The new Norwegian Ombud for Equal Treatment, Hanne Bjurstrøm, was in Brussels last week to meet with important partners at EU level. Equinet was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet the new Ombud and accompany her throughout the day.

Today, 16 March 2016, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) publishes its report ‘Professionally speaking: challenges to achieving equality for LGBT people’. The report will be launched at the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBTI Rights. The meeting is the first in a series where the Intergroup seeks to deepen its understanding on the challenges faced by public bodies and service providers towards LGBTI people to enhance the protection of their rights, notably in education, healthcare, law enforcement and LGBTI policy making.

Since 2013, there has been an enhanced focus on gender equality in Equinet’s work following the incorporation of the work of the former Network of Gender Equality Bodies (previously led and facilitated by the European Commission).
As laid out in the Gender Equal Treatment Directives, equality bodies are mandated to promote equality and combat discrimination in relation to gender.

Equinet is commissioning a research paper on positive and equality duties in Europe today. Positive duties go beyond the positive action defined in the EU Equal Treatment Directives, and the research will seek to map out current practices and measures implemented.

Submission deadline: 10 April 2016

On 14 and 15 January 2016, the Austrian Disability Ombudsman, Erwin Buchinger, and his Office as well as the Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs, with the active involvement of the Federal Chamber of Labour and the Office for Opportunities & Benefits of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), hosted an expert meeting on key equality issues for persons with disabilities and the further development of this agenda at the ÖGB Events Centre in Vienna.

On 4th and 5th April 2016, Equinet and the Austrian Disability Ombudsman organised the seminar "Accessibility and reasonable accommodation" in Vienna, Austria. The seminar took stock of the experiences of equality bodies on accessibility and reasonable accommodation. It also aimed to build their capacity in understanding, promoting and ensuring reasonable accommodation and accessibility.

Economic, social and cultural rights are those human rights relating to the workplace, social security, family life, participation in cultural life, and access to housing, food, water, health care and education. They cover workers’ rights, the right to social security and social protection, protection of and assistance to the family, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to health, the right to education, and cultural rights.

Highlights of the main Equinet activities planned to build capacity and peer support of equality bodies, as well as make a contribution to the European equality agenda, based on the 2016 Work Plan.

This study, carried out by Katrin Wladasch of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institut of Human Rights, aims to identify different types of sanctions as a tool for fostering the implementation of the principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination. A specific focus is given to the (potential) role of equality bodies in strengthening effectiveness, proportionality and dissuasiveness of sanctions’ regimes.

Developed on the basis of a membership survey and the discussions of the Equinet Working Group on Equality Law, this Equinet Discussion Paper outlines the key challenges identified by equality bodies if they are to be designated as bodies under Directive 2014/54/EU, aimed at facilitating the uniform application and enforcement in practice of the already existing rights conferred on workers by Article 45 TFEU and by Regulation (EU) 492/2011 in the context of freedom of movement for workers.