SIXTH INTERNATIONAL METROPOLIS CONFERENCE

WORKSHOP 20: Anti-discrimination legislation

Tuesday, November 27, 2001
14:00 - 15:30

ORGANIZERS

Paul Lappalainen
JD, JK
National Integration Office, Norrköping, Sweden
email paul.lappalainen@integrationsverket.se

Dr. Bernhard Perchinig
European Centre for Welfare Policy and Research, UN, Vienna, Austria
email perchinig@euro.centre.org

Jacky W. Nieuwboer,
MA, LLM
National Bureau against Racial Discrimination, Rotterdam, Netherlands,
email nieuwboer@lbr.nl

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

The focus of this workshop will be on the way the legislation for counteracting discrimination is organised in various countries (which organisations/supervisory authorities deal with this issue?) and the different legislative models used in different countries; what are their advantages and disadvantages?

Some examples of legislation are the continental criminal law approach (such
as the French legislation) and the civil law approach (such as the British
legislation). The Dutch legislation contains some aspects of both (criminal law elements in its Penal Code and civil law elements in its General Act on Equal Treatment). A broader perspective is gained when we look at US legislation (the Constitution with its Amendments and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, amended in 1991), the relevant Canadian legislation (its Human Rights Act, improving on US legislation, was a model for some of the Dutch laws) and the new South African legislation (where a Human Rights Act model was chosen instead of a race discrimination act,which some might have considered to be more natural).

Against this background it may be interesting to look at specific issues,
such as preferential treatment, affirmative action, the burden of proof, and contract compliance, i.e. the possibility for local and national governments to incorporate into their contract with third parties a clause saying that they should comply with the applicable anti-discrimination laws. How do various countries deal with these issues?

This comparative analysis of anti-discrimination legislation is today an
important issue because of the EU anti-discrimination directives which
require all EU Member States to adopt national legislation that fulfils
certain minimum requirements within the next two years. Today there is at
most one country that in theory currently fulfils these minimum
requirements. This means that such a seminar can be of substantial practical
interest in the legislative processes that must take place.

STRUCTURE

The structure of the workshop will be as follows. Paul Lappalainen will give an introduction (ten minutes), devoted to EU-law (mainly the directives)and the changes that will result. Bernhard Perchinig will then go into existing institutions dealing with antidiscrimination law (30 minutes). Paul Lappalainen and Jacky Nieuwboer will then discuss current trends including issues that indicate effectiveness. They will, among other things, go into the American/Canadian legal system and its influence on the continent, such as the Dutch Equal Treatment Act, in which various grounds of discrimination are covered at the same time (horizontal approach). This will be compared to the system of various laws covering various grounds of discrimination (vertical approach, for example in the UK and Sweden)(30 minutes). 100 minutes will be spent on a discussion, chaired by Paul Lappalainen and Bernhard Perchinig. Contributions by various participants from different countries are most welcome.

DURATION: 2 sessions of 1.5 hours each.

PARTICIPANTS
Contact: J. Charlesworth, Commission on Racial Equality, UK