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:
Grant Project
Navigating Discomfort
Organisation: National Youth Council of Ireland
Navigating Discomfort
The aim of this project is to ensure that youth work responses to counter the growing influence of disinformation and harmful narratives—such as racism, transphobia, and misogyny—within youth spaces are grounded in the realities and voices of young people, with a focus on safeguarding, inclusion, belonging and open dialogue. Through training, facilitation, and reflective practice, the project aims at equipping youth workers with the skills and confidence to engage in challenging conversations. By building collective understanding across the youth sector, it will create opportunities to influence policy and practice within the context of Public Sector Duty obligations.
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Grant Project
Trans Inclusion in Practice: Empowering Public Bodies in County Mayo
Organisation: Mayo Pride
Trans Inclusion in Practice: Empowering Public Bodies in County Mayo
The aim of this project is to build the capacity of public bodies in County Mayo to promote the rights, inclusion and dignity of trans and gender-diverse people under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty. Through tailored training, community engagement, and co-produced resources, it will address misinformation, strengthen inclusive practice, and strengthen community solidarity.
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Grant Project
Analysing the impact of the persistent rise in hate, intolerance, and discrimination towards the LGBTQ+ community in Ireland
Organisation: Sexual Health Centre, Cork
Analysing the impact of the persistent rise in hate, intolerance, and discrimination towards the LGBTQ+ community in Ireland
The aim of this project is to conduct peer-led, human rights-based research into the impact of rising hate and intolerance on the LGBTQ+ Community, with a specific focus on the Transgender community. It will document lived experiences, identify community-led responses, and highlight gaps in current equality legislation and policy that falls short in protecting of this Community. The resultant findings and recommendations will provide a clear evidence-base to inform legislation, policy, and service providers in applying their Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty in combatting misinformation and hate, contributing to a more inclusive and equitable society rooted in community solidarity and belonging.
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Grant Project
Roma in Europe: A History of Persecution, Resilience, and the Challenge for Achieving Human Rights
Organisation: Donegal Travellers Project
Roma in Europe: A History of Persecution, Resilience, and the Challenge for Achieving Human Rights
The aim of this project is to develop, in partnership with the Roma community, an educational response to the rise of anti-Roma and anti-migrant discourse in Ireland. An exhibition series and educational tools will be designed and produced that trace the history of Roma communities in Europe, highlighting the deep roots of anti-Gypsyism and how this has created a system of structural and accepted racism against Roma today. This initiative will inform public bodies about their Public Sector Duty obligations to address systemic discrimination, combat hate and misinformation and inform public policy responses to strengthen public solidarity.
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Grant Project
Applying the Public Sector Duty in Dublin North-East Inner City and Faith Communities
Organisation: ACET (AIDS Care, Education and Training) Ireland
Partner Organisation(s): Dublin Interfaith Forum
Applying the Public Sector Duty in Dublin North-East Inner City and Faith Communities
The aim of this project is to combine expertise and connections to bring together public bodies and civil society, in particular the rights-holders of local faith communities in the North-East Inner City of Dublin (NEIC), to leverage the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to address hate, misinformation, and disinformation. Through a total of five workshops that directly address the above themes, the project will strengthen civil society’s engagement and increase awareness of public bodies’ role in addressing these issues in the NEIC.
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Grant Project
Strengthening Solidarity: Community-Led Action on Disinformation and Belonging in Galway
Organisation: Galway City Partnership
Strengthening Solidarity: Community-Led Action on Disinformation and Belonging in Galway
The aim of this project is to support settled communities in Galway by building their capacity to understand and support migrant integration and be equipped to combat misinformation and foster solidarity using the Public Sector Duty. Through training, participatory research, a rights-based toolkit, and structured engagement with public bodies, it aims to strengthen civil society and communities’ ability to respond to hate and exclusion.
