The humiliation experienced by women attempting to challenge the impenetrable decision-making structures that control their lives is not often the focus of political discussion. The late Inez McCormack, who spent much of her life at the service of women and the most vulnerable, often referred to these humiliations as the ‘daily indignities’. As Beatrix Campbell sets out in her tribute, McCormack was an acclaimed peace-builder and human rights activist, who put recognition of inequality and disadvantage, and redress for this, as a condition for peace. Part of her legacy is the Belfast-based human rights organisation Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR), which she founded on the basis of her belief that these ‘daily indignities’ existed as a result of the absence of equality and rights.
PPR works with a number of groups to support women's increased participation in small 'p' politics, movements and campaigns. By engaging in the practice of rights, these campaigns challenge the status quo by using the construct of human rights to shape a more genuine democratic practice in the decision-making that impacts their lives.
Equality Can’t Wait is a group of women, most of whom are mothers, living in north Belfast who face the daily indignity of substandard social housing conditions and lengthy waiting lists to be rehoused into accommodation suitable for raising their children. In 2007 PPR held housing clinics in the area, collecting evidence about the extent of the human rights impact of poor conditions and long waiting lists. This has since developed to include strategic support in holding housing bodies and the NI Executive to account through a mixture of organising, policy and research support, and capacity building.
