Commissioner Mijatović and her team will visit the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Romania from 16 to 22 March 2022 to focus on efforts made in assisting people fleeing the war in Ukraine and assessing their human rights needs.

At the end of those missions, the Commissioner will present preliminary observations. A more detailed report is expected to be prepared afterwards.

These missions are part of the Commissioner’s engagement concerning the human rights consequences of the war in Ukraine, which has included a mission to the Republic of Moldova, direct exchanges with human rights defenders remaining in Ukraine, several public statements, and a meeting with representatives of the Parliament of Ukraine and Ukraine’s Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

 

This roundtable will be held 30 March from 10:00 to 17:30 CET and is aimed at equality bodies staff and relevant legislators and policymakers at European and at national level. The event aims to discuss viable strategies for expanding the list of protected grounds and pinpointing the roles equality bodies can play in this. 

Register here by 25 March

The lack of comprehensive protection in EU law against discrimination on all grounds has long been raised as an issue. Fixing the number of grounds to only six, as is the case at the EU level, potentially means excluding and undermining the significance of whole categories and manifestations of unjust exclusion and subordination. 

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic powerfully exposed the limitations of the current list of discrimination grounds in the equality and non-discrimination law of the European Union. Both Equinet’s perspective “Equality in the Time of Covid-19: Learning from Equality Body Initiatives”, as well as the perspective “Equality, Diversity, and Non-Discrimination in Healthcare: Learning from the Work of Equality Bodies”, point out the importance of these grounds, especially as they intersect with other grounds. Likewise, Recommendation number 8 of Equinet ‘s “Recommendation for a fair and equal Europe: Rebuilding our societies after COVID-19” reveals the key importance of some of these grounds.  

Based on these findings, in 2021, Equinet commissioned research to address the following question: How could the expansion of the list of protected grounds, in particular through the inclusion of health status and socio-economic status, as well as gender identity, expression and sex characteristics enhance the effectiveness of the European anti-discrimination legal framework and its implementation? This roundtable will serve as a discussion forum to give visibility to and mobilize action around the key findings and recommendations of the report. 

 

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OBJECTIVES

This roundtable aims at:  

• shedding light on the usefulness and potential challenges or drawbacks of expanding the list of protected grounds under non-discrimination legislation.  
• discussing viable strategies for expanding the list of protected grounds and pinpointing the roles equality bodies can play in this. 

 

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FORMAT

The roundtable will take place online in the form of a 2.5-hour interactive discussion session. It will feature presentations, good practice exchanges, and reactions from right holders, legislators, and policymakers.
 

Introductory session | This session will set the scene by introducing Equinet Report on Other Grounds.
Session 1 | Equinet’s New Report “Expanding the List of Protected Grounds within Anti-Discrimination Law in the EU”: Main Findings
Session 2 | Sharing the experience of equality bodies and national authorities working together
Session 3 | Right holders, Legal and Policy makers perspectives
Concluding session

is lawful where it is necessary for the purpose of carrying out a journalistic activity and respects the principle of proportionality

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A journalist published two articles on the Daily Mail website reporting rumours about takeover bids for the shares of the companies Hermès (by LVMH) and Maurel & Prom. The prices indicated in that article were significantly higher than the prices of those shares on Euronext. That publication resulted in a considerable increase in the price of those shares. Shortly before the publication of those articles, purchase orders were made for the shares in question by certain British residents, who sold those shares once that publication had taken place. The Autorité des marchés financiers française (AMF) (Financial Markets Authority, France) imposed a fine of € 40 000 on the journalist because he had told those British residents about the forthcoming publication of his articles and had thus disclosed ‘inside information’ to them.

Hearing an action brought against that decision, the cour d’appel de Paris (Court of Appeal, Paris, France) made a request for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice concerning the interpretation of the provisions of EU law on insider dealing. First, it asks whether information relating to the forthcoming publication of a press article reporting a market rumour may be regarded as inside information, the disclosure of which is prohibited. Secondly, it questions the Court regarding the exceptions to that prohibition in the particular context of journalistic activity.

According to the Court of Justice, information relating to the forthcoming publication of a press article reporting a market rumour concerning an issuer of financial instruments is capable of constituting information ‘of a precise nature’ and, therefore, of falling within the scope of the concept of ‘inside information’, where it mentions, inter alia, the price at which the securities will be purchased, the name of the journalist who authored the article and the media organisation which will publish it.

The disclosure of inside information for the purpose of journalism may be justified, under EU law, by virtue of the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression. The ‘purposes of journalism’ may cover investigative work carried out by the journalist in preparation for publication, in order to verify rumours.

However, the disclosure of inside information by a journalist is lawful only where it is regarded as being necessary for the exercise of his or her profession and as complying with the principle of proportionality. The national court must therefore examine the following questions: first, was it necessary for the journalist seeking to seek to verify a market rumour to disclose to a third party, not only the content of that rumour, but the fact that an article reporting that rumour would soon be published? Secondly, is the restriction on the freedom of the press which the prohibition of such disclosure would entail excessive – taking into account the potentially dissuasive effect on the exercise of journalistic activity and the rules and codes to which journalists are subject – by comparison with the harm which such a disclosure is liable to cause, not only to the private interests of certain investors but also to the integrity of the financial markets?

 

Las Adjuntas Primera y Segunda del Defensor del Pueblo, Teresa Jiménez-Becerril y Patricia Bárcena han asistido este lunes en el Senado a la presentación del libro “”Pioneras. Cien años de la presencia de la mujer en el Tribunal de Cuentas”. La obra, escrita por el subdirector del Archivo del Tribunal de Cuentas, Agustín Torreblanca, recoge la historia de la incorporación de las mujeres a este órgano...

In the context of an increased flow, on the territory of Romania, of people fleeing from Ukraine, a country at war, and considering that:

►the People's Advocate institution aims to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals in their relations with public authorities (Art. 1 of Law no. 35/1997, republished);
►The Department on the prevention of torture in places of detention (NPM) within the People's Advocate institution monitors the special reception and accommodation centres for asylum seekers operating within the General Inspectorate for Immigration, having the legal regime of the transit area (considered to be places of detention1 ), in order to strengthen their protection against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment and to enable them to exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms without discrimination;
►The Department on the defence, protection and promotion of children's rights - Ombudsman for Children within the People’s Advocate institution acts in order to promote and protect the rights of children up to 18 years old, supports and encourages the observance and promotion of children's rights, under Law no. 35/1997, republished, respectively of Law no. 272/2004 on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, republished, as subsequently amended and supplemented (in particular Chapter IV: Protection of refugee children and protection of children in the event of armed conflict),

as well as the fact that:

►During the meeting of the leadership of the People's Advocate Institution, on March 7, 2022, it was decided to set up a working group to monitor the observance of rights of the refugees from Ukraine, a group composed of representatives of the 6 departments operating within the institution:

D1 - Human rights, equal opportunities for men and women, religious cults and national minorities;
D2 - The rights of the family, young people, pensioners, people with disabilities;
D3 - Defence, protection and promotion the rights of the child;
D4 - Army, justice, police, penitentiaries;
D5 - Property, labour, social protection, taxes and fees;
D6 - National Preventive Mechanism.