Equality Commission Northern Ireland

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Delivering equality

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How is our work influencing life in Northern Ireland and delivering equality? Learn more about our policy, legal and research work.

ECRI

European Commission against
Racism and Intolerance

What you need to know

European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)

Equality Commission Recommendations

The Commission's November 2015 submission to ECRI recommended:

through single equality legislation or otherwise, that the NI Executive gives effect to the published recommendations of the Equality Commission with regards to making urgent improvements to race, fair employment and sexual orientation legislation
that any proposals for exceptions to equality law should be narrowly defined and objectively justifiable, providing legal clarity and appropriate safeguards
that the NI Executive produce equality strategies which convey leadership and give effect to Equality Commission’s published recommendations for race, sexual orientation and transgender equality
that the NI Executive develop a Refugee Integration Strategy and a Strategy for Travellers and Roma which take account of the published recommendations of the Equality Commission
action to address racist and homophobic hate crime.

Download our recommendations in full:

Equality Commission NI's submission for ECRI's fifth monitoring cycle (pdf, Nov 2015)

Observations: Fifth Report on the United Kingdom

On 4 October 2016, ECRI published its 2016 Report on the UK (pdf). The report requested priority implementation of two specific recommendations, one of which included reform of equality legislation in Northern Ireland .

Aligned to the Commission’s policy recommendations and submission to the Committee, ECRI report recommended that the authorities in Northern Ireland:

consolidate equality legislation into a single, comprehensive equality act, taking inspiration from the Equality Act 2010, and taking account of the recommendations of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland
draw up, in consultation with Gypsy, Traveller and Roma groups, a detailed programme of integration measures to address disadvantage
develop refugee integration strategy and systematically evaluate integration
make further efforts to address bullying of LGBT pupils in schools, with special attention given to teacher training
that legislation is enacted in Northern Ireland providing for protection from discrimination on grounds of gender identity
that the recommendations to amend public order legislation should also apply to Northern Ireland.

The report also included a number of recommendations, which apply across the United Kingdom.

Engagement with the ECRI reporting process

ECRI’s fifth round country-by-country reports focused on: four topics common to all member States:

(i) Legislative issues
(ii) Hate speech
(iii) Violence
(iv) Integration policies; and a number of topics specific to each member state and the fourth-cycle interim recommendations not implemented or partially implemented during the fourth monitoring cycle.

In November 2015, the Commission made a written submission to ECRI's fifth monitoring cycle (pdf) written submission to ECRI’s fifth monitoring cycle and hosted the visit of a representative of ECRI, enabling us to further set out our key priorities for action.