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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
76 December-January 2014
INTERNATONAL EU
S
ANDRO Gozi, Secretary of State
for European Policies in Italy,
caught the spirit of it. On behalf of
the Italian Presidency of the European
Council he spoke of a lost decade where
the main reason for establishing the
European Union: the advancing of fun-
damental values such as equality and
human rights, was forgotten. He called
for a return to these guiding values.
Salla Saastamoinen, Director of
Equality at the EU’s Justice Directorate
was equally upbeat and more prac-
tical. She confirmed the European
Commission’s commitment to priori-
tise unblocking of the proposed EU Equal
Treatment Directive. She stated that the
Commission would establish a new High
Level Group on Non-Discrimination,
Equality and Diversity to be operational
in 2015.
This new energy for equality at
European level was evident at a recent
high-level event organised by the
Italian Presidency and the European
Commission. Our own Aodhán
O’Ríordáin, Minister of State at the
Department of Justice and Equality, was
an enthusiastic and articulate partici-
pant. He was one of the first signatories
of the ‘Declaration of Rome’.
The declaration commits the signa-
tories to an impressive range of actions
to advance equality and non-discrimi-
nation. The challenge is to make sure
the declaration is signed by a signifi-
cant number of Member States and to
ensure that it is implemented by those
who sign it.
The declaration is ambitious in its
commitment to ‘mainstreaming’. This
involves taking account of the situation
of groups experiencing inequality when
Government is developing new policies,
plans and programmes. Mainstreaming
aims to ensure the effectiveness of such
policies, plans and programmes for
these groups. It is a powerful tool for
equality that has yet to be implemented
to any adequate extent in Ireland or
elsewhere.
The declaration commits signatories
to:
“Mainstream and promote the
principle of equality and non-dis-
crimination for all groups at risk of
discrimination across relevant govern-
ment departments so that these concerns
are integrated into all policy-making and
policy-implementation, establishing, if
appropriate, structures for this task and
providing training and other support, as
necessary, on human rights and equality-
related issues, to develop mainstreaming
capabilities within the civil service”.
The Minister has a useful starting
point for giving expression to this com-
mitment. The Irish Human Rights and
Equality Commission Act 2014 includes
a requirement on public bodies to have
regard to equality and human rights in
carrying out their functions. Public bod-
ies are required to make an assessment
of equality and human rights issues of
relevance to their functions in their stra-
tegic plans and to set out policies, plans
and actions already in place or to be put
in place to address these issues.
The Minister and his department
need to champion this legal requirement
across all government departments.
The Department of Justice and Equality
should emerge as an enthusiastic exem-
plar in implementing this public-sector
duty. The Minister needs to ensure that a
standard is set in the public sector for an
ambitious and effective implementation
of the public-sector duty, and that neces-
sary supports for achieving this standard
are put in place across the public sector,
if the commitment made in the declara-
tion is to resonate.
The signatories to the declaration
welcomed “the establishment of a High-
Level Group on Non-Discrimination,
Equality and Diversity by the European
Commission” and committed to “support
the development of common objectives
for equality and non-discrimination to
guide and focus the work of this Group”.
Common objectives established at a
European level for equality and non-dis-
crimination could be a valuable driver
for progress on these issues. They must
be wide-ranging enough to embrace
the full spectrum of groups covered by
equal treatment legislation. They must
be ambitious enough to advance progress
on advancing equality for these groups.
We need new forms of co-operation
at European level for equality and non-
discrimination. Ireland should emerge
as an imaginative leader co-operative
challenging of the European Union to
reconnect with its fundamental values
of equality and human rights. •
Rome declaration commits government departments to implement equality and
non-discrimination. By Niall Crowley
EU’s Roman values
A lost decade
for the EU
where the
advancing of
fundamental
values, such as
equality and
human rights,
was forgotten
“
equal
