View this email in your browser

Equality Today | Issue 33 | May 2023

Check in this issue:

#EUNews
#Gender
#MembersNews
#AnnualReport
#EqualityLaw

#Intersectionality
#Race&EthnicOrigin
#SocialRights
#LGBTIQ+
#ArtificialIntelligence

Upcoming

Events

Check our website for a complete list of 2023 Equinet events

#EUNews

New Steps Towards a Union of Equality
During the plenary session of the European Parliament, many steps forward were taken on different issues related to equality and Equinet work:

• The Pay Transparency Directive was formally signed. You can read more on this below.
• The Internal Market Committee and the Civil Liberties Committee adopted a draft report on the AI Act, the first-ever rules for Artificial Intelligence, that aims at ensuring that AI systems are overseen by people, are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory, and environmentally friendly.
• The Parliament approved the European Union’s accession to the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women.

#Gender

The Council Adopts the Pay Transparency Directive
On 24 April, after the Council of the European Union vote, the Pay Transparency Directive was officially adopted. Member States have up to three years to transpose the new rules into national legislation.
The Directive aims at fighting pay discrimination and closing the gender pay gap in Europe. According to the new rules, EU companies are required to share information about how much they pay women and men for work of equal value and take action if their gender pay gap exceeds 5%. The directive includes provisions for victims of pay discrimination and penalties for employers who break the rules, as well as an active role of Equality Bodies and, for the first time, intersectional discrimination is included in the scope of the rules.
If you want to learn more about pay transparency and Equality Bodies, visit the webpage of Equinet Seminar on the Pay Transparency Directive to access all learning materials, or read the Equinet report "Equality Bodies and the Pay Transparency Directive: impacts and opportunities".

#MembersNews

Equality Ombudsman (Sweden): Annual Report on the State of Discrimination
At the Equality Ombudsman’s Conference on Equality Data, the first-ever report on the state of discrimination in Sweden was presented. The report provides an overview of how widespread discrimination is in the country, how and where it is manifested.

EHRC (UK – Great Britain): Guidelines on Sexual Harassment and Harassment in the Workplace
The Equality and Human Rights Commission in Great Britain published technical guidance on sexual harassment and harassment in the workplace and a 7-step employer guide on how to prevent sexual harassment at work. Both documents are addressed at employers and offer a legal explanation and practical examples of how to tackle and respond effectively to harassment.

Unia (Belgium): Socio-Economic Monitoring 2022: Labour Market and Origin
Unia, in collaboration with FPS Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, has published its latest edition of the Socio-Economic Monitoring 2022, which maps the labour market according to origin and migration history. This new edition shows that people of foreign origin still have more difficulties in the labour market in Belgium and includes the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, student work, grade repetition, and posted workers. 

Unia (Belgium): Annual report published
Unia's latest annual report highlights increased risk of vulnerability in society. The report reviews the institution's actions to work towards greater inclusion and equality, including topics on accessibility and hate speech and hate crimes.

Council on Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality (Moldova): 10-year anniversary celebrations
The Moldovan Equality Council celebrated its 10^th anniversary organising, together with the Council of Europe mission to Moldova, an International Conference “Equality bodies: new standards, new challenges” on the 24 May 2023 in Chisinau. Tena Šimonović Einwalter, our Chair, opened the Conference together with the Moldavian prime Minister and colleagues from the Council of Europe. The head of the Romanian National Council for Combating Discrimination, Csaba Asztalos; Equinet’s Senior Legal and Policy Officer, Jone Elizondo-Urrestarazu, and the President of the Equality Council of the Republic of Moldova, Ian Feldman, spoke about European and International standards for Equality Bodies. Colleagues from the Equality Council shared a comprehensive picture of their work in the last 10 years, based on equality data. 

Seminar (Spain): "La Ley 15/2022 integral para la igualdad de trato y la no discriminación. Organismos de igualdad" (Law 15/22 for equal treatment and non-discrimination. Equality Bodies)
The Spanish Equality Ministry, in collaboration with the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies is organising a seminar regarding their new Equality Body.
Equinet Co-Director Tamás Kádár and Senior Legal and Policy Officer Jone Elizondo-Urrestarazu will be sharing information about international and European standards for Equality Bodies. The seminar will be hybrid and bilingual (Spanish and English).

