The Advancing
Race Equality Awards
22nd September 2022
The Advancing Race Equality Awards recognise individuals, teams, groups, or networks that have been leading action, removing barriers and enhancing the inclusion of and engagement with ethnic minority people across Northern Ireland – from the workplace to the delivery of services.
The North West Migrants Forums Advancing Race Equality Awards – launched last year, are the only awards in Northern Ireland that recognise and reward individuals and organisations for promoting racial justice, equality, and inclusion. Read more about 2021 ceremony and winners here.
Nominations are Now Closed!
Nominations close 22nd June 2022 at 12 noon
Nomination Assessment Process
A shortlist for each category will be drawn up by NWMF based on the number of nominations. Discretion will be exercised in cases of exceptional nominations. The top five in each category will automatically be shortlisted.
A distinguished panel of independent judges with proven commitment to advancing race equality will assess the shortlisted nominations and determine the winners.
Each judging panel will award each nominee a certain amount of merits for the following:
– Quantity of nominations for that particular award category.
– Quality of nominations received for that particular award category.
How strongly your work relates to the award category you have been nominated for.
Impact – the extent to which the nominee made a difference.
Innovation – to what degree was the nominee’s work original and ground-breaking?
Role model – how the nominees work had an effect on others, degree of leadership shown.
Evidence provided by the nominee themselves.
Shortlisted nominees will be contacted prior to the ceremony on 22nd September 2022.
To nominate through our website here, simply check out Award Categories and Timeline below, then fill out the the Nomination Form or
alternatively email areawards@nwmf.org.uk and we will send you one.
Nominations are Now Closed!
Meet Our Judging Panel
Dr Raymond Russell
Dr Raymond Russell has been involved in research and policy formulation for more than twenty-five years. He began his research career with the Simon Community NI (1996 – 1998), before joining the Equal Opportunities Commission (1998 – 1999). He then worked for more than a decade in the Equality Commission (1999 – 2011). For the past eleven years he has been employed as a Researcher in Parliament Buildings, Northern Ireland Assembly, providing research services to Members (MLAs) and Departmental Committees. As a young man, Dr Russell travelled widely in Europe, America, the Middle East, North and East Africa and South-West Asia. Long before the arrival of our new communities in the early 2000s, he had developed an appreciation for other cultures, and realised how the arrival of BME people could enrich and revitalise the dominant traditions in Northern Ireland.
Goretti Horgan
Goretti Horgan is a Senior Lecturer in social policy at Ulster University and Director of ARK's Policy Unit. ARK is a joint Ulster University/Queen's University, which aims to promote evidence-based policy making and to help researchers, policy-makers and the wider public understand society and politics. A lifelong socialist and feminist, she is vice-chair of the Northern Ireland Anti Poverty Network. She researches and writes about child and family poverty and abortion rights, as well as children's and women's rights generally.
Tshamano Mushapho
Tshamano Mushapho is Senior Nurse within the NHS. He is originally from South Africa and moved to Northern Ireland in 2005. Tshamano is former chairperson for North West Migrants Forum and a member of Ethnic Diversity Network within Western Health and Social Care Trust.
Patrick Corrigan
Patrick Corrigan is Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International UK Amnesty International UK works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. As a global movement of over ten million people, Amnesty International is the world's largest grassroots human rights organisation. They investigate and expose abuses, educate and mobilise the public, and help transform societies to create a safer, more just world.
Coumilah Manjoo
Coumilah is originally from Mauritius. As an EU citizen, she has lived in United Kingdom for over a decade. She has also lived in Ireland and France, and Northern Ireland has been home for the last 12 years. Coumilah has studied various fields of social sciences as an undergrad and holds an LLM in Human Rights. She has a keen interest in intercultural dialogue and currently works extensively in the voluntary sector with grassroots organizations. She is a daughter, a sister, and a mother of three children.
Dr. Manal Mahdi
Dr.Manal is a specialist in fertility and gynaecology in the Health Service in Northern Ireland. She has long standing experience of community development with particular reference to the Sudanese Youth Group and women empowerment. Manal is the Chair of Africa House (NI).
Daniel Holder
Daniel Holder has been the Deputy Director of the human rights NGO the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) since 2011, he is also the Co- Convener of the Equality Coalition – a network of equality NGOs and trade unions jointly convened by CAJ and UNISON. He has also been a member of the BrexitLawNI team, a partnership between the law schools of Queens and Ulster Universities and CAJ focusing on the constitutional, peace process and human rights implications of Brexit. Prior to this he worked in the NI Human Rights Commission in Belfast, ran a migrant worker equality project in county Tyrone and worked as a linguist in Havana, Cuba. He has a primary degree in Spanish and Sociology and an LLM in Human Rights Law, both from Queens University.