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Grant Project
Communities Connected
Organisation: Southwest Mayo Development Company
Communities Connected
The aim of this project is to strengthen and empower the community in Mayo to recognise, resist and respond to disinformation, misinformation, and hate, whilst promoting inclusion, trust, and mutual support across diverse groups. The project will work with local and new communities including international protection applicant residents. Through education, dialogue and collaborative media, the project will foster confidence and agency within communities to speak up and act against hate and falsehoods. The project will promote long-term cultural change whereby narratives move away from polarization towards understanding, and collaboration and belonging. Within the framework of the Public Sector Duty, the project learnings will be shared locally, regionally, and nationally including to inform the approach of the Local Authority Integration Team, the Community Safety Team as well as the National Integration Workers Forum.
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Grant Project
Greater than Fear: Voices of Solidarity
Organisation: Hope and Courage Collective
Greater than Fear: Voices of Solidarity
The aim of this project is to gather and share the experiences of people directly affected by hateful narratives and those organising against it. Through interviews, video stories and case studies, it will build a grounded picture of what is happening in communities across Ireland, and how solidarity takes shape in response. The project will offer practical, accessible tools and recommendations to support public bodies in meeting their responsibilities under the Public Sector Duty. It will ultimately help shift the narrative away from fear and division, and toward a more connected, rights-based approach to inclusion and public accountability.
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Grant Project
Artivism: Communities Creating Change
Organisation: Irish Network Against Racism
Artivism: Communities Creating Change
The aim of this project is to enable rights holders from racialised communities and rights holders from majority white settled communities to dialogue, using a rights-based approach. Through a series of workshop, participants will discuss the impact of racism, hate speech and a delay in institutional response to meet community need. By creating a respectful dialogue on experiences, participants will explore how Public Sector Duty can bring about meaningful change and realise rights.
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Grant Project
Fact or Fiction: Recognising and countering disinformation in your daily life
Organisation: Clare Public Participation Network (PPN)
Fact or Fiction: Recognising and countering disinformation in your daily life
The aim of this project is to deliver interactive workshops empowering community leaders to recognise and counter disinformation and mal information targeting minority and marginalised groups. The workshops will be co-designed and delivered with people from communities targeted including people seeking international protection, beneficiaries of temporary protection, women, LGBTQIA+ people, Traveller community members, and people with disabilities, among others. The workshops will be delivered in a variety of communities in County Clare (minimum of 6). They will equip participants to critically assess media including social media and to engage with public bodies including Clare County Council under the Public Sector Duty, advocating for policies that combat disinformation and promote equality. Leaders among the groups targeted will deliver workshops in partnership with facilitators to public sector staff. The initiative will strengthen community advocacy and contribute to more inclusive, evidence-based public discourse, policy making and delivery. As part of the project, we will document our learning and create an easily readable resource which can be shared online and in hard copy that helps people evaluate information sources.
Read moreStrand B Projects
Grant Project
Fight for Your Rights: A Guide to Human Rights and Equality in Practice
Organisation: Ballymun Community Law Centre
Fight for Your Rights: A Guide to Human Rights and Equality in Practice
The aim of this project is to co-produce, with legal experts and community rights-holders, a new human rights guide localised to Ballymun, to support rights-holders in their interactions with public services, focusing on those most affected by poverty and inequality. The revised guide will include clear, accessible information on human rights, modern design, and real case examples. It will highlight how the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty (the Duty) can be used in challenging systemic inequality and poor service outcomes. Through community outreach, training events, and partnerships, the project will build awareness of rights and empower rights holders and the community to effectively engage with public bodies in the context of the Duty.
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Grant Project
Nothing About Us Without Us: Lived Experience, Human Rights, and the Public Sector Duty, in access to Social Housing and Homeless Services
Organisation: Mercy Law Resource Centre
Nothing About Us Without Us: Lived Experience, Human Rights, and the Public Sector Duty, in access to Social Housing and Homeless Services
The aim of this project is to produce legal and participatory research to examine what the Public Sector Duty means for housing authority staff and whether they meet their obligations in delivering homelessness and housing services. The research focuses on people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, particularly those facing intersectional inequalities such as migrants, members of the Traveller community and racialised groups. Drawing on legal casework and lived experience, it aims to expose systemic gaps, highlight good practice, and identify rights-based standards. The findings will be targeted at local authorities and relevant public bodies to support compliance with their Duty obligations.
