Workshop & Study Visit – Together for Equality, stronger for all: Access to justice by Equality Bodies

This workshop & study visit will take place on 17-18 November 2025 (in person, location TBC). It is aimed at Heads of legal departments and legal experts from Equality Bodies.

Background

Access to Justice is undoubtedly one of the key raisons d’etre of Equality Bodies with one of their key functions being defined from the outset as ‘providing independent assistance to victims of discrimination in pursuing their complaints about discrimination’. Equality Bodies are often labelled as low threshold complaints bodies, given their accessibility, speed of their proceedings and free of cost procedures aimed at enhancing access to justice.

Member States, and Equality Bodies themselves, have developed different models of providing this concrete assistance to victims, focusing on the provision of legal advice, active litigation powers such as representing victims in courts, own name procedures (or actio popularis) or strategic litigation. Equality Bodies may also be able to support access to justice to victims of discrimination by providing opinions or binding decisions. All of these models have their inherent value, as described for instance in FRA’s publication from 2012, and they all have their advantages and challenges.

This initiative will feature a study visit to the Swedish Equality Ombudsman, followed by an exchange of experiences and models, outlining the challenges and opportunities of each legal power to enhance access to justice to victims of discrimination. Additionally, we will explore how the new Standards Directives may pose opportunities to advocate for stronger powers to better support rights-holders.

Objectives

• Discuss effective ways in which Equality Bodies can enhance access to justice
• Analyse what combination of powers for Equality Bodies may offer a better support for rights-holders in their access to justice
• Explore how, in the process of implementation of the Standards Directives momentum can be gathered in order to enhance access to justice for rights-holders.

Participants

The target audience of this workshop & study visit is Heads of legal departments and legal experts from Equality Bodies.

For further information, please contact Jone Elizondo-Urrestarazu (jone.elizondo@equineteurope.org)