Out of the Troubles and into Rights: Protection For Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals in Northern Ireland Through Equality Legislation in the Belfast Agreement

Part I of this Note explores the history of LGB rights in Northern Ireland, focusing on the development of domestic equality legislation stemming from the recent peace process. Part II examines the statutory framework of this legislation, concentrating on what protections and rights it provides for sexual minorities in Northern Ireland. Part II also looks at a recent European Directive prohibiting discrimination against LGB persons in employment. Part III argues that for truly effective change to occur, LGB individuals need both policy-based and rights-based legislation encompassing the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination. Part III further argues that the political divisions in the region ultimately hinder the drafting, passing, and effectiveness of such legislation

Establishing a UK 'Home International' comparative research programme for post-compulsory learning

This report makes recommendations for a programme of ‘home international’ comparative research into post-compulsory learning, comparing the four home countries of the UK. Such a programme would be timely because the political devolution of 1999 has increased the differences between the post-compulsory learning systems of the four countries. A programme of home international comparative research could help policy makers, learners, practitioners and other stakeholders to understand these differences. It could also exploit the potential for policy learning by comparing the different policy approaches followed in the four home countries. We define ‘post-compulsory learning’ to cover further education, school education beyond 16, work-based learning and adult and continuing education, and to include the interfaces with other sectors. We place our study in the context of wider international comparisons

International Literature Review for the Commission on Local Taxation

No abstract available

ESPON Project 2.3.1., Application and effects of the ESDP in Member States. First Interim Report

This First Interim Report includes the initial results of the project "Application and Effects of the ESDP in the Member States" within the ESPON Programme 2000-2006. The focus of the study is the application of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), which was adopted at the Potsdam European Council meeting in May 199

Renewing cohesion policy: recent progress and long-term challenges : Paper prepared for the 28th meeting of the EoRPA Regional Policy Research Consortium at Ross Priory, Loch Lomondside on 7-9 October 2006

Reviews the reform of cohesion policy in the last five years

Direct Payment Schemes for People with Disabilities: A New and Innovative Policy Approach to Providing Services to Disabled People in Ireland

[Excerpt] This research project commenced initially in August 2002 and was initiated by the Disability Cluster Group – a network of local disability groups and service-providers, facilitated by the Bray Partnership. The Disability Cluster Group established a Disability Research Steering Committee for the project which, in turn, employed 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World – a non-governmental development education organisation – to undertake the research. The core objective of the work is to explore and move forward the agenda relating to direct payments in the East Coast Area Health Board (ECAHB). This is primarily a piece of qualitative research focusing on the many elements that make up a direct payment scheme from a number of stakeholder perspectives. In terms of the cross-border comparative element of the research, 10% of the total number of direct payments users in NI were interviewed. Given low overall numbers of direct payments service users, this figure is too limited for any significant statistical analysis. Instead, they serve to highlight some of the issues, experiences and challenges associated with introducing direct payments for a number of people with disabilities in Northern Ireland and allows for a range of conclusions to be drawn out

Strategies for supporting schools and teachers in order to foster social inclusion: UK interim report

The focus in this report is on those strategies used to address the disadvantages experienced by minority background students in schools within the United Kingdom (UK) and the wider policy context in which these operate. More specifically, the focus is on four groups of students: ethnic minority students including refugee and asylum seekers’ children; Gypsy/traveller students; Students in care (Looked After Children – LAC); and, linguistic minorities e.g. Gaelic, Welsh