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Grant Project
Understanding the Needs of the Roma Community in Longford: A Peer-Led Assessment to Inform Inclusive Public Services
Organisation: Longford Roma Community Development Project (Longford Community Resources LTD)
Understanding the Needs of the Roma Community in Longford: A Peer-Led Assessment to Inform Inclusive Public Services
The aim of this project is to conduct a peer-led needs assessment that will map the Roma community in Longford and will explore their lived experiences, priorities, and challenges. Through participatory research, Roma community members will be trained and supported to co-design the research, collect data, and develop recommendations to guide public bodies in delivering more inclusive, rights-based services. The project supports the implementation of the Public Sector Duty by providing public bodies with rights-based local data. Its findings will also inform the delivery of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy recommendations.
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Grant Project
Rethinking Care: Addressing Gender and Poverty in Ireland’s Home Support System
Organisation: National Women’s Council of Ireland
Rethinking Care: Addressing Gender and Poverty in Ireland’s Home Support System
The aim of this project is to deliver a gender equality analysis of Ireland’s home support system, focusing on how poverty and gendered life-course inequalities affect older women’s access, experiences, and outcomes. Through research, stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis, the project will identify service gaps and propose evidence-based, gender-responsive reforms. It will inform and support the relevant public bodies to meet their obligations under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty.
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Grant Project
Human Rights and Equality in Youth Work
Organisation: SWAN Youth Service, Northeast Inner City, Dublin
Human Rights and Equality in Youth Work
The aim of this project is to build awareness of the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty, using participatory and creative approaches, among young people experiencing inter-generational socio-economic disadvantage and youth workers. It will create understanding of the Duty as a lever to engage with public bodies to address the structural causes of poverty and its impact on young people. The project will highlight how the Duty relates to youth work policy, strategies and the rights of the child and inform the relevant stakeholders.
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Grant Project
Traveller Accommodation Public Sector Duty Toolkit Training
Organisation: Irish Traveller Movement
Traveller Accommodation Public Sector Duty Toolkit Training
The aim of this project is to raise awareness amongst Traveller Organisations and representatives of the Public Sector Duty as a tool to improve the living conditions of Travellers in Traveller accommodation. Through the rollout of a training programme on the Traveller Accommodation Public Sector Duty Toolkit, the project will ultimately carry out participatory capacity building and training that support the development of leadership and advocacy skills.
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Grant Project
Building Better Housing: Youth Experiences and the Public Sector Duty
Organisation: Threshold
Partner Organisation(s): National Youth Council of Ireland
Building Better Housing: Youth Experiences and the Public Sector Duty
The aim of this project is to understand the structural causes of housing poverty and its well-being impacts in Ireland’s private rental sector. By researching young adults (18-30) reliant on housing support, it will document young people’s lived experience of accessing and residing in the Irish Private Rental Sector. Evidence based policy recommendations will be produced to enhance legislation, policies, and services, driving more effective State responses to housing poverty. A human rights-based advocacy toolkit will also be developed to empower public bodies, including Local Authorities to proactively meet their Public Sector Duty obligations regarding housing.
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Grant Project
Have things moved on? Examining the lived experience and quality of life of people with disabilities who continue to live in congregated settings and potential rights violations under Article 19 of the UNCRPD
Organisation: National Advocacy Service
Have things moved on? Examining the lived experience and quality of life of people with disabilities who continue to live in congregated settings and potential rights violations under Article 19 of the UNCRPD
The aim of this project is to examine the lived experience of people with disabilities in congregated settings to understand the impact on their quality of life and their rights under the UNCRPD. These insights will inform the development of a social policy report to refocus government attention on the de-congregation policy. This report will be used to inform the obligations oof relevant public bodies under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty. It will strengthen the voice of people who communicate differently to enhance their quality of life, decrease poverty levels, and inform policy, strategy, and programmes. A toolkit will be developed to support groups to engage effectively with public bodies on the Duty in these contexts.
