Cecilia Forrestal is Irish and is the Human Rights Co-ordinator of the Irish Community Action Network (CAN). CAN is a social justice NGO that places people at the heart of change to promote and support inclusion, equality, fairness and human rights. Cecilia has been involved in all of CAN’s work and has facilitated, trained and consulted to numerous projects, partnership structures and change initiatives in local, regional and national and international contexts She draws on a range of participative approaches in all her work as a means of tackling social inequalities. She has particular interest in using Human Rights based approaches to tackle inequalities in health and housing. Key areas of work have included the facilitation of Rialto Rights in Action Campaign in Dublin, tenant participation in the Collective Complaint FIDH against Ireland which relates to Local Authority housing, Service Users Rights in Action Pilot Public Sector Duty Project with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and rights holder training programmes. Since 2017, she has been leading on an outreach programme to people in mortgage distress as part of the Abusive Lending Practices Programme in Ireland.
Cecilia Forrestal will participate in the World Justice Forum working session Bridging the Justice Gap with Strategic Human Rights Litigation.