Equality Bodies – Current Challenges
Equality Bodies – Current Challenges
Authors: Equinet Working Group on Policy Formation
This perspective was prepared by Equinet’s Working Group on Policy Formation and addresses key current challenges and opportunities facing national equality bodies in the context of the economic and financial crisis.
Equinet, the European network of equality bodies, works to support equality bodies to realise their full potential. For equality bodies the current context of economic and financial crisis presents extraordinary challenges as well as offering a valuable opportunity to realise their potential at a moment of change in our societies. Equinet has prepared this perspective in order to monitor developments for equality bodies at Member State level in this context of challenge and opportunity and the impact of these developments on their ability to realise this potential.
This perspective is part of an ongoing body of work being done by Equinet to stimulate and support the development of standards for the establishment and operation of equality bodies. Such standards could address the full range of issues that have been identified from the experience and work of equality bodies to date, support the development and operation of effective and independent equality bodies across the EU, and provide the basis from which they can achieve their full potential.
Equinet invited its members to complete a survey in June 2012 in order to gather the information and data required for this perspective.
The survey questionnaire examined:
- Change in the demand on, and provision of, equality bodies’ services.
- Change in the conditions created for equality bodies at Member State level.
- Change in the operation of equality bodies.
- The perspective of equality bodies on current challenges to realising their potential.
Independence and effectiveness were the two overarching indicators used by Equinet in constructing this survey questionnaire.
Twenty seven equality bodies completed the questionnaire in twenty three countries (encompassing Member States as well as Serbia and Croatia) . Sixteen predominantly promotional type equality bodies and eleven predominantly tribunal type equality bodies completed the survey questionnaire.