Inclusion and anti-discrimination programmes

The Council of Europe's Inclusion and Anti-discrimination Programmes Division carries out activities to ensure genuine equality and full access to rights and opportunities for all members of society.

The Division is composed of four Units, offering concrete and tested solutions to governmental and non-governmental partners in member States to strenghten inclusion and address discrimination and inequality that undermine the enjoyment of human rights and democracy by everyone:

Back Unlocking the potential of foreign citizens in accessing the labour market: new Policy brief released

Unlocking the potential of foreign citizens in accessing the labour market: new Policy brief released

The Policy brief "Unlocking the potential of foreign citizens in accessing the labour market" has been published and is now available for download, here.

Based on targeted research and on the findings of a workshop held late 2023 in Rome, gathering more than sixty stakeholders from institutions and firms across Italy to address the challenges faced by third-country nationals in accessing the Italian labour market, the Policy brief outlines key issues and opportunities identified and offers recommendations to enhance coordination and cooperation across various levels of governance.

Recommendations in the Policy brief focus on key areas such as governance and support for active employment policies, aligning labour supply with demand, and the validation and certification of skills.

The Policy brief also includes a detailed action plan, categorised into short, medium, and long-term goals. The latter highlights immediate actions that can be implemented using existing mechanisms, outlines steps for systematising ongoing initiatives in the medium term and sets a vision for the long-term consolidation of progress.

This is the second of a series of Policy brief developed in the framework of the project Reinforcing multi-level policy coordination for integration in Italy, co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and implemented by the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the European Commission Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies of Italy.

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 The four Units' activities are directly based on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the recommendations and findings of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (AC/FCNM), and the Committee of Experts of the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages, as well as relevant Committee of Ministers Recommendations.

 

 The approach of the Division is to establish a direct link between standards, the monitoring processes, the intergovernmental work, such as the Steering Committee on Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI) and the implementation of co-operation activities. This allows to identify weaknesses in the implementation of standards where technical cooperation activities can be helpful.

 

 The Division works closely with the existing networks of equality bodies and national human rights structures (ombudsmen and national human rights institutions); other Council of Europe monitoring bodies (such as European Committee of Social Rights, the Group of experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) and their secretariats; European networks of NGO’s and national civil society platforms; and international actors, such as the EU Commission and its Agencies (including the Fundamental Rights Agency), the UN agencies (such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme) and the OSCE/ODIHR.

Division units