Equality Commission Northern Ireland

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ECRI

European Commission against
Racism and Intolerance

What you need to know

European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)

Equality Commission Recommendations

In June 2023 we have published our submission to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) sixth monitoring cycle report. In our response we specifically focus on issues aligned to our remit which have been identified by ECRI as common topics for this cycle: ethnic minority and LGBTQI+ communities, including equality law reform, hate crime, and the need for effective strategies.

With respect to the specific focus of sixth cycle monitoring, the Committee may wish to consider recommending, via the UK State Party as appropriate:

that the NI Executive produce equality strategies which convey leadership and gives effect to Equality Commission’s published recommendations for Racial, Sexual Orientation and Transgender Equality;
that the NI Executive develop a Refugee Integration Strategy and Strategies for Travellers and Roma which take account of the published recommendations of the Equality Commission; and these individual targeted strategies should nest within or be considered a sub-set of an overarching (mainstreaming) Racial Equality Strategy;
with regards to hate crime, actions in Northern Ireland to address under-reporting and support for victims; reviewing the legal framework for addressing racist violence; improving the accessibility of reporting for those for whom English is an additional language; improving minority representation in police and criminal justice staff; and co-ordinating action to address institutional racism;
That equality protections are strengthened, harmonised and updated through single equality legislation, which meets best international practice, aligned with the Commission’s recommendations;
In the absence of single equality legislation, urgent reform of race, sex, and sexual orientation legislation is undertaken to give effect to the published recommendations of the Equality Commission.

For a full list of our recommendations, see Annex 1 of our response to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) - sixth monitoring cycle review of the UK (pdf, June 2023)

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.

Download the Equality Commission's recommendations in full:

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

Engagement with the ECRI reporting process

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

(i) Effective equality and access to rights;
(ii) Hate speech and hate motivated violence;
(iii) Integration and inclusion;
(iv) Single Equality Bill (NI); Collection of data on the application of the Equality Act 2010 (GB).

In June 2023, the Commission made a written submission to ECRI's sixth monitoring cycle (pdf) to ECRI’s fifth monitoring cycle, enabling us to further set out our key priorities for action.