Together we can achieve it!
Source/ Taken from: Magazine of ILGA – Europe – Destination Equality
Together we can achieve it!
If adopted,
the new EU anti-discrimination directive will not only significantly improve
the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Europe, the proposed directive
will also enhance protection against discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity,
race, and abilities for people of different genders, ages and ability.
ILGA-Europe
has been working side by side with other European networks representing and
working for equality for these groups and therefore we want to provide space
for the voices of these networks to highlight their assessment and concerns
regarding the proposed directive. But most importantly, we want to show that
the proposed directive is indeed a major piece of European legislation which is
welcomed and needed by millions of people in
EUROPEAN NETWORK AGAINST RACISM
New EU anti-discrimination proposal: an
opportunity to achieve equal rights for all
► From the
European Network Against Racism’s (ENAR) perspective, extending protection
against religious discrimination in access to goods and services is
particularly important. Discrimination against religious minorities is widespread
across the EU. These manifestations reflect an increasing overlap between
racial and religious discrimination.
Racism is
not limited to discrimination based on the ethnic or racial origin of a person
but also on the basis of all aspects of an individual’s or community’s culture
or identity, including religion or belief. Thus the lack of comprehensive
protection against religious discrimination leads to a lack of protection against
racial discrimination as convictions are often used to justify racial
discrimination or to obscure racist motivations.
► ENAR
welcomes the fact that the new proposal builds on the foundation of the
existing protection against discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin.
The proposed directive includes within its scope and legal concepts important
protections already found in European law for other grounds of discrimination,
such as the prohibition on discrimination in housing, health and education.
►Nevertheless,
the proposal repeats what ENAR believes to have been the mistakes of the past,
including the exclusion of nationality or matters related to immigration. At
the time of passing the Race Equality Directive, such a limitation at least had
a logical basis, considering how recently the EU had acquired competence in
this area. But now that that competence is firmly established and the dialogue
has moved to the development of a common European immigration and asylum
policy, it is no longer legitimate.
► The
proposal also includes blanket exceptions in key areas, notably education. This
is a sensitive but important area, where extra care has to be taken to ensure
that exceptions achieve their stated goal and do not go further than is
necessary. The EU has a vital role in ensuring that the right to education is enjoyed
by all children in a non-discriminatory way. The way in which the proposal is
currently drafted would mean that if a religious school is the only school in a
particular area and it is allowed to refuse all children of a different faith,
those children would have no access to education. ENAR agrees that a restriction
is legitimate. But that restriction should not be absolute, and must never lead
to a child being denied an education.
EUROPEAN WOMEN’S LOBBY
Do not forget women in the fight against discrimination
on all grounds
“When the EU adopted in 2004 the directive on
gender equality covering only goods and services , our members and women’s
organisations, were strongly disappointed by the narrow material scope of the
directive, but hoped that this was the first of a series of legal texts
prohibiting sex-based discrimination in all areas of life. The absence of any
proposal from the EC to level-up European gender equality legislation since
then gives us the feeling that the European Commission has forgotten its
commitment to ensure real equality for all. The draft directive of June 2008,
when adopted will make sex the least protected ground of discrimination in EU legislation.
We are wondering for how long it will still be considered normal to
discriminate against women in different areas of life including education and
media”.
MYRIA VASSILIADOU
EWL Secretary General
The
European Women’s Lobby (EWL), which represents thousands of women’s
organisations throughout the European Union, welcomes the proposal by the
European Commission for a comprehensive anti-discrimination directive that will
aim at combating discrimination based on age, disability, sexual orientation
and religion or belief.
However,
the EWL is very concerned by the unequal protection that sex-based
discrimination will be facing in the future in relation to a number of areas
including education, despite the commitment made by President Barroso in 2004
to initiate new legislation to ensure protection against all forms of
discrimination, including in relation to gender.
EWL also
notes that the proposed Directive contains a number of exceptions which are
left to decisions by Member States, for example the organisation of school
systems (in relation to education), the relationship between state and church,
and matters related to marital and family status, including adoption and
reproductive rights. There is a risk that reproductive health services are also
excluded from the scope of the Directive. These matters must therefore be
clarified. The EWL also stresses that the fight against discrimination on the
basis of religion should not be used as a pretext to justify violations of
women’s rights, be they open, subtle, legal or illegal.
