Equality Today | Issue 8 | January 2021

Women in Poverty 

Did you know that the Europe-wide employment rate for women is still 12% lower than for men? The employment gap is even wider for Roma women and other vulnerable groups of women. This is just one of the barriers that women in poverty face in everyday life and which have been intensified by the current Covid-19 pandemic. Following our roundtable in October 2020, a taskforce from Equinet’s working group on gender equality has produced a discussion paper that addresses the obstacles for women in poverty in the labour market, access to healthcare, and other areas from an intersectional perspective. Find the paper on this important issue  on our website! 

New Indicators for the Independence of Equality Bodies 

Are you interested in learning how the level of independence of equality bodies is measured? Equinet’s new set of indicators concretizes the European Commission’s recommendation on standards for equality bodies. You can read more about standards for equality bodies and the new indicators here! 

Equality Blog

“We shall not allow for officers of political correctness to be installed in schools as it stands in conflict with the law and the good of our children”, is an example of statements made by Polish municipalities, claiming themselves to be “LGBT-free”. Using the rhetoric of family protection, they have fueled exclusion and discrimination against the LGBTIQ community in Poland. Head over to our blog to read more about the story of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, acting against the homophobic and transphobic resolutions and the legal barriers they are facing along the way. 
 

Historic, ambitious and a great signal for Equality Bodies: Discussing the first-ever EU LGBTIQ Strategy 

Remember the LGBTIQ Strategy, adopted by the European Commission in November 2020? Our recent blogpost explains why this strategy is such a landmark with great potential to strengthen the role of equality bodies and to make them stronger allies for the LGBTIQ community. A must-read for everyone interested in the continuous efforts to better protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer people around Europe! 

Save the date!

1 February, “Race and Policing in the EU” (13:00 EST; 19:00 CET) 

Do you want to learn more about racial profiling and anti-discrimination law in Europe? Tamas Kadar, of Equinet, will speak at the online panel discussion “Race and Policing in the EU”, organized by the Berkely Institue of European Studies. You can still register to listen to the panel here!