30 Equinet member equality bodies have a mandate in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people (LGBTI people) in employment and 22 in the provision of goods and services. This mandate includes providing support to victims of discrimination, conducting surveys, making recommendations and publishing reports on issues relating to discrimination.

A joint statement by Equinet, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions and the Council of Europe.

In their question to the European Commission, MEPs Raül Romeva i Rueda (Verts/ALE), Sophia in ’t Veld (ALDE), Claude Moraes (S&D), Lívia Járóka (PPE), Michael Cashman (S&D), Zita Gurmai (S&D), Emine Bozkurt (S&D), Kinga Göncz (S&D) addressed the issue of "independent and effective equality bodies to ensure the implementation and impact of EU equal treatment legislation".

Equinet has released its Annual Report for the year 2012. Adopting a new design compared to previous years, the report aims to highlight the need for standards to support the work of equality bodies and key insights from the work of equality bodies in tackling under-reporting through good communication strategies and practices. It also illustrates how our network works, what are our main objectives, and the main activities and milestones from 2012.

This publication was prepared by Equinet’s Working Group on Communication Strategies and Practices. The working group is mandated to explore how national equality bodies can share information on and enhance their strategic approach to communication activities and build capacity in this area. This working group serves as a platform for discussion, reflection and action on the effective development of communication strategies and activities by equality bodies. It focuses on the work of members in raising awareness of equality, rights and obligations among the general public and the groups experiencing discrimination.

This High Level Seminar was held on 27 June 2013 in Brussels and is the first event dedicated to gender equality organised by Equinet following the incorporation of the work of the former European Commission led Network of Gender Equality Bodies.

In a context of under-reporting of discrimination, prevention of discrimination becomes important for equality bodies. They have to give some priority to supporting service providers to develop and implement good equality policies and practices. Equality bodies can impact on a wider range of service users by working proactively with service providers to develop their equality competence.

The seminar focused on discussions on the application of the Race Equality Directive and the General Framework Directive