The European Women’s Lobby calls on the
European Commission to:
► Commit to
a precise calendar to level up and complement the existing European gender
equality legislation by 2010 at the latest, in order to ensure that the
protection against sex discrimination is on an equal footing with what exists
for other forms of discrimination in the EU.
► Address
and define multiple discrimination in the new directive in order to ensure an
effective level of protection for victims of multiple discrimination, including
sex-based discrimination.
► Clarify
the implications of the exceptions which are left to decisions by Member
States, for example the organisation of school systems (in relation to
education), the relationship between state and church, and matters related to
marital and family status, including adoption and reproductive rights, and
reproductive health services.
► Ensure an
effective mainstreaming of gender in the directive.
► Clarify
the material scope of Directive 2004/113 on equal treatment between women and
men in access to and supply of goods and services in particular with regards to
social protection including social security and health care and social advantages.
EUROPEAN DISABILITY FORUM
EDF welcomes:
► The
suggestions for the broad scope of the directive in Art. 3 (1), including
social protection, social advantages, health care, education, access to and
supply of goods and services, the definition of the denial of reasonable
accommodation as a specific form of unlawful discrimination Art. 2 (5), the
imposition of an anticipatory duty to provide measures to ensure equal access
of persons with disabilities to all rights in Art. 4(1) and the introduction of
a duty to create an equal treatment body for all grounds in Art. 12.
EDF has the following important concerns:
► In Art. 4
“Equal treatment of persons with disabilities” there is confusion between accessibility,
which applies to all people by anticipation, and reasonable accommodation, responding
to individual needs. This preempts the application of the article and may
challenge existing national laws on accessibility. In addition, the concept of
disproportionate burden is very restrictive and should only apply to reasonable
accommodation and not to accessibility measures. Neither the concept of ‘Design
for All’ nor ‘accessibility’ is defined in the proposal. It does not contain a
reference to ‘standards’ that have proved to be very beneficial in making goods
and services accessible, available and affordable to people with disabilities.
In addition, the proposal for a Directive explicitly exempts Member States from
an obligation to introduce fundamental alteration (the concept that is not
defined in the Directive!) to social protection, social advantages, healthcare,
education or goods and services, even if these are inherently discriminatory
and inaccessible to people with disabilities. Therefore Art. 4, which states
that the access of persons with disabilities to all of the above shall be
provided by anticipation and if it does not cause disproportionate burden,
needs complete redrafting.
► The
assessment of risk for people with disabilities (usually based on a medical
assessment) by financial institutions (Art. 2 Concept of Discrimination –
Financial Services) may deprive them of the possibility of getting life
insurance, which is often a precondition for owning property or a car.
► Article
3(3) effectively excludes many people with disabilities from protection from
discrimination regarding the right to education and the provision of special
needs education. This will also have an impact on existing legislation such as
racial equality law which does not foresee these exceptions.
THE EUROPEAN OLDER PEOPLE’S PLATFORM
AGE welcomes the proposed EU directive but has
some reservations concerning Articles 2.6 and 2.7
AGE
welcomes the Commission’s legislative proposal which seeks to eradicate
discrimination in access to goods and services, in particular in access to
financial products, travel insurance, and healthcare - as these are where age discrimination
appears to be most entrenched. The adoption of this proposal would enable a
broad approach to be taken to tackling non discrimination in the EU and would
create the opportunity to establish a culture of equality and rights which would
engage the whole population. AGE members are particularly pleased that age is
one of the grounds on which discrimination would be banned, given the extensive
evidence of the damaging effects of age discrimination, and they see many
advantages in the proposed legislation.
AGE’s reservations
Although
AGE considers that significant and welcome steps have been taken in the fight
against discrimination within the proposed text, we are concerned that the
proposal fails to adequately address the rights of older people to equality and
that it gives a free hand to Member States to opt in or out of the legislation
with regard to age in the areas most relevant to older people such as access to
financial services and health care.
