Racial Equality Benchmark Project
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NICEM monitor and promote compliance with binding international and domestic human rights and racial equality standards emanating from the United Nations, European Union, Council of Europe and domestic law. NICEM have engaged extensively with a range of UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies, where shadow reporting processes have been utilised to mobilise and empower BME community members to understand their rights and how to exercise and enforce them.
In addition to forming Delegations for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 2011 and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in June 2013 comprised of BME community members, NICEM have also submitted high impact shadow reports to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) through which we have identified inequalities and gaps in protection afforded to ethnic minorities on the ground.
NICEM’s second Annual Human Rights and Racial Equality Benchmarking Report is structured primarily around UN Concluding Observations issued to the UK and the Departmental Audits of Inequality and Action Plans in order to benchmark advancement in racial equality, key inequalities and gaps in protection for ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Human Rights and Racial Equality in Northern Ireland
- OFMdFM should introduce as a matter of urgency a robust and comprehensive Racial Equality Strategy and adequately resourced Action Plan, with additional Inter-Departmental Action Plans, with targets
- The NI Executive should consolidate and strengthen racial equality legislation to bring protections in line with international standards and parallel protections under the Equality Act 2010 (GB)
- The recommendations issued by the Equality Commission in its recent position paper on racial equality should be rapidly implemented[1]
- The Northern Ireland Assembly should establish a Standing Committee on Human Rights and Equality to provide pre-legislative scrutiny and monitor compliance with international standards (i.e. complementary to Joint Committee on Human Rights at Westminster Parliament)
- A robust and inclusive Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland should be introduced to promote compliance recommendations issued by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in addition to the Council of Europe and a series of UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies
- The OFMdFM Minority Ethnic Development Fund should continue to support BME and local groups to the next phase by setting action and target on the new Racial Equality Strategy
- The northern Ireland Executive should consider to take a more active role on the immigration and asylum matters which routinely interfere with transferred matters (i.e. health, housing, employment, criminal justice) to the Northern Ireland Assembly[2]
2. Enforcement Mechanisms - Public Sector Equality Duty
- The enforcement mechanisms should be reformed for the public sector equality duty under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act. Schools should also be designated as public authorities.
- The Equality Commission should be more proactive in exercising its statutory duties under paragraph 10 and 11 of Schedule 9 of the Northern Ireland Act to investigate procedural and substantive breaches of Equality Schemes.
- The Statutory Investigations Committee should operate with greater transparency to ensure complainants are informed at every stage of the decision making process
3. Multiple Discrimination and Intersectionality
- Intersectionality and multiple discrimination should be recognised under domestic law and mainstreamed into policy and practice
- Government Strategies which seek to address human rights and social inequalities (e.g. OFMdFM Racial Equality Strategy, NIHE Homelessness Strategy, OFMdFM Gender Equality Strategy etc) should recognise multiple identity issues and the implementation of associated Action Plans should adopt a joined up, coordinated and inter-agency approach.
4. Racist Hate Crime
- The EU Victims’ Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, protection and support of victims of crime must be transposed into domestic law by 2015
- Specific race crime legislation should be introduced incorporating an offence of racially aggravated crime. [1]
- Preventative measures taken to combat hate crime must include longer term and holistic initiatives including sustained community engagement and educational programmes to challenge myths and misconceptions.
- The DoJ Code of Practice governing the Appointment of Independent Members to Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs) and District PCSPs should be amended to include targeted recruitment measures to improve BME representation
- The Working Group tasked with Good Relations under Together: Building a United Community (TBUC) should adopt ‘tackling racial prejudice and intolerance’ as a standing item.
- Criminal justice agencies should adopt integrated measures to improve clearance rates for racist hate crime which currently stand at 8.3 per cent in order to restore confidence of ethnic minority communities in reporting hate crime to the PSNI[2].
- Victim’s information rights should be respected and special protection measures should be adopted on the basis of individualised assessment[3].
