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:
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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
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draw up, in consultation with Gypsy, Traveller and Roma groups, a detailed programme of integration measures to address disadvantage
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develop refugee integration strategy and systematically evaluate integration
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make further efforts to address bullying of LGBT pupils in schools, with special attention given to teacher training
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that legislation is enacted in Northern Ireland providing for protection from discrimination on grounds of gender identity
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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.
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.