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Equality bodies: advancing towards more responsive designs?

Equality bodies: advancing towards more responsive designs?
Equality bodies: advancing towards more responsive designs?

The EU has progressively introduced antidiscrimination enforcement measures like the duty to set up Equality Bodies (EBs) that applies to the ground of racial or ethnic origin, among others. Until recently, however, EU law only envisaged vague standards for EBs that allowed a wide range of national configurations. Building on international benchmarks, this paper draws a set of dimensions considered necessary to improve promotion-type EBs responsiveness to discrimination. These dimensions are applied to the British and Spanish EBs to illustrate how the gaps left by EU law may lead to the design of ineffective bodies. The paper argues that EBs can contribute to effectively tackling discrimination if they are designed to be responsive at individual and systemic levels. The 2018 EU Recommendation on Standards for EBs makes a step forward in that direction, but its practical relevance may be limited by its non-binding nature.

Antidiscrimination law, Enforcement, Equality Bodies, Racial Equality Directive, Sociology, Standards
1744-5523
390-412
Lahuerta, Sara Benedi
657ceee7-1cbf-42b5-bd45-e3c12d66e465
Lahuerta, Sara Benedi
657ceee7-1cbf-42b5-bd45-e3c12d66e465

Lahuerta, Sara Benedi (2021) Equality bodies: advancing towards more responsive designs? International Journal of Law in Context, 17 (3), 390-412. (doi:10.1017/S1744552321000240).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The EU has progressively introduced antidiscrimination enforcement measures like the duty to set up Equality Bodies (EBs) that applies to the ground of racial or ethnic origin, among others. Until recently, however, EU law only envisaged vague standards for EBs that allowed a wide range of national configurations. Building on international benchmarks, this paper draws a set of dimensions considered necessary to improve promotion-type EBs responsiveness to discrimination. These dimensions are applied to the British and Spanish EBs to illustrate how the gaps left by EU law may lead to the design of ineffective bodies. The paper argues that EBs can contribute to effectively tackling discrimination if they are designed to be responsive at individual and systemic levels. The 2018 EU Recommendation on Standards for EBs makes a step forward in that direction, but its practical relevance may be limited by its non-binding nature.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 27 May 2021
Published date: 1 September 2021
Keywords: Antidiscrimination law, Enforcement, Equality Bodies, Racial Equality Directive, Sociology, Standards

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 485381
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485381
ISSN: 1744-5523
PURE UUID: 3c619980-5e9e-4179-942e-7a9c1c8c39ca
ORCID for Sara Benedi Lahuerta: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2769-372X

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Date deposited: 05 Dec 2023 17:41
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 23:25

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Contributors

Author: Sara Benedi Lahuerta ORCID iD

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