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Grant Project
Realising the Promise of Public Sector Duty and the Collective Complaint Protocol for Local Authority Resident Rights Holders
Organisation: Rialto Community Network
Realising the Promise of Public Sector Duty and the Collective Complaint Protocol for Local Authority Resident Rights Holders
The aim of this project is to develop a nascent Tenant’s representative body and resident’s charter, with residents of regeneration areas, other civil society organisations, trade unions and human rights and housing rights experts. It will also engage the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to address the recommendations of the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe for action by the State to remedy poor housing conditions for local authority residents set out in the FIDH v. Ireland collective complaint It will also explore applying the Duty obligations in relation to other relevant policies, programmes and funding decisions.
Read moreStrand C Projects
Grant Project
Our Shared Future: Young Voices for Environmental Justice
Youth Work Ireland, Galway
Organisation: Youth Work Ireland, Galway
Our Shared Future: Young Voices for Environmental Justice
The aim of this project is to investigate from a youth-led perspective how climate and environmental issues affect different groups of young people in their communities. Specifically, it will support young people from marginalised communities to have their voice heard including young migrants and refugees, young Travellers, and young people with disabilities. As these young people are underrepresented in forums on climate action. Through peer-led storytelling, intergenerational dialogue, and engagement with local decision-makers, the project will support the application of the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty by public bodies in Galway and beyond by ensuring that climate action is informed by inclusive, lived experience, with the meaningful involvement of young people who face the greatest inequalities, recognising their lived experience as a crucial expertise that informs actions to have environmental justice.
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Grant Project
Pathways to Participation: Empowering underrepresented communities in the climate movement to be active global citizens in the Just Transition
Organisation: Friends of the Earth
Pathways to Participation: Empowering underrepresented communities in the climate movement to be active global citizens in the Just Transition
The aim of this project is to develop community tools kits to empower underrepresented communities to take action and apply the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to engage County Councils to ensure that new Climate Action Plan's achieve climate and environmental justice and a just transition in fulfilment of their obligations under the Duty. By engaging community rights holders (older people, and Roma) in workshops, and train community work and youth work practitioners to engage community rights holders that they work with to support communities and practitioners to take action and identify the ways in which local climate action plans can be strengthened to ensure no one is left behind.
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Grant Project
A Better World for all Older Citizens: Applying the Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment to Ireland’s policy for international development
Organisation: Age and Opportunity,
Partner Organisation(s): BOLD Climate Action and Straight Forward Research
A Better World for all Older Citizens: Applying the Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment to Ireland’s policy for international development
The aim of this project, led by older rights-holders, is to up skill a group of older people to apply the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty and specifically it’s Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment to Ireland’s international development policy as it relates to older people and climate change. This group of older people, as peer researchers, will also gather evidence highlighting the differential impact of climate change on older people globally. The group will engage with the Department of Foreign Affairs to share the evidence and recommendations produced to inform the Department’s Public Sector Duty obligations in future iterations of Ireland’s policy for international development as it relates to older people and climate change.
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Grant Project
Advancing Climate and Environmental Justice through Human Rights and Equality
Organisation: Centre for Environmental Justice at Community Law and Mediation
Advancing Climate and Environmental Justice through Human Rights and Equality
The project will create six resources clarifying public bodies’ obligations under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty in relation to climate and environmental justice. These resources will support duty-bearers in implementing the Duty and support rights-holders to understand its potential to hold government accountable to its national and EU climate and environmental obligations. They will further explain Section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, which mandates public bodies to act consistently with Ireland’s climate obligations, and the Public Body Biodiversity Duty under section 5 of the Wildlife (Amendment Act) 2023. This requires listed public bodies to have regard to the statutory National Biodiversity Action Plan. This project aims to strengthen civil society’s capacity to engage public bodies on their legal climate and environmental obligations. We hope to increase public sector accountability and civil society leadership in advancing environmental and climate justice.
Read moreHuman Rights and Equality Grants Scheme
Every year, we provide grants to bodies to carry out certain activities to promote human rights and equality in Ireland. Each year, we fund projects under a number of themes, directly linked to our strategic priorities.
