>> The current state of the peace process in Northern Ireland is, on the one hand,
we have a political settlement and we have an operating Executive and Assembly,
but apart from that, there are major issues at community level that have not been dealt with
and are not being dealt with in an effective way.
First of all, addressing the deep sectarian divide, but also the whole issue
of dealing with the past.
>> Atlantic's been involved in grantmaking in Northern Ireland since the late 1990s,
and obviously in relation to a divided society, an important part
of doing any grantmaking was to try to address the big issues around the conflict.
So our interest then has been around supporting human rights in Northern Ireland
in order to cement the peace, and to have a peace
that's based on equality and justice and the protection of human rights
for those that really need it most.
Because our assessment is that there's a danger that those voices
and those most at the margins don't actually
feel the benefits of the peace.
Northern Ireland, I think, has made great progress
on many fronts, but I think that there is still work that needs to be done.
So Human Rights Fund is about completing the work that needs to be done.
>> It's very important to establish a Human Rights Fund for a number of reasons.
First of all, what we had was a political settlement,
but what we missed on was almost a new social contract
in terms of the state and society.
And what we need is for that sort of a social contract
to pick up the aspirational aspects of the Good Friday Agreement
like the commitment to rights, like the commitment to equality
like the commitment to challenge sectarian divisions
and to support community development and the advancement of women.
>> We feel that there is this unfinished business, unfinished business in relation to issues
of the past, unfinished business in terms of how you really address
inequality in this society, how you address issues of structural inequality and disadvantage.
>> What we intend the Human Rights Fund to do
is first of all to consolidate the expertise and the knowledge
of a designated number of organisations
that have a long track record in terms of advocation
around rights and social justice issues.
But secondly, actually framing their work
in such a way that will enable them to cooperate and collaborate, and actually
pool their knowledge and expertise in terms
of seeking to achieve a culture of rights and indeed better rights for Northern Ireland.
>> Groups that will be supported under the Human Rights Fund
have very distinct capabilities, and have been very successful in their own areas.
The structure of the Fund will mean
that there will be a sharing of the expertise
because working together and collaborating together
makes for better rights protections.
>> My vision of Northern Ireland ten years hence is a Northern Ireland
that is more inclusive in terms, not only of people from different religious backgrounds
but broader in terms of new immigrant communities, people of different ethnicity,
of different race and identity issues.
But also that is a Northern Ireland that
is inclusive in terms of not having alienated marginalised communities
or indeed groups that we have at the moment,
and that has an agreed baseline in terms of rights and equality,
essentially respect for human dignity.
>> Because human rights are for everybody, there's a universality associated
with human rights, and in a divided society like Northern Ireland
where rights tend to be viewed as being belonging to one community or another,
my experience is that that's actually not the case.
We need to really lift that argument up and demonstrate
really clearly that rights are universal
and that they're for everyone.