Purpose:
Galway City Council (GCC) is progressing a planned and systematic approach to equality and human rights. This is based on developing an internal infrastructure to drive its implementation of a statutory duty on public bodies to have regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, promote equality, and protect human rights.
Stimulus/Rationale:
A planned and systematic approach by an organisation to equality and human rights seeks to sustain a focus on equality and human rights that is integral to its strategic planning cycle. It enables the organisation to move beyond merely implementing a set of discrete actions on specific equality and human rights issues.
Process:
Foundation
The initiative is rooted in the Irish Human Rights Equality and Human Rights Act 2014 which makes provision for the statutory duty on public bodies. This requires public bodies to make an evidence-based assessment of the equality and human rights issues relevant to all their functions, take steps to ensure these issues are addressed as they prepare workplans and internal policies, and report on the progress made in addressing these issues.
The duty covers people in poverty and social exclusion as well as those covered by the grounds under equal treatment legislation: gender (including trans people); civil status; family status (including lone parents and carers; age; disability; sexual orientation; race; religion; and membership of the Traveller community.
Progress
Galway City Council set out its commitment to equality and human rights in its Corporate Plan 2019-2024. It appointed a senior official to take responsibility for its planned and systematic approach. It provided training on the statutory duty to senior officials from each of its departments.
An Equality and Human Rights Values Statement was developed to underpin a values-led approach to equality and human rights in its planning and internal policy making. This identifies and defines the values that motivate GCC in its concern for equality and human rights, and it establishes the practical implications of each of these values for the priorities and for the processes of GCC.
An action plan has been prepared to roll out training for and implementation of the statutory duty across all departments. A network of champions, drawn from each department will be convened to promote and support implementation of the statutory duty. The Equality and Human Rights Values Statement will be communicated and engaged in a manner that the values become integral to the organisational culture.
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