Saturday, January 26, 2013

Equality commission loses its office, but is it losing its purpose?

Move

following cuts from ? 70m to ? 17 million, which has fueled concerns about the government's rights

Personal

the Commission for Equality and Human Rights on Friday began moving off shore offices glass front ones they have occupied since the creation of the agency in 2007 to smaller premises in a block of concrete fashion, has recently been proposed demolition.

downscaling radical development over London, close to the town hall in the city, with its panoramic views of the Thames, Fleet Street building, described in development plans as "boring office block modernist" echoes the energy and the reduction of the budget equalities organization.

Maria Miller, Secretary of Culture, which also includes women and equalities brief, the Commission said this month would receive a base budget of ? 17 million per year, a significant reduction in the ? 70m awarded each year at the beginning of the work. A small council of commissioners was appointed, marking, Miller said, "the beginning of a new era for the ECHR".

The new offices have offices for 207 full-time members of staff, less than half of the original model 525 and the relocation will save ? 1 million per year.

Although there is a broad consensus among activists equalities that the organization has had a difficult start and the necessary reform, supporters of the institution concerned that the huge cuts in the budget reflects the impatience of the Government in the calendar equalities. Activists say that parallel changes in equalities legislation debated in the Lords, who say reducing the power of the ECHR and eliminate new obligations on public bodies to act to prevent discrimination.

The office move is the latest sad chapter in the short existence, but with the problems of the commission, which was characterized by persistent problems of management (the CEA was doubting their accounts three times), the infighting and pernicious sudden resignation of several commissioners after disagreements over the management of the organization.

Herman Ouseley, the eminent lawyer of racial discrimination, which has been a long-term critical of the organization, said last year that it was a "tragedy" that most of the people that has been created to support if you unaware ceased to exist.

Several people close to the organization indicate that there appears to be a deliberate attempt to give the body a low profile reformed, noting that many members of the new board and the new President, O'Neill, has less background in the countryside.

Miller acknowledged the change in style and stated that the ECHR should avoid being a campaign or lobbying organization. "Of course, we need passionate lobbyists in the field of equalities, but it is not the role of the ECHR should not be the main emotional campaigns. Instead, its role is to be an expert witness [ and] to make recommendations based on the facts, "he said in a written response to Guardian questions.

Many believe that the transition to a smaller, more discreet building and even the reduction of the budget will be good for the organization.

ECHR CEO, Mark Hammond, also admitted that the ECHR has not worked well to date. "In the past, the Commission has tried to do too much - trying to provide work in a wide range of issues that were not as good as we should prioritize our work - take a good look at:. A) What is equality and human rights through the main countries, b) where we can add value and achieve real change, "he said, and written responses. "The cup of our funding has focused more on making it more factual, the main concern."

Veale is optimistic about the future of the ECHR, but he acknowledged that he had become vulnerable. "We are aware of the proximity of the edge is," he said. "There was a ninth life. Probably just still there because the government realized that it had an obligation under the law of human rights and European law to keep it. I wonder if if it was not for that, just would have been liquidated. "

The ECHR renovated
have no responsibility for the execution of an advice line discrimination, since this function was handed over to the government office equalities. This office has outsourced to a private company Sitel, which has launched the Equality Advisor and Support Service Helpline.



"after the ECtHR by the public in a meaningful way," said Neil Crowther, an independent consultant who was formerly the director of the Human Rights Program of the European Convention on Human Rights and Rights of Persons with Disabilities programs.
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