Article 14 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 has often been derided as a Cinderella provision, but during the last few years, this has started to change. This paper examines how Art 14 has developed and how it may live up to its potential as a powerful non-discrimination principle. The case-law developments in relation to the ‘ambit’ requirement in Art 14, the development of indirect discrimination case-law and the approval of positive action, all point to a more substantive conception of equality, which offers protection to disadvantaged and vulnerable groups.

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This paper examines the link made on occasion between the concept of dignity and substantive equality; it is further noted that dignity can have very different meanings in different contexts. While the notion of dignity does not often play a substantive role in the resolution of decisions, sometimes the underlying understanding of dignity does matter. However, in all cases, judges should avoid the temptation to rely on unarticulated value judgments or subjective notions of dignity. When judges make reference to dignity, they should articulate the values underpinning their conception of it.* Lecturer in human rights, Human Rights Centre, School of Law. Queen's University of Belfast. I am grateful to colleagues in the Human Rights Centre, Queen's University of Belfast, and to Fiona O'Connell and participants at the Equality and Social Inclusion conference in Queen's, February 2006, for comments on an earlier draft. Responsibility for any inadequacies is mine alone.

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The idea of participation is becoming increasingly important in international human rights law and recent political and constitutional theory. There is an emerging international law on the right of minorities to participate in public life. There are many problems, however, with putting this right into practice. It is not enough to offer formal opportunities for representation or even to facilitate more participatory processes. This article explores how participation is more easily proclaimed than practised by examining the position of one ethnic minority, Travellers, in a liberal democracy, Ireland. While there are many formal opportunities for participation, these do not necessarily result in effective participation on the basis of equality. They still result in many decisions that fail to consider the Traveller culture and identity. There are hopeful avenues to pursue in improving participation: civil society organisations have shown considerable initiative, especially in making use of a dialogue between non‐governmental organisations and international organisations to put pressure on a national government. Within representative institutions, there is the possibility of special representation to offset the disadvantages of traditional representative democracy and also the suggestion that specialised parliamentary bodies may be more willing to address issues of minority concern.