User:Annaislay/sandbox

The Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) is a human rights non-governmental organisation based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. PPR works to show, through practical example, that international human rights instruments can be used by marginalised people in local communities to improve the way services are delivered and government decisions made. PPR has developed a distinctive participatory Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) for groups to use in campaigning for improvements in their communities. PPR supports groups to use its unique HRBA, which articulates local economic inequality and social inequality as human rights issues and involves a combination of community organising, research, legal work, media and campaigning. PPR's groups aim to make real change on the ground, but also work to make the government decision making processes that are the cause of their exclusion more participative and accountable.

PPR deliberately chose to test its HRBA in North Belfast. According to government statistics, North Belfast has experienced some of the most chronic socio-economic inequality and deprivation in Northern Ireland, both during the conflict and today. PPR’s success in tackling the difficulties and deprivation found in North Belfast demonstrates how its HRBA can be used to address the most entrenched social and economic issues. PPR’s groups span both the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland, who despite the political progress, have not experienced the economic dividends of the peace process.

PPR supports 4 key groups who work on mental health, housing , youth participation and urban regeneration issues. Each of PPR’s groups is made up of people who are directly impacted by the issue they campaign on. The groups’ successes have included the establishment of a new appointment system for mental health patients attending A&E across Northern Ireland - the Card Before You Leave scheme, the rehousing of families from the Seven Towers, a set of run-down tower blocks in the New Lodge area of North Belfast , and the re-negotiation of a regeneration plan from which residents had been excluded in the Lower Shankill area of West Belfast.