Abstract
AbstractThe 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.
Highlights
EU law has had a substantial impact in the development of antidiscrimination law in Member States (‘MS’).1 Crucially, it has influenced both substantive provisions and enforcement mechanisms
1 Introduction EU law has had a substantial impact in the development of antidiscrimination law in Member States (‘MS’)
The RED established a duty to set up Equality Bodies (EBs) in the field of ethnic-origin or racial discrimination
Summary
EU law has had a substantial impact in the development of antidiscrimination law in Member States (‘MS’). Crucially, it has influenced both substantive provisions and enforcement mechanisms. The RED established a duty to set up Equality Bodies (EBs) in the field of ethnic-origin or racial discrimination.. The starting point of the analysis are international benchmarks on EBs, which are used to draw a ‘Responsiveness Framework’ that sets the key dimensions for equality watchdogs to effectively support individuals’ reactions to ethnic-origin or racial discrimination and to promote equality in this field (section 2). This framework is used to prove the RED’s inability to yield national implementation approaches leading to the design of responsive EBs (section 3). Most European legal systems are strongly based on reactive and individual enforcement models (Bell, 2008; Fredman, 2012) so, as the section elucidates, the development of standards to boost EBs’ responsiveness (top/bottom) must incorporate these two types of effectiveness (ex ante/ex post) (Benedi Lahuerta, 2014)
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