Equality Bodies Combating Discrimination on the Ground of Racial or Ethnic Origin

This Equinet perspective reflects the body of work carried out by equality bodies when dealing with cases of discrimination on the grounds of ethnic or racial origin. It also analyses the law governing this work and the strategic approach to this work.

According to the Special Eurobarometer 393 focusing on Discrimination in the EU in 2012, 56% of European citizens think that discrimination on the grounds of ethnic or racial origin is very or fairly widespread in their country. Given the significant and widespread scale of racial discrimination, it was deemed appropriate to explore the work equality bodies have been able to develop on this ground.

The perspective was prepared by Equinet’s Working Group on Policy Formation and seeks to fulfill the following aims:

• Examine the law governing the work of equality bodies on the ground of racial or ethnic origin and explore the strategic approaches developed by them in this field.
• Identify the body of work carried out on the ground of racial or ethnic origin by the diversity of equality bodies across Europe.
• Present suggestions for the further development of this work by equality bodies and identify the implications for policy formation at EU and Member State levels.

The perspective is based on a survey of Equinet members that was conducted in September/October 2012. Twenty-one equality bodies from eighteen different countries responded to the survey. Six of these equality bodies were predominantly tribunal type equality bodies. Fourteen of them were predominantly promotional type equality bodies.

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Equality Bodies Combating Discrimination on the Ground of Racial or Ethnic Origin (FRENCH)