- The limited awareness and uptake of the NIHE Hate Incident Practical Action (HIPA) Scheme, and the lack of rapid referrals by the PSNI may cause delays in essential repairs, leaving the homes of victims vulnerable and insecure. The NIHE and the PSNI need to fully implement the HIPA scheme within their internal structures in order to ensure maximum uptake and compliance with commitments in the NIHE Audit of Inequalities Action Plan.
- The Department of Justice should review their Criminal Damage Compensation Scheme to improve its accessibility to victims of racist hate crime.
5. Racist Hate Speech, Negative Stereotypes and Xenophobic Sentiment in the Media
- The UK Government should adopt recommendations contained in CERD General Recommendation no. 35 on the ‘Combating Racist hate speech’ including the promotion of internal accountability structures and codes of practice across public and private media and press outlets in order to remedy deficiencies in the scope and effectiveness of the Press Complaints Commission and Royal Charter.
- There is minimal awareness of the scope of application of incitement to racial and religious hatred under the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 across criminal justice agencies. Guidance should be produced and disseminated to CJSNI actors.
- The inflammatory and Islamophobic statements issued by the First Minister provide an impetus to strengthen the Ministerial Code of the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure it provides commensurate accountability with Ministerial Codes adopted in Wales and Scotland.
- The UK Government should withdraw its interpretative declaration under Article 4 CERD and ratify and rigorously implement the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime 2004, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems
6. Violence Against Women
- The UK Government should immediately ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (i.e. Istanbul Convention)
- A dedicated BME women’s sub-group to the Regional Strategy Group on Domestic and Sexual Violence should be established with BME community representatives and relevant agencies.
- Data recorded with respect to ethnicity and violence against women must be improved. The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) should seek to record disaggregated data on the ethnicity or nationality of offenders and victims of domestic and sexual violence
- In addition to the Multi-Agency Practice Guidelines on FGM, The DHSSPS should issue mandatory reporting guidelines on Female genital Mutilation for health professionals in acute hospitals and GP clinics across Northern Ireland. The Public Prosecution Service should formulate an Action Plan with performance indicators to increase prosecutions for FGM related offences in line with the Crown Prosecution Service
- The Ministry of Justice and Department of Justice should ensure that forced marriage is criminalised.
- The evidential requirements attached to the Domestic Violence Rule under Immigration Rules are exclusionary and should be amended to ensure the burden of proof is a reasonable threshold for victims to meet.
- Due to the prohibitive cost of applications for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), fee waivers should be granted to all victims rather than those capable of demonstrating that they are ‘destitute’ and ‘totally reliant on third party support’.
7. Human Trafficking
- NICEM note with concern the lack of reference to a UK wide Rapporteur on human trafficking in the Department of Justice Human Trafficking Action Plan 2014/15, despite calls for a Legislative Consent Motion to extend the scope of the Rapporteur under the Modern Slavery Bill to Northern Ireland[4]. An LCM should be brought forward without delay to enhance the independence and statutory investigation powers of the Rapporteur required under EU Directive 2011/36/EU.
- The National Referral Mechanism should be strengthened to ensure decisions affecting trafficking victims are made entirely independently of asylum and immigration decisions and specialist support or victims is provided on a statutory footing in line with the proposed Scottish Survivors Service.
- The NI Executive should comply with the recommendation from the UN Rapporteur on Human Trafficking on the seizure of assets from criminal gangs involved in trafficking and ring-fencing of criminal proceeds for victim support
8. Employment
- The UK Government should transpose Directives 2009/52 and 2004/81 and ratify both the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990) and the ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143).
- Reform of race legislation should incorporate enhanced protections for agency workers and curtail exploitation of seafarers not protected under the transit visa system.
