Mainstreaming Equality Conference Report.pdf - Equality Authority

page 12Mainstreaming Equality: Models for Statutory Duty – Conference Reportpage 13Mainstreaming Equality: Models for Statutory Duty – Conference Reportkind of activity that they are going to focuson, we have managed to calm down theemployers and their union.Some private companies and parts of the publicsector have already started this work and theyrealise that this gives them positive results.Our present government has decided to developthe principle of gender budgeting and theministeries are are now in a process where theychoose political areas in which they will makegender sensitive accounts.In my opinion the year 2002 was an importantyear for development on gender equality inNorway.These new statutory duties to workactively and to make written accounts on genderequality will bring us important steps forward.In addition to these new statutory duties, theGovernment have also decided to put forwardto the Parliament a new legislation on quotas inboards of private and public companies.Our Minister for Trade and Industry stated on7th March last year that if the companies donot manage themselves by the end of 2005,there are going to be a stautory duty to have atleast 40% of each sex in every private andpublic board.Mainstreaming Equality –the Statutory Duties inNorthern IrelandBy Evelyn Collins, Chief Executive,Equality Commission for Northern IrelandThank you for the opportunity to participate atthis important event. I am very pleased to behere, both to learn about mainstreamingelsewhere and to share our experiences inNorthern Ireland with the implementation ofthe statutory duties arising from Section 75 ofthe Northern Ireland Act 1998.This Presentation Covers:• the basic mechanics of Section 75, whichplaces a statutory requirement on publicauthorities to carry out their duties with dueregard to the need to promote equalityacross nine grounds and regard to the needto promote good relations in respect of threegrounds.• guidance on the development of equalityschemes and equality impact assessments;• achievements and difficulties in respect ofimplementation to date;• further developments envisaged and areas forimprovement, as identified in the mid-termanalysis being undertaken by theCommission; and• an assessment of the importance of aStatutory Duty as a basis for helping todeliver equalityBy way of background, briefly, you will be awarethat through the 1990s there was a growinginterest internationally in mainstreaming equality,as a complementary approach to the moretraditional methods of tackling discrimination,such as anti-discrimination legislation. Manydefinitions have developed over the years,perhaps most simply put mainstreaming meansputting equality considerations at the heart ofdecision-making and service delivery.The following definition of mainstreaming istaken from the Commission’s publication, theGuide to the Statutory Duties, published in 2000.‘The (re)organisation, improvement, development andevaluation of policy processes, so that a(n) ….Equality perspective is incorporated in all policies atall levels and at all stages, by the actors normallyinvolved in policy-making.’Experience in Northern Ireland, with a voluntaryapproach to mainstreaming throughGovernment’s Policy Appraisal and FairTreatment Guidelines during the 1990s, waspoor.Their status was mainly advisory and,indeed, they tended to be ignored by somestatutory bodies.The response to this, through the work of thevarious equality bodies in existence then, theCommittee on the Administration of Justice andothers including the Standing AdvisoryCommission on Human Rights, was to call for anequality duty to be put on a statutory footing.The Government’s response to the StandingAdvisory Commission on Human Rights’ reviewof employment equality, issued in March 1998 asa White Paper Partnerships for Equality was toaccept SACHR’s recommendation on a statutoryequality duty.The White Paper also mootedmerging the various equality Commissions into asingle body, with a view to ensuring the effectiveimplementation of the duty.The whole issuethen got swept up in the political discussionsleading to the Belfast Agreement of April 1998, acentral theme of which, of course, relates toequality and human rights.The Agreement included a commitment fromGovernment to create a statutory duty onpublic authorities in Northern Ireland and thiswas given a legislative basis in the NorthernIreland Act 1998 – Section 75 and Schedule 9.The new Equality Commission, also created bythe Northern Ireland Act, was given a key roleto keep under review the effectiveness of theduties imposed by Section 75, to offer advice topublic authorities and others in connection withthose duties and to carry out specific functionsconferred on it by Schedule 9.1. Basic Mechanics of the DutiesTurning to the duty itself, Section 75 sets out thefollowing: