1. Role and work of EQUINET - EUROPEAN NETWORK OF EQUALITY BODIES Anne Gaspard Equinet Executive Director

2. Equinet – A brief history
: cooperation project by equality bodies
2007: creation of Equinet as a European Network of Specialised Equality Bodies
2008: setting up of Brussels-based Equinet Secretariat
Funding: European Commission (PROGRESS and Rights, Equality and Citizenship programmes) and Member contributions

3. Elisabeth LIER HAUGSETH
Executive Board ( )
Kosana BEKER
Assistant to the Commissioner for Protection of Equality
Commissioner for Protection of Equality, Serbia
Evelyn COLLINS
Chair
Chief Executive
Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, UK (Northern Ireland)
Sarah BENICHOU
Head of ‘Access to Rights and Discriminations’ Unit
Defender of Rights, France
Anna BŁASZCZAK
Deputy Director of the Constitutional and International Law Department
Human Rights Defender, Poland
Patrick CHARLIER
Co-Director
Unia - Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities, Belgium
Sandra KONSTATZKY
Deputy Director
Ombud for Equal Treatment, Austria
Elisabeth LIER HAUGSETH
Head of Law Enforcement Department
The Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud, Norway
Kalliopi LYKOVARDI
Coordinator of Anti-Discrimination Unit
Greek Ombudsman, Greece
Petr POLAK
Head of the Division of Equal Treatment
Public Defender of Rights, Czech Republic

4. ‘Equinet is the European Network of Equality Bodies.
Equinet’s Mission
‘Equinet is the European Network of Equality Bodies.
The Network promotes equality in Europe through supporting and enabling the work of national equality bodies.
It supports equality bodies to be independent and effective as valuable catalysts for more equal societies’.

5. Equinet Members
Network of specialised equality bodies (45 members from 33 European countries)
Specialised equality bodies on the basis of EC Equal Treatment Directives (2000/43/EC; 2004/113/EC; 2006/54/EC)
Diversity among national equality bodies in terms of size, mandate, grounds, structure and experience

6. Functions of Equality Bodies
Functions laid down in EU Directives:
Independent assistance to victims of discrimination
Independent surveys and reports concerning discrimination
Recommendations on discrimination issues
Exchange of information with European bodies
• Wider functions taken on by Equality Bodies:
awareness raising
promotion of good practices

7. Objectives of Equinet
Building capacity and peer support for equality bodies
(staff and organizational capacity)
Contributing to the European Equality Agenda
(through communicating the learning from the work of equality bodies)
Serving as a knowledge and communication hub on equal treatment
Consolidating the network and the position of its members

8. Types of Mandates Types of Functions
Equality Bodies
Equality Bodies combined NHRIs
Equality Bodies combined with Ombudsman institutions
Types of Functions
Tribunal Type Equality Bodies
Promotion Type Equality Bodies
Combined Equality Bodies
(promotion & tribunal)

9. Mandates of Equinet Members

11. Standards for Equality Bodies
Equinet’s Working Paper on Developing Standards for Equality Bodies (15 June 2016)
Goals:
To ensure that equality bodies can implement all of their functions and powers to a scale that can achieve an impact
To protect them from being undermined or diminished in the exercise of their functions

12. Developing Standards for Equality Bodies
Broadest equality, diversity and non-discrimination MANDATE
(Article 19 TFEU, Article 21 EU Charter, multiple discrimination, minimum fields: employment, vocational training, goods & services, education, housing, social protection, and social advantages)
Complete INDEPENDENCE
(own legal personality, stand-alone structure, mandate defined by law, system of accountability, no external pressure and undue interference)
EFFECTIVENESS
(adequate human and financial resources, general powers, specific powers underpinning the type of EB)
INSTITUTIONAL ARCHITECTURE
(cooperation of EB within one country, clear legal basis and adequate resources for EB that are combined with other bodies)

13. 138 Rue Royale / Koningsstraat
EquinetEurope
@EquinetEurope
EQUINET SECRETARIAT
138 Rue Royale / Koningsstraat
B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)