In particular,
AGE is concerned that, unless its wording is strengthened, the draft directive
will lead to different interpretations by Member States of the exemption clause
on preferential treatment contained in Article 2.6. Article 2.7, which allows
for differences of treatment on the ground of age in financial products, is
also disappointing and means that older people will continue to suffer
discrimination in access to financial products. Furthermore, the insurance
clause in the Gender Equality Directive in access to goods and services (2004/113/EC)
is much stricter then in the new proposal. This discrepancy conveys the message
that age equality is not considered to be a priority in the hierarchy of
rights.
Case example: age discrimination in breast
cancer screening
Our members
report pervasive age discrimination and rationing of the health care resources
devoted to older people.
For
instance, upper age limits are applied in access to free breast cancer
screening programmes in several countries resulting in direct discrimination
against women above a certain age. In the
Case example: age is not a proxy for financial
risk
In the
EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM
The
European Youth Forum (YFJ) believes that the Proposal for a New Directive
implementing the principles of equal opportunities is a crucial step in
fighting against discrimination on the ground of age in the European Union.
Indeed, the
current European anti-discrimination legal framework has many flaws; in
particular it establishes hierarchies among both grounds and areas of life
where discrimination takes place. If protection against age discrimination is
ensured in the area of employment and occupation, young people are
discriminated against in many other areas of life such as education, access to
goods and services, health and housing where no legal protection is provided at
the EU level.
Since the
Proposal for a New Directive provides legal protection in key areas where young
people face discrimination, its adoption is really needed to foster legal equality
for all young people in
Statistics
clearly show that discrimination on the ground of age is a widespread
phenomenon, occurring in all EU countries and in all areas of life. According
to a survey carried out in January 2008, 6% of the respondents claimed to have
been the victim of discrimination on the ground of age in the previous 12
months, this percentage being the highest when compared to other grounds. More
than 16% of respondents perceived that young people are often discriminated against
at school because of their age.
Although
the new Directive will contribute to bridging some of the existing legal gaps,
it alone will not bring solutions to some of the dynamics which maintain
discrimination against young people, namely the widespread stereotypes and
prejudices about young people, which, for example, lead to discomfort in society
when a young person is willing to actively take part in political life.
Therefore, non-legal initiatives, including non-formal education and awareness-raising
activities will definitely be needed to ensure de facto equality for all young
people.
Since it is
not being tackled by the Proposal, multiple discrimination will continue to
have a strong impact on the lives of young people, especially in areas such as
employment, education and health where multiplication and intersection between
age and other grounds often occur. For example, the unemployment rate in
Britain for young black men is 35% compared to 13% of young white men, and to
5,2% of the entire population.
ILGA –
ILGA-Europe
welcomes the EU Commission’s proposal for a single anti-discrimination
directive, when adopted, will end the hierarchy of rights and protections in
the EU.
After
having been campaigning for a single anti-discrimination directive for many
years, ILGA-Europe welcomes the fact that the scope of the proposed directive
is identical to the scope of the EU directives protecting against
discrimination on the grounds of race. Currently, discrimination on the ground
of race enjoys the highest protection in EU legislation compared to other
grounds of discrimination, such as gender, disability, sexual orientation,
religion or belief. ILGA-Europe is particularly pleased to see that the
proposed directive covers such areas as education. We also welcome the proposal
to introduce Equality Bodies in all EU member states which would have a mandate
to work on all grounds of discrimination.
At the same
time, ILGA-Europe is committed to improving the Commission’s legislative
proposal by ensuring that it is fully consistent with the principle of
non-discrimination. In particular, ILGA-Europe is concerned with the fact that
the proposed directive provides exceptions around marital and family status and
reproductive rights. Such exceptions create ambiguity and lead to a lack of
clarity, and could be interpreted in a way that would lead to the continuation
of less favourable treatment for people on the basis of their sexual
orientation in accessing social protection, goods and services. Discrimination
and consequent disadvantages experienced by LGB families and their children
were particularly highlighted as a serious cause for concern in a report
published by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency on 30 June 2008.
In relation
to the overall leveling up of protection against all forms of discrimination,
ILGA-Europe also calls for a commitment to level up the gender equality
legislation at the latest by 2010 to ensure the same legal protection for all
grounds of discrimination (currently discrimination on the ground of gender is
not prohibited in education) and to include gender identity explicitly in the
revised legislation on gender equality.