A Guest post from the Equality and Rights Alliance

Prevention is better than cure. A stitch in time save nine.  Tūs maith leath na hoibre.  How many sayings are there about taking precautionary steps in order to ensure a better outcome?   But how many times do we actually take their salutary lessons into account in planning for our lives?  And it is unfortunately the case that when it comes to the exercise of equality and human rights, attention to preventative strategies is the exception rather than the rule.

Equality & Rights Alliance (ERA) is working to address this issue in regard to the way in which the public sector operates. ERA is a coalition of 171 civil society groups, campaigning to protect and strengthen the equality and human rights infrastructure. In February we launched our ‘Roadmap to a Strengthened Equality & Human Rights Infrastructure in Ireland’, which outlines the steps required to strengthen our equality, human rights and anti-poverty infrastructure. A key recommendation put forward in the roadmap is the introduction of positive duties for both the public and private sectors as an important step in proactively addressing inequality and human rights to prevent discrimination occurring in the first instance rather than responding after discrimination has occurred.

Opening in Programme for Government

The programme for Government 2011 contains a commitment to ‘require all public bodies to take due note of equality and human rights in carrying out their functions’. Such a commitment could be most effectively realized by the introduction of a positive duty for the public sector, including Government Departments, State funded bodies and all public services.

The provision of quality, inclusive, accessible and accountable public services reduces inequalities and advances the fulfillment of human rights across society. This is particularly the case in essential services like health and social care, housing and accommodation, and education. The decisions made by public authorities on budgets and service planning, design, delivery and review can be critical in ensuring that public policies have a positive impact on people’s life chances, particularly the more vulnerable and marginalised.

A positive duty would require public sector organisations to not only take steps to avoid discriminating against employees and service users (in line with current equality legislation), but to actively promote equality and human rights for both service users and employees. The promotion of equality and human rights would become core to how public sector bodies operate as employers, service providers and contractors of goods and services.

Prevent and Promote

The current legislative model is reactive and individualistic in that it requires the occurrence of discrimination before a case can be taken and relies on the willingness and capacity of individuals to take cases. A public sector duty would reinforce the current legislative model through a proactive approach requiring action to prevent the occurrence of discrimination and to promote equality and human rights.

Value for money

Public sector positive duties would ensure value for money.  Attention to equality and human rights outcomes for employees, for example, has been shown to be better for staff productivity and organisational commitment, which in turn has a positive impact on the delivery of services. Reviews of the implementation of public sector duties in Scotland and Northern Ireland indicate that duties enhance the competence of public sector organisations to deliver on their internal and external functions.

The participation of people from the target population who experience inequality or who have human rights concerns is an important element in the implementation of a positive duty. This process enables greater understanding, on the part of the policy-makers and service providers, of the barriers service users experience in accessing and participating in public services and the action required to remove those barriers.

Equality and human rights competence needs to be established across the public sector. There are many examples of good practice by a number of public authorities, however, the lack of statutory basis for this work means that it is piecemeal and reliant on a few committed individuals.  ERA is lobbying to ensure that political commitment to a positive duty is a built-in feature of public service, not just something that is an optional extra.
Read the ERA briefing paper on the case for a positive duty