Implementation issues

• Author: Sabatauskait?, Birut?
• Pages: 115-119

115

8IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

8.1Dissemination of information, dialogue with NGOs and betweensocial

partners

a)Dissemination of information about legal protection against discrimination(Article

10 Directive 2000/43 and Article 12 Directive 2000/78)

A numberof awareness-raising initiatives have beenimplemented, mostly bythe Office

ofthe Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson and/or non-governmentalorganisations, to

disseminate information aboutlegal protection from discrimination.

The Ombudsperson’s website and Facebookpage are being updated on a regular basis, a

numberof awareness-raising campaigns have beenorganised,andalmostall the

decisionsof the Ombudsperson are being uploaded online. The Facebook page is used

not only for communication,but forholdingconsultations on discrimination. The

implementation of recommendations made by the Ombudsperson after investigations of

complaints canbe observedby thepublic.

The Ministry of Social Affairsand Labourinitiateda video-based campaignin 2019, and

the Ombudspersonintroduced anew ‘Wings ofEqual Opportunities’ standard, allowing

different employers to self-evaluate their progressin the field of equal opportunities.

The worrying trend is that many promotional activities have to be carried out without

funding from the state budget. In 2019, the UNCommittee on the Elimination of Racial

Discriminationtherefore recommended inits concluding observations ‘that the State

party allocate sufficientfunding to the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson

so that it can take up its preventive andeducation competences.’

Initiatives are often also implementedby civil society organisations, mostly without

funding from the state budget.

Two non-governmental organisationsare involved in awareness-raising activities funded

through the ActionPlan for the Promotion of Non-discrimination2017-2019, which has

been extendedto 2020.

b)Measures to encouragedialogue withNGOswith a view to promotingthe principle

of equal treatment (Article 12 Directive 2000/43 and Article 14 Directive 2000/78)

Most ofthe initiatives aimed at fostering dialoguewith NGOs in the past weretaken by

the Ombudsperson. In practice,the Ombudsperson is involved invariousprojects

organisedin cooperation with NGOs to implement national anti-discrimination measures.

Forexample, the Human Rights Monitoring Institute presented a training course for

employers on non-discrimination andequal opportunities in2019. Awareness raising,

educational activitiesand research are conducted by the Ombudsperson or in partnership

and cooperation with other institutions and non-governmentalorganisations. One must

take intoaccount that thenational NGO scene is rather fragmented, and the Government

does not take NGOsas seriously as partners. NGOsoperate on very limited human and

financial resources, and there is no government policy on the development of this sector.

There are no NGOs that specialise only in anti-discrimination work. There areonly a few

NGOs that deal with human rights (and non-discrimination is only one field oftheir

activities), and thereareorganisations that work onparticular grounds (women’s rights,

rights of people with disabilities, LGBT rights, etc.), but there are almost no ethnic-

minority NGOs working on lobbying or policymakinginthe sphere of equal opportunities.