Civil rights and social justice

MS 1579/2/12

Civil rights and social justice

1987 - 1998

Copyright: Barrow Cadbury Trust and others

Partially Closed (Data Protection Act)

Organisations involved: Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust, Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd.

Previous titles and/or title variations: n/a.

Related grant categories: equal opportunities, social service, gender, asylum, immigration and resettlement, racial justice.

Duration of use: 1989/1990 to 1992/1993.

Cadbury Trusts grant subject filing reference number(s): 3 (informal), 6 (informal).

The civil rights and social justice category was created out of race relations and equal opportunities, peace and international relations and social service category grants in 1989/1990. Though it was initially created with an open-ended remit focussing broadly on civil rights and social justice issues, by 1990/1991 the scope of the category had been narrowed to situations in which a conflict is present between legal restrictions and natural justice within a social policy framework. These social policy questions, including electoral reform, access to legal advice and migration, were considered to be of a greater strategic importance than related, but lower level grants made under race relations and equal opportunities heading.

The first civil rights and social justice files appear in the late 1980s and generally comprise files transferred from other grant categories. These grant files often retain their old file reference numbers usually from race relations and equal opportunities (file reference '3') and social service (file reference '6'). This category was not assigned a unique filing reference number under Anthony Wilson's classification scheme for grant subjects, though '6' appears frequently on files compiled by Eric Adams. The preponderance of civil rights and social justice grants were administered by Eric Adams or Dipali Chandra. Like Joe Montgomery, Chandra used a simple alphabetical filing reference system, for instance, 'O/3' to denote the letter 'O'/and Organisation Development Centre, the third organisation filed under 'O'.

The civil rights and social justice category grew quickly following its introduction in 1989/1990. During its first year Trust and Fund expenditure amounted to £46,515. By 1990/1991 this total had risen to £176,093 and by 1991/1992 £212,236. Major grants were made to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the National Alliance of Women's Organisations, the National Council for Civil Liberties, the Human Rights Sub-Committee of European Parliament and Inquest. Grants made under this heading continued to have a thematic link to race relations and equal opportunities, peace and international relations and penal affairs.

The civil rights and social justice category was eliminated as part of a general reorganisation of grant classifications prior to the merger of the Paul S. Cadbury Trust with the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust in 1994. It last appears as a separate category in the 1992/1993 annual report of the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust and the Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd. Grants made under the civil rights and social justice heading were subsequently transferred to new programme groups including 'gender', 'civil rights' and 'racial justice'.