The ‘Fight for Your Rights’ guide was first published in 2004 after the enactment of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003. In 2025, Ballymun Community Law Centre received funding from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission to update the guide. The Clinic visited the Ballymun Community Law Centre and the Ballymun community to inform the updating of the Guide.

The Guide provides an accessible introduction to the rights under the ECHR, with a focus on how individuals and communities can assert their rights when interacting with public bodies. As well as addressing the ECHR, the updated Guide also addresses the public sector human rights and equality duty that requires all public bodies to eliminate discrimination, to promote equality of opportunity and treatment, and to protect human rights.

The updated Guide was launched by the Minister for Justice, Migration and Home Affairs on 2 September 2026. Deirdre Malone (LLB ’03), the Director of IHREC, who was involved in writing the original guide, contributed the Foreword and also spoke at the launch, alongside local businessman, Robert Murphy, and Paula Reynolds, Chair of BCLC.

The LLM students who participated in the Clinic in 2025-2026 were: Maxime Auzanneau, Milly Chandiru, Chloe Feldman, Abdallah Hasaneen, Vivian Kisaky, Emily Quinn, Kaja Urbaniuk, Hannah Viljoen, and Nerishka Singh. The Clinic is grateful to all at BCLC, especially Frank Murphy, Claire McSweeney and Hayley Keegan, for their assistance. 

The Guide is available on the website of the Ballymun Community Law Centre at this link.

About the Human Rights Law Clinic

The Human Rights Law Clinic is an LLM module in which students work with a partner non-governmental organisation on a specific project which explores how human rights law can inform the partner organisation’s advocacy, policy or case work. Working under the supervision of Colin Smith and David Fennelly, member of the Law School’s academic staff and practising barristers, the students work with the partner to define the scope of the project, carry out research on international, European and national human rights law, and prepare report(s) for the partner organisation. The Clinic has previously collaborated with FLAC, the Irish Refugee Council, and Community Law & Mediation on issues as diverse as legal aid, asylum, social welfare and the rights of children.

About Ballymun Community Law Centre

Ballymun Community Law and Mediation Centre was established in 2002 to tackle unmet legal need in Ballymun. The community law centre seeks to empower individuals experiencing disadvantage and to give people in the community access to justice by providing quality free legal advice, information and legal representation. It has been granted independent law centre status by the Law Society of Ireland and provides legal advice on all areas of law through free legal advice clinics. The law centre also offers legal representation and advocacy, including Court and Tribunal Representation in areas of law not covered by the civil legal aid scheme. It also provides a legal education programme, a mediation service and training in mediation skills.

More information on the Centre can be found at https://www.bclc.ie.