Equinet has planned an ambitious programme of activities this year, to support equality body staff through peer support and learning, and to promote their voices to a broader public. Want to make sure you don’t miss any of them? Check out the highlights below!
2022 offers the unique opportunity to reinforce the protection of equality across Europe through a proposal for EU-level legislation to strengthen the role and independence of equality bodies. Equinet’s Project on Standards for Equality Bodies will continue to feed into this process, by providing a platform for peer exchange and for contributing to the development of effective legislation on standards which reflects our members’ needs. This will be a key focus across all our activities this year.
Equinet will promote two types of events:
- Capacity-building events, such as trainings, webinars and seminars, to provide Equality Bodies with learning opportunities aimed at developing expertise regarding specific issues and current topics.
- Conferences and roundtables to explore key issues, developments in the field of equal treatment, and to promote the voice of equality bodies to a broader public.
For further information on any of the events, please consult our Work Plan 2022.
Calendar 2022
February
- 17-18 February: AI Legal Clinic giving concrete guidance on specific legal cases submitted by equality bodies (training, online)
- 25 February: Equality bodies getting involved in United Nations Open-ended Working Group on Ageing (webinar, online)
March
- 10 March: Equality bodies countering antisemitism (workshop, online)
- 30 March: Rebuilding a fairer Europe after COVID-19 (launch of our report “Expanding the List of Protected Gounds within Anti-Discrimination Law in the EU”) (roundtable, online)
April
- 14 April: Equality bodies contributing to national equality strategies – Focus on NAPARS and Roma strategic frameworks (workshop, online)
- 26 April: Equality bodies working on cases without an identifiable individual victim (workshop, online)
May
- 10 May: Exploring positive action as a means to fight structural discrimination in Europe (webinar, online)
- 19 May: Equality Bodies supporting Equality Planning (conference, hybrid from Lisbon)
June
- 3 June: Equality bodies and gender equality – a growing role (conference, in-person in Paris)
- 20-21 June: Engaging with hard-to-reach groups in the context of equality research (training, in-person in Brussels)
- 29-30 June: Improving the online presence of national equality bodies (training, in-person in Vienna)
September
- 15-16 September: Equality bodies tackling discrimination and intolerance against Muslims (workshop, in-person in Berlin)
- 21, 29 September: Investing in Equality - A practical guide into EU funds (mini-workshops, online)
October
- 6, 14, 18 October: Investing in Equality - A practical guide into EU funds (mini-workshops, online & in Croatia)
- 11 October: Equality bodies’ role in implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan (roundtable, online)
- 27-28 October: Using equality data and research in legal casework (workshop, in-person in Brussels)
The Equinet Annual General Meeting took place on 5 October.
November
- 21-22 November: Equality bodies tackling racism and discrimination against people of African descent (workshop, online)
- 29-30 November: Pay transparency (seminar, in-person in Brussels)
December
- 1 December: Opening AI’s black box. How to find cases of algorithmic discrimination (training, in-person in Brussels)
- 6, 8, 12 December: Equality bodies building their capacity regarding psychosocial disabilities and persons with ill-mental health (webinar series, online)
Further Information
Staff members of equality bodies will continue to meet within their Working Groups or Clusters.
Working Groups meet throughout the year to discuss topics related to Gender Equality, Policy Formation, Equality Law, Communication Strategies and Practices, Research and Data Collection.
Currently, there are ongoing Clusters on Disability, Artificial Intelligence, Equality Mainstreaming, Socio-economic Rights, Rainbow Families on the Move. Equinet staff and Members are also involved in the Project on Standards for Equality Bodies.