Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

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Case study: 34
“They turned us down because we could not prove that no-one else was doing the work.
They said if we did a survey [to prove] that nobody else was doing the work [they would be
more likely to fund it].”
Recommendations:
• The methods to collect equalities data should be improved and developed rather
than cancelled. It is important that when government considers reducing its data
collection that it shows ‘due regard’ to equality so that it can effectively monitor
the effect on women of all policies
• There must be greater transparency, including clear guidance on data and
analytical requirements, for the whole of government and common rules to
allow easier sharing of equality data within government, such as standardised
data collection
Human rights and women
The passing of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), which entered into force in 2000, marked
a significant shift in the protection of human rights in the UK. Understanding the nature and
role of the HRA is fundamental to any attempt to assess the UK’s human rights performance,
including compliance with CEDAW. Under the terms of the HRA, all public authorities in the UK
are required to observe the HRA rights in all that they do and in all decisions that they make (the
Section 6 Public Duty). For example women, girls and their advocates have used the Section 6
Duty to achieve various human rights outcomes without litigation such as:
• securing safe accommodation from state services for a woman fleeing domestic violence
and preventing her children being removed from her care on the basis of her homelessness
• gaining extra support from state health services for a woman with suicidal tendencies to
protect her right to life
• challenging the state seeking to evict a woman whose asylum application had failed whilst
she was in hospital giving birth.
There are pockets of good practice of complying with the HRA and using this to ensure women’s
rights are protected, although it remains under-used in policy and practice. This together
with lack of incorporation of CEDAW presents a significant gap between law and practice with
serious risks to the rights of women and girls.
We also believe the strong and effective protections contained in the HRA are now at
substantial risk of being diluted. In 2011 the Coalition Government established a Commission
to investigate the creation of a UK Bill of Rights which on the surface could appear to be a
positive human rights development. However, the Commission, which is poorly resourced
and highly unrepresentative, 35 is carrying out its work during a period when the HRA and the
concept of human rights are under sustained attack by some sections of the UK media and
some political leaders, including the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister. There are repeated
misrepresentations and misreporting of judicial decisions made under the HRA, especially when
these concern marginalised or unpopular groups, including those from lower socio-economic
34. Women’s Resource Centre (2010) In All Our Colours: Lesbian, bisexual and trans women’s services in the UK. WRC: London http://
thewomensresourcecentre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/IAOC.pdf
35. The Commission has undertaken very limited consultation given such a weighty matter (a handful of seminars and two consultation
papers), the Commissioners are not full-time, all are lawyers, white and there is only one woman Commissioner. See Commission on the
Bill of Rights (2012-13) http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/cbr Accessed: 21/03/13
42 Women’s equality in the UK: CEDAW shadow report 2013