On 16 October, representatives of European equality bodies met online to adopt the 2021 Workplan and attend to other administrative issues of the Network.
Workplan 2021
The Equinet Workplan for 2021 was unanimously adopted by the General Assembly to guide our work throughout the coming year. As for 2020, it has a grounds based approach, yet we continue to continue to apply the lens of intersectionality throughout our work, and thus more and more of our activities are horizontal issues. Highlights include:
- Implementing European standards for equality bodies
- Equality mainstreaming
- Positive Action
- Tackling institutional racism
- Use of equality data in discrimination cases
- Access to health
- Domestic / care workers
Download the 2021 Workplan here.
High-Level Discussions
Besides deciding on governance issues, equality bodies had the opportunity to engage on the impact of Covid-19 and European developments. Following EU and national level insights from Irena Moozova (Director for Equality, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission), Adam Bodnar (Commissioner for Human Rights, Poland), Claire Hédon (Defender of Rights, France) and Andreas Pottakis (Greek Ombudsman, Greece), members had the chance to discuss the following two questions:
- What new challenges are evident from an equality perspective in the current phase of living with Covid-19?
- What new plans are being developed by equality bodies for their work in a context of living with Covid-19?
After that, the Estonian Commissioner for Gender Equality and Equal Treatment briefly presented their project InWeGe (Income, Wealth and Gender) focusing on their research of the gender pay gap. Please watch the video regarding their project here.
We thank everyone for their contributions and look forward to working toward a more equal Europe for all in 2021.