- Civil Legal Aid should be made available in industrial tribunals in cases of racial harassment or discrimination in employment
- The remit of the Home Office Gangmasters Licensing Authority should be extended to cover all labour providers (i.e. catering, administration, retail, fisheries, food processing etc)
- The UKBA should reduce the fees applicable to Tier 2 work permit holders and their families to reduce the excessive financial toll on vulnerable migrants at risk of poverty
- The atypical working patterns and chronic job insecurity experienced by many low skilled migrant workers often interferes with childcare responsibilities. Targeted recommendations issued in our ‘Believe in Childcare’ research should be implemented as a priority. Childcare should be available on a subsidised and statutory basis and the Bright Start Strategic Framework should be updated to address the specific needs of BME carers.
9. Housing and Social Security
- The Ad Hoc Committee on Equality and Human Rights should seek to mitigate the differential adverse impacts of welfare reform on EEA migrants which has been documented in Great Britain, including lower rates of pay or the imposition of extra restrictions or requirements[5].
- The newly imposed restrictions under the Habitual Residency test should be removed in order to comply with Regulations EC /987/2009 and EC/883/2004.
- Measures should be taken to investigate further the potentially high percentage of negative decisions overturned on appeal regarding access to social security by BME individuals.
- The Department for Social Development (DSD) and Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) should rapidly implement recommendations issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing in 2014.
- The OFMdFM Crisis Fund should be reinstated as a matter of urgency to assist individuals with insecure immigration status and no recourse to public funds, to mitigate the risk of homelessness and destitution.
- The NIHE should consider revising the criteria for Full Duty Applicant (FDA) status (i.e. eligibility for homelessness assistance) in line with the Scottish model which does not require individuals to satisfy ‘unintentional homelessness’ and ‘priority need’ criteria.
- In line with recommendations from the UN Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, the Vagrancy Act 1935 should be repealed to decriminalise begging in order to protect vulnerable categories including Roma community members, children, and those with complex needs and mental health issues[6].
- The Housing (Anti-Social Behaviour) Bill 2014 should also be drastically amended to ensure recipients of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders are not automatically denied access to social housing and homelessness assistance, and ensure that landlords are not entitled to expedite repossession proceedings without granting a tenant Article 6 rights under the ECHR.
- The DSD and NIHE should work to ensure that immigration monitoring duties are not imposed on social landlords, and the pilot proposed within the Immigration Act should not be extended to Northern Ireland.
- The NIHE BME Housing Forum should be reconvened and should adopt an annual action plan
10. Health
- The DHSSPS, HSCB and HSCTs should update their Audits of Inequality and Action Plans to focus attention on health inequalities and specific needs of BME communities including:
- BME mental health
- BME maternal health
- BME older people - health needs and respite provision
- Traveller and Roma community health needs
- The Provision of Health Services to Persons Not Ordinarily Resident Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 should be revised to ensure those with insecure immigration status are able to access primary and secondary health services, including but not limited to maternity services, mental health services and dementia services
- The DHSSPS should formulate an action plan on addressing the barriers that ethnic minority women experience when accessing healthcare.
- The Northern Ireland Assembly should seek to limit the scope of application of the Immigration Act in relation to transferred matters;
- DHSSPS should ensure access to primary and secondary healthcare is not curtailed on the basis of insecure immigration status.
11. Education
- DENI should implement the recommendations issued by the Equality Commission NI on combating inequalities in education for BME pupils[7]
- Schools should be designated as public authorities for the purposes of Section 75 to strengthen protection of BME pupils from racial discrimination and harassment.
- DENI should impose a mandatory monitoring duty on schools to collect disaggregated data on incidents of racist bullying in order to strengthen the effectiveness of responses and intervention[8].
- The implementation of the DENI Traveller Child in Education Action Framework and Traveller Education Support Service (TESS) Delivery Plan should be monitored through annual progress reports.
- Additional measures should be implemented by the Department of Education to address the prevalence and persistence of racist bullying in schools and the disproportionately low attendance rates, high levels of illiteracy and educational underattainment experienced by Traveller and Roma children.
- The Department of Education should seek to ring-fence funds for newcomer children and establish a contingency fund for new arrivals not captured the Aggregated Budget[9].
