The Equal Rights Trust and the Industrial Law Society are delighted to invite you to the Bob Hepple Equality Award 2016 on Thursday 30 June 2016. The Award, established in the name of the late Professor Sir Bob Hepple QC champion of equality and non-discrimination, continues his legacy to recognise the outstanding contributions of individuals to equality.

On 18 April, the Global Citizenship Commission (GCC) presented to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, the findings of its report on updating and implementing the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) for the world as it is today. Our Executive Director, Dimitrina Petrova, submitted a contribution on equality rights used in the compilation of the report, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century.

The Equal Rights Trust has published volume sixteen of its biannual Equal Rights Review, an interdisciplinary journal offering analysis, insight and ideas to those promoting equality. This issue has a special focus on intersectionality. It asks how relevant - if at all - intersectionality is for understanding and fighting discrimination.

We particularly recommend the interview with experts, Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw (who coined the term intersectionality in the late 1980s) and CEDAW member, Patricia Schulz. We are also delighted that Rohingya activist, Wai Wai Nu participated in volume 16, giving her testimony on the intersection of discrimination she experienced as both a woman and a Rohingya living in Myanmar. 

To read the complete volume [click here] or select individual items below.

Since 2010, the Equal Rights Trust has supported Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) Network, the only platform of its kind which provides an essential means for journalists to report safely and effectively on hate speech, discrimination and violations of freedom of expression in Sudan and South Sudan. During this time, the Trust has helped the network to develop from an informal group of a few like-minded journalists in Sudan to a network of more than 300 members, friends and associates working in both countries.

The Equal Rights Trust has launched a campaign to support funded internship and fellowship placements for equality advocates at the start of their careers.  

The human rights charity sector is notoriously competitive and routinely demands some form of initial job experience, which is usually unpaid. Through the Bob Hepple Memorial Fund we are levelling the playing field, giving those without the financial means to work for free the opportunity to enter the sector and fulfil their ambition.

Here’s what some of our interns and fellows said:

A new report published today by the Equal Rights Trust exposes the extent of discrimination and inequality experienced by groups including women; persons with disabilities; lesbian, gay and bisexual persons; and persons living with HIV in Solomon Islands. Stand Up and Fight: Addressing Discrimination and Inequality in Solomon Islands also concludes that a tendency for people to identify strongly as members of kinship groups or residents of a particular island, rather than as Solomon Islanders has promoted difference and fostered ethnic tension.

Today, on the occasion of Human Rights Day the Equal Rights Trust has launched My Children’s Future, a film which highlights the devastating consequences of laws implemented in 27 countries which deny women the ability to pass on nationality to their children.

Celebrations are underway in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) are emerging victorious in a national election that is being described as a “dawn of a new era”. But the political leaders, including the so called icon of Burmese democracy, have colluded in the disenfranchisement of the Rohingya minority, by failing to condemn the wave of persecution and discrimination culminating in the deletion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from the voting register.

Over the last two days Madagascar has taken significant steps towards eradicating gender discrimination in its nationality law and eliminating statelessness. If a reformed law is implemented it would ensure, amongst other things, that women are no longer discriminated against in their ability to confer nationality on their children – a change that would benefit many families across the country.

Commitments to reform were made during a session of Madagascar’s National Assembly where organisations including the Equal Rights Trust, UNHCR, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and Focus Development Association advocated on the necessity of reform.