Equinet Working Paper on Developing Standards for Equality Bodies

Equinet, the network of European equality bodies, has initiated the formulation of standards applicable at both European and, subsequently, national level. Through their overall activities and as a key element thereof, the 46 member organizations, operating in 34 countries, fight against various forms of discrimination using often diverse mandates, powers and tools. Hungary is represented in Equinet by the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and the Equal Treatment Authority.

Through the cooperation of its members, Equinet encourages the formulation of standards which guarantee the efficient operation of bodies established in accordance with the relevant EU directives in the interests of promoting equal treatment. In the future, we shall adopt standards which, being built on EU directives, stipulate the independence of equality bodies, define the conditions, material and personal resources of their effective operation, specify their place in a more comprehensive institutional structure, ensure the powers necessary for their operation, and provide the victims of discrimination with the possibility of having unrestricted access to institutions enforcing the principle of equal treatment.

Through these standards, national organizations fighting discrimination may define their place, the ways and means of their actions, both in their interactions with their governments and in their activities aimed at promoting equal opportunity, relying on norms at European level which give actual content to the minimum guarantees specified in EU directives.

Equinet has prepared a detailed working paper on this subject that can be read herein:

http://www.equineteurope.org/IMG/pdf/equinet_workingpaper_standardsnebs_oct_2016layout.pdf