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A civil society alliance of over 100 NGOs and trade unions working together to advance equality and human rights across Northern Ireland.

What we do

We turn the expertise and experience of our diverse membership into a stronger collective voice for change, sharing knowledge, shaping policy and practice, and holding public authorities to account. Our current work focuses on three key areas.

Public Policy Interventions: Protecting Economic, Social and Workers’ Rights

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Safeguarding and Securing the Rights and Equality Provisions of the Peace Settlement

Our publications

Tackling misogyny, intimidation and the rise of hard and far-right populism

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Equality Coalition membership

We currently have over 100 different member groups. Our members are at the heart of the Equality Coalition. Their knowledge, collaboration, and commitment drive our work, and without them, the Coalition simply would not exist.

The Equality Coalition is key to staying informed - from presentations, updates, and discussions in the meetings to events highlighting important research and speakers, the Coalition is crucial to the equality advocacy space.

Alex Brennan, Northern Ireland Women’s Budgetary Group:

The Equality Coalition is one of the most important forums for any anyone, or any group who is working or interested in any area of equality. Its influence and reach across civic society, the trade union movement and at government level is unmatched. Despite its growing membership, the Coalition meetings are always well structured and chaired. Due to its diverse membership base there is inevitably someone or some group who has expertise on most equality topics.

Paddy Mackel, University and College Union (UCU)

Working alongside partners in the Equality Coalition has been invaluable with regards to a collective approach to addressing and highlighting social inclusion and inequality from an informed policy basis. The Coalition operates through open and transparent dialogue, facilitating regular communication between members to enable best practice in effective lobbying and advocacy. RNIB’s core campaigning focus on breaking down barriers for citizens with sight loss in NI, is further strengthened through this collaborative and diverse forum dedicated to ensuring adherence to Section 75 duties.

Paula Beattie, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB

The Equality Coalition is a vital space for the protection and advancement of rights and equality in Northern Ireland. The experience and expertise of its members is truly exceptional and as the Coalition they work together to continue to both demand and build a better future for everyone

Helen Flynn, Just Fair

The Equality Coalition is an invaluable resource to Women’s Support Network working in the area of women’s equality and intersectionality with other equality categories. The Coalition provides such an important central place to share information on equality issues and helps enormously in our work in responding to Government consultations, research work and in wider policy work. The sharing of templates, reports, briefing notes and submissions makes our work easier, sharing information and building capacity within the Community and Voluntary Sector particularly in this environment of constrained resources and increasing workload

Siobhán Harding, Women’s Support Network

At a time when equality and rights protections cannot be taken for granted, the Equality Coalition provides an essential space for collaboration - enabling organisations to share expertise, respond strategically to emerging issues, and advocate more effectively for the full implementation of equality duties in Northern Ireland.

Fergal McFerran, Children's Law Centre

Every Equality Coalition meeting feels like a masterclass in capacity-building, to be honest. Not only are the Coalition's coordinators open to inviting external experts in to give training sessions when members express a need, but every organisation in the room also brings inspiration, ideas and tactics into each conversation. It's an ego-free space where we all benefit from each other's expertise.

Public Interest Litigation Support

Being a member of the Equality Coalition keeps us linked into the vital work colleagues are doing across the sector and, as a campaigning organisation, the member updates help inform our strategy for campaigns. We always come away from the meetings with a new contact and ideas for ways to collaborate

Act Now

View our members

Latest Equality Coalition activity

Publications & resources

Submissions and briefings

14 May, 2026

Equality Coalition Oral Evidence Committee for Communities

Equality Coalition Co-Convenors gave oral evidence to the Committee for Communities on 14 May alongside the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group and the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network. The delegation spoke about the...

Written Evidence to the Justice Committee on the Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill

The Equality Coalition has responded to the Justice Committee’s call for evidence on the Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc.) Bill. This evidence advocates for the amendment of Part 6 of the...

New Report: ‘The Enforcement of Statutory Duties’

This conference report is from our ‘The Enforcement of Statutory Duties’ event, co-hosted with Ulster University’s Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) and held on Thursday, 23rd January 2025 at Ulster University,...

Our partners

The Equality Coalition is co-convened by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and the trade union UNISON.

Committee on the Administration of Justice

The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) is an independent, non governmental, human rights organisation based in Northern Ireland. It works to promote and protect human rights and equality through research, policy advocacy, strategic litigation, and engagement with domestic and international human rights mechanisms. CAJ monitors the implementation of human rights standards, responds to legislative and policy proposals, and works in partnership with civil society and affected communities to advance accountability, equality, and the rule of law.

caj.org.uk

UNISON

UNISON is the leading trade union in Northern Ireland, representing over 53,000 members, and is the largest trade union in the UK with over 1.3 million members. UNISON’s membership includes public service workers in health and social care; the education and higher education services; library services; local government; youth justice; private companies providing public services; and the community and voluntary sector. Over 80% of UNISON’s membership in Northern Ireland are women.

unison-ni.org.uk

Learn more about our partners

Engagement and outreach

Our campaigning and advocacy work

Our campaigns and advocacy work is central to how the Equality Coalition drives change. We combine collective campaigning, public mobilisation, and lived-experience voices with strategic legal, policy, and human rights advocacy to challenge inequality and hold decision-makers to account. Together, this work strengthens accountability, builds public pressure, and pushes for lasting, rights-based change.

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Copyright © Kevin Cooper Representatives from CAJ, PILS, Barnardo’s NI and UNISON NI, gathered in advance of the High Court challenge by a Judicial Review against the Northern Ireland Executive and the Department of Communities, for their legal failure to have an Anti-poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland.