This webinar, co-organised with the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights, was held on 10 May. The webinar presented the main findings of the Equinet Report “Exploring positive action as a means to fight structural discrimination in Europe” to highlight the important work Equality Bodies are carrying out in this field, with a particular focus on the different roles equality bodies can play.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated structural and systemic inequalities across Europe, bringing to the forefront deeply rooted forms of discrimination and inciting EU policy makers to designate concrete steps to achieve substantive equality in Europe. Positive action, also known as affirmative action, special temporary measures, equalising measures, or positive measures, can be an essential tool to achieve substantive equality in practice at the national level. These are measures that, for limited periods of time, deliberately use one or more protected grounds to redress systemic discrimination by compensating for the structural disadvantages faced by certain groups, with the aim of achieving de facto equality.
The latest series of equality strategies published by the European Commission to achieve a Union of Equality, with the EU Anti-racism action plan in particular, recognise that formal equality alone may not be sufficient to address the specific needs of certain groups and the historical disadvantages they face as a result of discrimination on one or more protected grounds.
In 2014, the Equinet Working Group on Equality Law in Practice initiated discussions on positive action amongst Equinet members, producing the paper entitled Positive Action Measures: The Experience of Equality Bodies. Seven years later, the Working Group has conducted renewed research on the matter in the following Equinet Report Exploring positive action as a means to fight structural discrimination in Europe.
OBJECTIVES
The objective was to present the findings of the report and discuss the role of equality bodies regarding positive action measures.
FORMAT
The webinar took place online in the form of a 2-hour interactive discussion session. It featured presentations and an exchange of good practices amongst equality bodies.
| OPENING SESSION | Presentation of the Equinet Report Exploring positive action as a means to fight structural discrimination in Europe
This opening session presented the main findings of the report, in particular, Chapter 5 on The Role of Equality Bodies regarding positive action measures. See PDF of the presentation here.
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PANEL DISCUSSION | Equality Bodies engaging with positive action measures This session was dedicated to sharing experiences and good practices of the ways in which equality bodies can issue guidance and promote positive action measures, including by engaging with duty bearers.
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Closing Remarks
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