Naomi Green
Naomi Green is a PhD researcher at Ulster University focusing on the integration of Muslims in NI. An advocate for social and racial justice, she sits on several advisory groups, including the Racial Equality Subgroup on behalf of Belfast Islamic Centre.
Brian Dougherty MBE
Brian has been involved in the voluntary and community sector as a volunteer and paid worker for over 25 years working primarily in Unionist/Loyalist communities. For 10 years he was Development worker for the Tullyally and District Development Group and for 7 years, Director of St Columb’s Park House centre for Reconciliation in the city and is currently working with the North-West Cultural Partnership and Londonderry Bands Forum. In 1998 he was appointed as the community development representative on the N.Ireland Civic Forum and in 2001 for 5 years he was an independent member of the inaugural Northern Ireland Policing Board. Brian was appointed an independent member of the UK City of Culture Company for 2013 and as a commissioner on Foyle Port from 2015-2019. He currently is a Governor at Foyle College, Chairperson of the North-West Cricket Union and a Board member of both Cricket Ireland and Institute F.C. In 2003 he won the Business in the Community Sieff Award for Community Enterprise awarded by HRH Prince Charles at Highgrove estate. In January 2007 he was awarded Member of Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the community in Northern Ireland and is a 2012 fellow of the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Brian has a Masters degree in Town Planning from the University of Manchester and is currently studying for a Phd at Ulster University looking at the Londonderry Bands Forum and their leadership role in Londonderry.
Dr Philip McDermott
Dr Philip McDermott is a senior lecturer in Sociology within the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences. His teaching interests are in the areas of Irish society, cultural and media studies and social research methods. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
He has worked on issues relating to equality and diversity for many years and has published widely on interculturalism in Northern Ireland.
Philip has been involved in co-producing many projects with North West Migrants Forum since 2014. He has a keen interest in the role of our history and heritage as a way of instigating debate about diversity in the present.
Andy George
Andy is the current President of the National Black Police Association (NBPA) and a serving police officer in the Police Service of Northern Ireland having joined the service in 1999. His police career began at a time of great change with the signing of the ‘Good Friday’ Agreement and the ‘Patton’ reforms being delivered in 1998 which brought about wholesale changes to policing in Northern Ireland. At this time he would have been one of around 10-15 officers from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background in a police service of around 13,500 officers. He worked during a targeted recruitment campaign which utilised positive discrimination for Catholic applicants which brought the levels of Catholic Officers from around 8% in 2001 to around 32% in 2011. The Police Service also went through a name change, change of symbols and badges and change of uniforms to make them more of a legitimate service in all communities. This was part of a larger raft of measures which sought to bring a more peaceful society in Northern Ireland. Andy spent the first 8 years of his career in a local policing team before moving to the Armed Response Unit, for 10 years, where he was an Operational Firearms Commander, taking charge of firearms teams during spontaneous and pre-planned firearms operations. This involved the use of tactics and less lethal options designed to ensure a safe outcome for all parties including officers, the public and subjects. He is now an Inspector spending the majority of his time completing NBPA duties.
Hannah Davies
Hannah Davies has over 25 years professional experience, including as Director of the women's rights NGO One World Action and 15 years working at the United Nations including as a Policy Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary General in the UN mission in Liberia (UNMIL). She also served as Deputy Director of the UN Democracy Fund where she had day-to-day responsibilities for managing an annual $10 million fund for civil society organizations globally. Castlerock has been her home since 2004. In 2018, she brought her family to Northern Ireland and undertook PhD research at the University of Ulster, looking at bureaucratic identity in UN peace operations, with a focus on gender and nationality. She has also contributed to undergraduate courses on qualitative research methods and a post-graduate masters on Gender, Conflict and Human Rights run by the Transitional Justice Institute. She has presented her research at a number of international conferences, including the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and the International Studies Association (ISA).
Don’t forget to check out the Award Categories and Timeline plus go fill out the Nomination Form below or
alternatively email areawards@nwmf.org.uk and we will send you one.
Nominations are Now Closed!
Nominee Agreement
Should any nominee wish to be withdrawn from the nomination process, they are able to do so at any time by contacting NWMF. Notification must be received in writing by e-mail info@nwmf.org.uk or post – 10 Fountain Street, Derry/Londonderry, BT48 6QX.
Anyone found to be behaving in a manner that is deemed detrimental to other guests at NWMF Advancing Race Equality Awards Ceremony will be immediately escorted off site, nomination withdrawn, and disqualification will be applied to re-entering future awards.
By virtue of accepting your nomination, you confirm that you are available to attend the 2022 NWMF Advancing Race Equality Awards Ceremony on 22nd September 2022 .
Any tickets purchased or reserved via invoice within 4 weeks of the event date are non-refundable.
By virtue of accepting your nomination and by confirming your attendance at the ceremony you irrevocably consent to having the use of your image on any marketing material created by NWMF Advancing Race Equality Awards.