#AnnualReport

Equinet Highlights 2022
During the past year, Equinet continued building Equality Bodies’ capacity, supporting them on work in three areas: assistance to victims, advice and policy work, prevention and promotion. In 2022, Equinet and Equality Bodies provided evidence and support to the preparatory work that culminated in the European Commission’s proposals for Directives on standards for Equality Bodies, which represent an important step towards stronger Equality Bodies in Europe.
Interested in knowing more about the main highlights of Equinet’s work in 2022? Download our annual report now!

#EqualityLaw

Litigation Powers of Equality Bodies
Equality Bodies can have different forms of legal standing in front of Courts. Litigation powers are indeed fundamental for Equality Bodies to protect victims of discrimination, restore justice and ensure equality. For this reason, the two proposals for Directives on standards for Equality Bodies should strengthen litigation powers.
Read more on the different kinds of litigation powers that Equality Bodies have and how Equinet members have used them in our newly published brief!

#Intersectionality

Blog post: Intersectionality: Just Another Tool to Fight Discrimination?
How has intersectionality been included in the European legal and policy framework? What is the role of Civil Society Organisations in mainstreaming intersectionality? And how can Equality Bodies adopt an intersectional approach to address all forms of discrimination? Read our latest blog post by Equinet’s former Policy & Legal trainee Alizé Larguier to learn more on intersectionality and intersectional discrimination.

Intersections: The LGBTI II Survey – Intersex Analysis
ILGA-Europe and OII Europe published a report on the challenges faced by intersex people in Europe. This report is part of ILGA-Europe’s Intersections series and dives deeper into the data from the European Fundamental Rights Agency 2019 LGBTI Survey II.

#Race&EthnicOrigin

Learning Materials: Workshop on Equality Bodies Tackling Racism and Discrimination against People of African Descent
In November 2022, we held an online workshop that brought together Equality Bodies and NGOs to share good practices on combating discrimination and intolerance against people of African descent.
The workshop summary with the main takeaways and examples of good practices is now available online!

Have Your Say: EU Anti-Racism Action Plan
The European Commission launched a call for evidence aimed at assessing the progress made in implementing the EU anti-racism action plan and the national action plans against racism. You can contribute to the call until 1 June 2023 (midnight Brussels time)!
The Commission has also launched a targeted stakeholder consultation on the implementation of the EU’s Anti-Racism Action Plan and the National Action Plans against Racism, with a more detailed questionnaire, including to Equality Bodies. The deadline to participate in the consultation is 30 June 2023.

#SocialRights

Call for Inputs: Project INFRA-D: Resignifying racism complaints 

Accem is a Spain-based NGO helping and promoting the rights of refugees, migrants, and people facing social inequalities and social exclusion in Spain and at a European level. Accem is developing the research project Infra-D: Resignifying racism complaints, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Social Right and Agenda 2030. The main objective of the research is to determine what factors can influence migrant people in reporting racial discrimination, especially those who come from West Africa. If you would like to participate in the research, fill out this form with specific actions and programs that tackle underreporting in discrimination cases, sign the data authorization form, and send both to  Amalia Cuesta García and cc María Círez Tambo.

As part of this project, Accem will also organize a webinar in September with different European organizations to share Good Practices to avoid low reporting rates of ethnic and racial discrimination.

#LGBTIQ+

Rainbow Europe Map & Index 2023
ILGA-Europe has published its latest edition of Rainbow Europe, a benchmarking tool that ranks 49 countries in Europe on their LGBTI equality laws and policies. The Rainbow Europe Map & Index is accompanied by ILGA-Europe’s Annual Review, which provides an overview of what happened in Europe and Central Asia the previous year.

#ArtificialIntelligence

Report: Human Rights by Design - Future-Proofing Human Rights Protection in the Era of AI
In this recently published report, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights reviews the key challenges faced by member states in protecting and promoting human rights in the use of AI, following up on the 2019 Recommendation “Unboxing AI: 10 steps to protect Human Rights”, which provided practical guidance to member states.

equineteurope.org

Equinet Secretariat
Place Victor Horta 40, bte 40
1060 Brussels – Belgium
Tel : +32 (0) 2 212 3182
Fax : +32 (0) 2 212 3030

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.