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unlawful discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and promote good relations between persons of different ethic groups. Race Equality Schemes set out how the organisation will: - - - - - - Assess whether their functions and policies are relevant to race equality Monitor their policies to see how they affect race equality Assess and consult on policies they are proposing to introduce Publish the results of their consultations, monitoring and assessments Make sure that the public have access to the information and services they provide Train their staff on the new duties. In Ireland, no such duty exists as yet. The National Action Plan Against Racism refers to the Working Group on Equality Proofing, which had been in operation prior to the National Action Plan and which has made some important progress in this area. However, equality proofing is not mandatory and is not widely used. The National Action Plan Against Racism contains a commitment to consider a new statutory ‘positive duty’ requiring public bodies to promote equality of opportunity and commits to a review of existing models and legal frameworks for positive duties in other jurisdictions will take place, including the statutory duty that operates in Northern Ireland. 40_Chaney, P & T. Rees (2004), The Northern Ireland Section 75 Duty: An International Perspective. Paper presented to the Section 75 Equality Duty – An Operational Review Conference, Belfast. 41_Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2005), A Racial Equality Strategy for Northern Ireland, p.42. 42_House of Commons, Official Report, 18 November 1998, cols. 1069–1070 (Mr. Murphy). ‘Positive action’ on the other hand is legislated for in each of the three jurisdictions under consideration. The Section 75 duty has been described by some as ‘mainstreaming’. 40 Under the Racial Equality Strategy for Northern Ireland, positive action is seen as a component of mainstreaming rather than a separate approach: “ Mainstreaming involves the application of equality proofing, guidelines, participation of groups experiencing racism, positive actions, data collection, proactive monitoring and impact assessment.” 41 (Emphasis added) During the parliamentary debate in the House of Commons on the legislation it was clear that Section 75 does not preclude positive action and in fact means that public authorities are bound to have regard to the need for affirmative action when considering their duty under the clause”. 42 In Ireland the Equality Act 2004 allows positive action to be taken in respect of all of the discriminatory grounds, including the ‘race’ ground; whilst in Scotland, the Race Relations Act does not allow positive discrimination except to prevent discrimination, or to overcome past discrimination. International and EU Policy Context 2005 was also the first year that Ireland’s compliance with the UN CERD Convention was reviewed. Ireland ratified the convention in 2000, whereas the United Kingdom had ratified in 1969 and so has been working towards compliance for some years. The CERD convention is the key international instrument on racial discrimination and is explicitly referred to in the Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland strategies. An additional international human rights instrument of importance to tackling racial discrimination and inequality is the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action from the World Conference against Racism which was held in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The UN General Assembly Resolutions 56/266 and 57/195 call for comprehensive implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action. The Durban Declaration is particularly relevant here as one of the recommendations was that States establish and implement national policies and action plans to combat racism. Again both Northern Ireland’s Racial Equality Strategy and Ireland’s National Action Plan Against Racism make explicit reference to the Durban Declaration.
improving government service delivery to minority ethnic groups Chapter 1: Context 30_31 43_European Commission (2005), A Common Agenda for Integration – Framework for the Integration of Third- Country Nationals in the European Union, p.8. 44_Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, (2005) Planning for Diversity, the National Action Plan Against Racism, p.62. 45_www.immi.gov.au/ multicultural/australian/ index.htm 46_www.eoc.wa.gov.au The European Union has been progressively working towards the elimination of racial discrimination at a European level, with significant legislative progress in recent years. Most significant is the EU Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29th June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. This emerged following the Amsterdam Treaty which entered into force in May 1999. The treaty introduced Article 13 whereby the Community acquired the power to take legislative action to combat racial discrimination. The Commission proposed its package of measures to implement Article 13 in November 1999, including legislation prohibiting racial discrimination throughout the EU. The legislation was speedily adopted by the Council in June 2000. The directive established a binding framework for prohibiting racial discrimination throughout the EU. It defines direct and indirect discrimination and prohibits discrimination in various areas including employment, social security, health care, education, provision of goods and services and housing. The directive also provides for redress for racial discrimination and shifts the burden of proof to respondents. The EU is also increasingly influencing integration policy. The Justice and Home Affairs Council of 19th November 2004 adopted Common Basic Principles to underpin a European framework on integration. Principles identified as essential to integration for migrants include: employment; basic knowledge of the host society’s language, history, and institutions; education; and “access to institutions, as well as to public and private goods and services, on an equal basis to national citizens and in a non-discriminatory way”. 43 The EU has emphasised the importance of integration being linked to broader EU employment and social cohesion policy, including the European Employment Strategy, National Action Plans Against Poverty and Social Inclusion and the structural funds, EQUAL, URBAN II, and a range of education and youth programmes. 44 The Council of Europe is another European body working towards the elimination of racial discrimination, for example by establishing the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in 1993. ECRI monitors and reports on countries’ performance in relation to combating racism. Ireland, the UK and Sweden were the only EU countries not to put in place transitional arrangements concerning admission to the labour market for citizens of the EU Accession States who joined the EU in May 2004. As the individual chapters on the research findings from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Ireland will outline, each jurisdiction has received significant numbers of migrant workers as a result. International and European Developments One of the objectives of this paper is to identify developing practices in service provision to minority ethnic groups. The bulk of the research has focused on Northern Ireland, Scotland and Ireland; however, it is useful to consider research already undertaken at an international and European level that may be of interest. One recent example of emerging practice in relation to government service provision to minority ethnic groups comes from Western Australia. Australia is a culturally and linguistically diverse society with substantial inward migration and an Indigenous population. According to the 2001 Census, 23% of Australians were born overseas, and an additional 20% had at least one parent born overseas. Approximately 2% of the population is Aboriginal. 45 In December 2004, the State Government of Western Australia launched the Policy Framework for Substantive Equality (Policy Framework) which addresses systemic racism within the public sector and is designed to ensure that all people have access to a public service that best meets the different needs of the diverse community. 46 This policy framework has been endorsed by key Australian NGOs as an example of best practice:
Page 1: IMPROVING GOVERNMENT SERVICE DELIVE
Page 4 and 5: About this publication This is the
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Demographics Until data from the fo
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Figure 8: PPSNs Poland 103,177 55%
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Prospects for ongoing strong immigr
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Both the Equal Employment Act 1998
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Methodology The NPAR will undoubted
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In hospitals the provision of inter
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Awareness of legislation and policy
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e expected to pay the non-EU fee, w
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Interviews carried out with employe
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Official agencies and policies in t
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Targeting The need to target ethnic
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Employment By and large Irish immig
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(continued from previous page) The
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An anti-racism intercultural progra
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Conclusions The Irish statutory sec
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Chapter 5: Conference Discussions 1
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and inequality and black and ethnic
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Understanding and tackling racism w
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As discussed above, there is a lack
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It is important that training on se
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- - - - - - - Existing UK migration
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“ …the four As that the previou
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Appendix 1: Research Project Struct
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Appendix 2: List of Organisations I
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Appendix 3: Recommended Data Collec
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Glossary 166_167 Glossary 267_Scott
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Acronyms 170_171 Acronyms280 280_In
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This research has been carried out
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