in the form of an Irish Language Act. We also had a number of smaller campaigns like ‘Bus Anois’. We decided that, “Okay, the big campaign [for the Irish Language Act] was really important but we also need to get small victories here. We need to empower people with the idea that they can affect change where they are.”

Our argument, in very simple terms, was that the reason that we have to lobby for transport operations for parents in North Belfast, is because we have no legislation that protects language here. Then, in November 2016, our now fallen Executive had published their Draft Programme for Government. There was no reference to legislation for the Irish language, there was no reference even to a strategy which they had previously committed themselves to and there was a real sense of anger. We

convened a meeting of activists, an open forum of activists in November 2016. We just began talking about these things, where we were and the need for a campaign from a grassroots community. We had two shortterm aims. First off was that the language rights would be viewed as human rights across the board, as many in the human rights community here viewed the issue of language through a binary green and orange lens and were reluctant to lend their support. That was one aim. The other aim was that we wanted the community’s voice to be centre as opposed to our demands being articulated or attacked by politicians. Also, in terms of getting resolution, what we wanted to do was get the question of language rights at the very centre of the political debate as opposed to on the margins, where it had been for a number of years. We have no bones about that and it was our campaign that laid a red line down. We called on those parties that supported us, not to enter into another Executive until an agreement was reached on Irish Language Act. That wasn’t because we want to hold government to ransom, that was because through painful and bitter experience we know that the Assembly and Executive isn’t the place to resolve these questions.

What tactics has An Dream Dearg been using? Something that we’ve really gathered from PPR and the approach PPR uses is it needs to be people-centred. It needs to be where people are. We have an open forum. We have primarily young people involved in it and everyone, regardless of who they are, has different skills, capabilities and also has different time commitments that they can provide. The young people in particular were very tech savvy, were able to disseminate the big grandiose aims and objectives that we had in very bite size, readable, accessible chunks for people on social media which was absolutely hugely successful. The methodology was based around creating spaces, as many spaces as possible so as to facilitate the maximum levels of participation possible. We created the smaller physical space to plan, discuss and debate, and ultimately organise. This then manifested itself onto social media, through private Whatsapp groups of 50 - 80 activists to ensure those who could not attend weekly meetings could feel involved, ownership and direct influence or participation. So the space developed from a small

physical space to a medium private digital space (Whatsapp) and onto larger more organic and open digital platforms (Facebook and Twitter) which all then fed back to the pinnacle largest space which took the form of rallies, demos and ultimately the Lá Dearg march, when 15,000 were collectively active through attending. Although the destination is important in terms of getting the rights, the process has been just as important. The upskilling the people have had, the confidence that it’s given people…we’re hugely excited in terms of what this cohort of young people are going to bring to the table over the next 20 to 30 years, just by being involved in this campaign.

How would you describe PPR’s work?

I think

For me the PPR offers an excellent template in terms of how we should importantly for me, organise campaigns. I think it’s hugely PPR have stressed that challenging for activists, I think it’s any campaign needs breaking a number of sacred cows that to be very much firmly activists have had for a number of years. rooted in the people There has been a tendency to think that whose lives they are we are the be all and end all. That we will trying to change. direct the campaign, that we will speak to the campaign, that we will go to the meetings, and we will decide what needs to be done. I think importantly for me, PPR have stressed that any campaign needs to be very much firmly rooted in the people whose lives they are trying to change. I think what is equally important is that it actually delivers results. Look at the ‘Bus Anois’ campaign as one example. It was the parents themselves articulating what they needed. They were going to meet the Ministers themselves they were gathering all the evidence, they were leading the campaign, they were speaking with the media. PPR’s role in that, for instance, was then trying to tie that into a human rights framework, where the law was letting them down, and providing some type of assistance. Not directing the campaign, but assisting the campaign. I think that that is something that I think we’re going to see more and more of, because the idea that any NGO,

be it in Irish language or whatever else, can operate in isolation or in separation from its community, is outdated now.

What outcomes have come as a result of our work together? In terms of the ‘Bus Anois’ campaign, I think it’s a fusion of two really dynamic and important trends of activism. You had the PPR peoplecentred participation approach to affecting change and you also had the traditional Irish language community self-help approach. The parents were going out and doing the campaigning work, but also, what we had decided to do was to collect money and to fund their own bus. Which is very rooted in terms of how the Irish language community have traditionally done things here. There is a saying in our community, ‘Ná habair é, déan é - don’t talk about it, do it.’ We don’t wait on the state, we’ve never expected anything from the state and therefore, if we want something, we’ll go out and build it ourselves. Then ultimately, I think because of that approach, what you had was the state buckling. They ceded on something that they had previously said that wasn’t in their power to do. I suppose there’s an important lesson there around power. I know that from the people that emerged through that campaign, the young people and the parents, that two years later they are heavily involved in the An Dream Dearg campaign.

How do you think human rights activism is equipped to deal with current challenges? To be honest, I think we’re probably poorly equipped at the minute. If you look at the traditional NGOs, I think a lot of them are still using 20th century solutions for 21st century problems and they’re still rooted in a methodology which hasn’t been able to mitigate against some of the outrages of governments and authorities here and they probably won’t ever be. However, what we are seeing is the rise of collectivity between people and intersectionality. You have more and more people working together. Social media, for all its ills, and the internet has provided people with a means and mechanism to by-pass institutions. You’re seeing how increasingly young people are exploiting that. They’re taking charge and they’re connecting with other likeminded people online. They’re saying, “We don’t have to wait on these institutions to tell us what to do. We can do this ourselves.” I think that’s hugely exciting.

Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) can be commissioned to provide human rights based approach training and support for your organisation/campaigning group. This support has been provided to a diverse range of organisations including Trade Unions, National Human Rights Institutions, development organisations and community groups. If you would be interested in exploring the possibility of PPR working with your group/organisation, please contact info@pprproject.org

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