This paper examines the link made on occasion between the concept of dignity and substantive equality; it is further noted that dignity can have very different meanings in different contexts. While the notion of dignity does not often play a substantive role in the resolution of decisions,...

Increasingly we find that legislatures are considering human rights issues. This article looks at one area where legislative assemblies may offer a distinctive contribution to human rights protection, when exercising their historic role in matters of finance and budgets. The purpose of this...

This chapter examines a necessarily select list of Article 14 (the prohibition of discrimination) jurisprudence involving ethnic minorities, most notably the Roma minority in post-Communist countries before the European Court of Human Rights (the Court). The aim is to identify to what extent, if...

This paper examines the approach of the Irish courts to social and economic rights, and proposes using the equality doctrine to provide indirect protection for these rights. The papers draws on comparative material from Canada, South Africa, the US and the European convention on Human Rights to...

Human rights law proclaims that all persons are the same, and have the same rights. Yet this revolutionary claim, which has overturned political regimes and confounded conventions, has itself been criticised. The criticisms have often come from a non-legal disciplinary background - anthropology,...

Human rights based budget analysis projects have emerged at a time when the United Nations has asserted the indivisibility of all human rights and attention is increasingly focused on the role of non-judicial bodies in promoting and protecting human rights. This book seeks to develop the human...

Human rights have often been dominated by the contributions of lawyers and courts. Whilst lawyers and courts certainly have major contributions to make in this field, recently there has been more attention devoted to the contribution of other disciplines and other actors. One important example...

There are two major public policy objectives in Northern Ireland. One is the equality agenda designed to deliver the promise in the Good Friday Agreement of equality and parity of esteem for the two main communities and for members of other social and ethnic groups. The other is the Shared...

The island of Ireland is host to two separate jurisdictions, a legacy of the partition of Ireland following the Irish War of Independence from 1919 to 1921. The history of the relationship between North and South has not always been a happy one. This chapter reviews the history of this...