Celebrating Diversity? The Implementation of the European None-Discrimination Directives in the UK
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X0601300302 |
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
13 MJ 3 (2006) 279
CELEBRATING DIVERSITY?
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN
NONDISCRIMINATION DIRECTIVES
IN THE UK
L V*
ABSTRACT
i s arti cle wi ll look at the R egula tions i ntrodu ced in t he UK fo r the im plemen tation of the
EU non-discrimination Directives adopted in 2 000.1 It provides an overview of the new
legislation introduced in the U K to protect again discrimination on grounds of religion and
belief, and sexual orientation a s well as the proposals on age discrimination.2 ese are all
new grounds of discrimin ation, which were not previously covered in British di scrimination
law. is article also looks br ie y at the ame ndments introduced to the Race Relations Act
and Disability Discrimin ation Act to comply with the requirements of the directives. e
government has taken a pie cemeal approach to amending the law, and in the process has
made discrimination law in the U K hugely complicated and somewhat chaotic. e end
result has not furthe red the overall aim of equality as far as it might.
Keywords: Non-discri mination, Equality, European law, UK
* Reader in Law, Oxford Brook es University.
1 Directive 2000 /43/EC implementing the principle of equ al treatment between pers ons irrespective of
racial or eth nic origin, [200 0[ O.J. L180/22 (the Race Directive); Direc tive 2000/78/EC e stablishing
a general fra mework for equal treat ment in employment and occ upation, [2000] O.J. L303/16 (the
Employment Equal ity Directive). Separate regu lations have been introduced in relat ion to Northern
Ireland. e dis cussion here is based upon the l aw applying in Great Brita in.
2 At the time of writi ng, the government had only iss ued proposals for prohibiting a ge discrimination.
e Employment E quality (Age) Regulations 20 06 (S.I. 1031) were recently adopte d and entered into
force in October 20 06.
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