On Wednesday 1 October 2014, the Equal Rights Trust will hold an embargoed press conference in Nairobi, Kenya at 0830 hrs to launch its major new report In Search of Confluence – Addressing Discrimination and Inequality in Sudan, written in partnership with the Sudanese Organisation for Research and Development.
News
London, 15 September 2014
On 1 September 2014, in an important step towards greater equality, an amendment to the law regulating the Danish National People’s Register came into effect, allowing transgender people to obtain new official documents reflecting their choice of gender through a simple administrative procedure. The amendment makes Denmark the first European country to allow legal recognition of gender on the basis of self-identification. It is hoped that Denmark’s move will pave the way for change in other countries, eventually ending the requirement that individuals undergo invasive medical procedures or diagnoses in order to receive legal recognition of their gender identity.
On 14 August 2014, the Equal Rights Trust's Executive Director, Dimitrina Petrova, released the following statement in response to the ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ presented to the Kenyan National Assembly by the Republican Liberty Party:
London, 12 August 2014
On 30 July 2014, the UK Supreme Court issued its judgment in Hounga v Allen and another, upholding the discrimination claim of a domestic worker who had been working under an illegal contract. In a decision which ensures important legal redress for exploited workers, the Supreme Court found that the illegality of the contract was not sufficiently linked to the act of discrimination to defeat the claim.
London, 4 August 2014
London, 28 July 2014
Last week, the Equal Rights Trust (ERT) and its partner, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC), convened a roundtable meeting on equality law reform in Minsk, Belarus. Leading civil society representatives discussed and agreed the recommendations made in a concept paper setting out the key substantive and procedural elements of a future national equality law, in line with established international law and best practice.
On 10 July 2014, Suriname’s National Assembly passed the Draft Law on Nationality and Residency (“the Law”), amending Law No. 4 of 24 November 1975 on Surinamese Nationality and Residence.
Yesterday (13 July) the office of Zhengzhou Yirenping was raided by police for the second time in a month. The Chinese authorities first raided the premises on 17 June, seizing computers and interrogating staff about the organisation's work with human rights defenders.
London, 11 July 2014
On 1 July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued its judgment in S.A.S. v France, in which it considered a French law in force since 2011 which bans the concealment of one’s face in public. The applicant, a Muslim woman who sometimes wears a niqab or burqa in public, complained that the law violated her rights to respect for her private life, freedom of religion and freedom from discrimination, amongst others, under the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). In a controversial and unwelcome decision, the Court found no violation of Convention rights, holding that the restriction placed on the applicant’s religious freedom and private life by the law could be justified by a desire to guarantee that everyone can “live together” in society.
2 July 2014
On 18 June, an overwhelming majority of Luxembourg’s national legislative body, the Chambre des Députés, approved Bill No. 6172A legalising same-sex marriage. Luxembourg now joins a growing number of countries which recognise equal rights to marriage regardless of sexual orientation, becoming the 18th country to legalise same-sex marriage. New Zealand, France, Uruguay, England and Scotland all recently passed legislation to provide equal rights to marry.