- The performance of the regional Inclusion and Diversity Service (IDS) should be evaluated due to ongoing shortcomings in meeting targets[10]
- Education and Library Boards should ensure that disaggregated data is collected on the composition of Boards of Governors, and affirmative action measures should be considered to promote the representation and inclusion of BME parents
12. Specific Vulnerable Groups
Irish Traveller, Gypsy and Roma Communities
- The Thematic Sub-Group on Traveller Issues under the OFMdFM Racial Equality Panel should be reconvened and include Traveller representatives. Additional measures should be taken to improve Traveller participation in public and political life and improve rates of employment and economic activity, particularly for Traveller women.
- The NIHE should comply with the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 and ensure that the socio-economic conditions and basic living standards on halting sites are drastically improved to guarantee access to electricity, clean water and adequate sanitation and washing facilities in line with the right to an adequate standard of living
- The NIHE should publish the findings of the 2014 Comprehensive Traveller Needs Assessment .
Asylum Seekers and Refugees
- The current publically funded ESOL and essential skills provision for refugees and asylum seekers should be augmented with a contribution towards childcare costs and transport expenses. DEL should also provide additional funding for accredited training and entry into further education.
- MLAs should be authorised to correspond with UKBA/Home Office on asylum and immigration matters arising from their constituencies, not just MPs.
- The NI Executive, Departments and relevant public authorities (i.e. Central Procurement Directorate, Procurement Board) should ensure the legal and policy framework governing public procurement improves accountability and safeguards compliance with UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and international human rights standards[11].
References
[1] Equality Commission NI, Strengthening Protection Against Racial Discrimination in Northern Ireland: Recommendations for Change (ECNI January 2014) http://www.equalityni.org/ECNI/media/ECNI/Publications/Delivering%20Equality/Raceequalityproposalsforlawreform14-01-14.pdf
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-26212043
[1] McVeigh, ‘Race and Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland: Towards a Blueprint for the Eradication of Racism from the CJSNI’ (Jan 2013)
[2] PSNI progress report on racist hate crime - All Party Group on Ethnic Minority Communities (13/05/14) Figures from January-April 2014, (i.e. see comments by Chief Inspector Emma Bond from Policing with the Community and Chief Superintendent Mark McKeown)
[3] http://nihrc.green17.tv/uploads/publications/103141_NIHRC_Racist_Hate_Crime_4_Combined_%282%29.pdf
[4] This should promote compliance with Article 29(4) of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and Article 19 of EU Directive 2011/36/EU.
[5]Clauses 8-10 (calculation of benefits), clause 22 (work requirement), clauses 61-63, and clause 69 (access to housing benefit) and clause 76-94 (multiple discrimination issues surrounding introduction of PIP on migrants with a disability) of the Welfare Reform Bill should be redrafted to avoid discrimination against ethnic minorities.
[6]A recent Freedom of Information (FoI) request revealed that 64 prosecutions for begging offences occurred in 2012/13.
[7]Equality Commission NI, Racial Equality Policy - Priorities and Recommendations (ECNI August 2013)
http://www.equalityni.org/ECNI/media/ECNI/Publications/Delivering%20Equality/Keyinequalitiesineducation2008.pdf
Equality Commission NI, Every Child and Equal Child: An Equality Commission Statement on Key Inequalities in Education and a Strategy for Intervention (ECNI 2008)
http://www.equalityni.org/ECNI/media/ECNI/Publications/Delivering%20Equality/Keyinequalitiesineducation2008.pdf
[8] Successful pilot by NI Anti Bullying Forum in 2008
[9] New arrivals not captured in the Census from the previous academic year are not captured in the Aggregated School Budget for each Traveller, Roma and Newcomer Pupil
[10]E.g. minimal use of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) by schools in monitoring progress on meeting the needs of newcomer children
[11] Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Public Procurement and Human Rights in Northern Ireland (NIHRC, November 2013)
http://www.nihrc.org/documents/NIHRC%20Public%20Procurement%20and%20Human%20Rights.pdf
