Today, 1 October 2020, we are marking 10 years since the Equality Act 2010 came into force.
The Act promotes a fairer and more equal society, bringing together over 116 separate pieces of anti-discrimination legislation to protect people in the UK from discrimination, harassment, and victimisation.
Throughout October we will be joining many others to mark the anniversary of the Act by highlighting some of the ways it can protect people in the UK.
As part of this and our #1forEquality campaign, we are working with our partner The Equality Trust to offer a series of online workshops for local authority officers, councillors and other politicians on Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010, the socio-economic duty.
Successive UK Governments have failed to commence this duty, but it offers a powerful tool for public authorities to actively consider the way in which their policies and decisions address inequalities and disadvantage.
Our October workshop on the socio-economic duty will take place as part of London Challenge Poverty Week. To find out more read our briefing, and if you are a local authority officer, councillor or politician you can sign up to attend the event here.
While this anniversary of the Equality Act marks the significant progress we have made in tackling social justice and inequality, more can be done.
We believe that a just and more equal UK requires improved protection of our international human rights by giving, for the first time, legal recognition to the rights to health, housing, food, social security, education and just conditions of work. The implementation of international human rights law can help tackle discrimination, inequality, and other harmful exclusion and differentiation based on characteristics such as age, sex, sexual orientation, ability, socio-economic status, immigration status, or race.
In particular, we believe that the incorporation of the UK Government’s binding obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights into the UK’s domestic legislation would improve everyone’s lives.
Now is the time for us to build a better future for everyone; a society in which everyone has the rights they need to flourish.
Misha Nayak-Oliver
Campaigns and Advocacy Lead
Want to read more? See related articles on our website on the implementation of the socio-economic duty by North of Tyne Combined Authority and ‘The socio-economic duty: A powerful idea hidden in plain sight in the Equality Act’.
