The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has today announced the 23 civil society organisations to be awarded a total of €350,000 in funding for projects under its Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme 2025-2026.
Projects were awarded for general grants up to €22,000 and for smaller grants up to €7,000. The scheme was open to civil society organisations working to promote human rights and equality, including rights-holder groups representing communities protected under the nine equality grounds as well as groups representing communities experiencing poverty and social exclusion, people seeking international protection and migrant communities. It was also open to Trade Unions.
The 2025-26 Grants Scheme’s themes are informed by the Commission’s strategic priorities set out in its Strategy Statement 2025-27.
This year the Grants Scheme is supporting projects that actively apply the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty in combatting disinformation, misinformation, and hate; in challenging the structural causes of poverty; and in ensuring a human rights and equality led approach to climate and environmental justice and a just transition.
The Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty requires public bodies to place equality and human rights at the heart of decision making and shape how services are designed, delivered, and experienced by members of the public. Civil society groups that promote human rights and equality and the collective voice of rights-holders have a key role to inform these processes.
We look forward to seeing the results of these projects. We are confident that the outcomes will inform the work of public bodies responsible for action on misinformation, disinformation, hate, poverty, climate, and environmental issues. In so doing, support these bodies to meet their obligations under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty.
IHREC Chief Commissioner, Liam Herrick said:
“The Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme is hugely important to the work we do in IHREC as it gives voice to those with lived experience of discrimination and rights infringements. This year, we have supported projects that will gather evidence and build capacity to challenge current threats to human rights and equality including misinformation, disinformation, hate, poverty, and the climate crisis. The expected insights and findings can inform our own work, and the approaches public bodies take to addressing these issues. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of these projects, which collectively share our aim of creating an equal and inclusive society for all of us.”
The IHREC Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme 2025-26
The Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme is part of the Commission’s statutory power to provide grants to promote human rights and equality under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.
Projects have been awarded under 3 strands:
- Strand A - Applying the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to Combatting disinformation, misinformation, and hate, and building community solidarity and belonging.
- Strand B - Applying the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty in challenging the structural causes of poverty, its impact on people and communities and the effectiveness of the State’s responses.
- Strand C - Applying the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to ensure a human rights and equality led approach to climate and environmental justice and a just transition.
The full list of organisations receiving the Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme 2025-26 are: