Disability commission calls for equality law harmonisation

Failure
to have harmonised equality laws in place prior to the creation of a new
Commission for Equalities and Human Rights (CEHR) would ‘cause rancour and
division’ within the new body from its inception, according to the Disability
Rights Commission (DRC).

The
DRC joins the Employers Forum on Age and the Commission for Racial Equality in
delivering damning verdicts on government plans to create one new body to deal
with all discrimination issues.

The
Government plans to close the existing commissions covering race, sex equality
and disability and to merge them along with new strands of religion, age and
sexual orientation, which the DRC also said should have a stronger legal
enforcement role. 

Speaking
after the submission of the DRC’s response to the Government’s consultation on
its White Paper Fairness for All, DRC chairman Bert Massie said: “There is much
in the White Paper to be applauded – and the Government has gone a long way to
meeting some of the considerable concerns that we rightly held over the
proposals for the new commission. 

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But
he added: “What’s good in the White Paper is compromised by what is missing.
The absence of proposals for harmonised equality legislation remains a critical
concern and a potential source of rancour and division.”

By Michael Millar