23 February 2012

CFNI's Bill of Rights mural at the International Wall in West Belfast. Bill of Rights Programme

Over 2007 – 2008, the Community Foundation for NI carried out a Small Grants and Training/Development Programme on the Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

Engagement with 79 community groups and communities of interest across Northern Ireland resulted in 75% of the groups preparing a submission to the BOR Forum, representing 90% of the group submissions made.

 A compilation DVD and Bill of Rights publication – Making Rights Work for Communities – were also produced.

The project had a broad reach in terms of community background and geographical location and many of the local projects undertaken were diverse and innovative, tackling relevant issues and needs. 

The Bill of Rights Programme built awareness and generated much discussion about the Bill of Rights process, content and how a rights-based approach might be used to deliver on community development objectives.

In 2008, the Community Foundation developed a further Bill of Rights Programme to harness the energy created by the first programme and to support groups to stay engaged with the Bill of Rights debate.  This enabled groups to respond to the Secretary of State's subsequent consultation paper published on 30th November 2009.

Following the consultation and the NIO's publication of 'A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland: Next Steps', many groups expressed an interest in continuing to develop rights-based projects at the local level and beyond.

With support from Atlantic Philanthropies, the Community Foundation developed a further programme which supported groups over November 2009 into June 2011 under two separate themes: 1) projects that help local people to understand what rights are and how a rights-based approach might help their daily work; or 2) developing a lobbying proposal on the proposed Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland that they would be able to use as a lobbying tool with politicians and others coming up to the elections in May 2011.

A publication on these programmes (see Publications section), launched in September 2011, highlights the lessons learned through the Bill of Rights Programmes over the course of 2007 - 2011, summarises the projects supported under the most recent programme and traces the Community Foundation's thinking in developing a new model for a rights/social justice-based approach to community development.