seminar

On 4 October 2011 the fourth yearly seminar of the Network was organised in cooperation with the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of Gender Equality (managed by the Faculty of Law at Utrecht University). The seminar attracted 158 participants, representatives of the European Commission, EU Member States governments, Equality Bodies and European NGOs. The feedback from the participants, collected through a satisfaction survey (PDF 76 kB) resulted in a goodating.

The following issues were discussed:

1. Did you come across examples in your legal practice of ‘additive’ or’ compound’ discrimination and ‘intersectionality’? If so, how were these cases addressed in court and/or by an equality body?
2. Does, in your view, the notion of multiple discrimination provide a useful tool and have added value in order to address in courts forms of discrimination involving more than one ground of discrimination only?

The following issues were discussed:

1. Should the prima facie rule be redesigned in such a way that it would no longer constitute an obstacle to victims and their representatives bringing cases to court.
2. Countries outside the EU, such as Australia, have traditionally looked at EU practice but are there valid models or alternatives for the EU to get its own inspiration from?

The following issues were discussed:

1. How could reasonable accommodation apply to disabled persons in other areas beyond employment (e.g. education and access to and supply of goods and services)?
2. Looking at the European trends, could the notion of reasonable accommodation as developed for disability be applied to the other grounds of discrimination?
3. What can we learn, or draw inspiration from, as regards US and Canadian experiences?

For the second time the yearly seminar of the Network was organised in cooperation with the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of Gender Equality (managed by the Faculty of Law of Utrecht University).  The seminar, which took place in Brussels on 6 October 2009, attracted 185 participants, representatives of the European Commission, EU Member States governments, Equality Bodies and European NGOs.

The objective of the Legal Seminar was to provide the participants with an opportunity to exchange views on the transposition and implementation of EU equality and anti-discrimination Directives and to discuss particular issues of discrimination. The programme (PDF 81 kB) of the seminar included both plenary sessions and parallel workshops.

The feedback from the satisfaction survey (PDF 183 kB) resulted in a good overall rating of the organisation, the speakers and the discussion in the workshops.