International Perspectives On Positive Action Measures

Recoge: 1. Introduction and methodological approach - 2. Contextualising the study - 3. Exploring positive action from a legal perspective - 4. Perceptions of positive action in the European Union - 5. Perceptions of positive action in Canada, the United States and South Africa - 6. Positive action measures across different discrimination grounds, organisations and sectors - 7. Conclusions and recommendations.

C. Goals and timetables

An engaging and eclectic collection of essays from leading scholars on the subject, which looks at affirmative action past and present, analyzes its efficacy, its legacy, and its role in the future of the United States. This comprehensive, three-volume set explores the ways the United States has interpreted affirmative action and probes the effects of the policy from the perspectives of economics, law, philosophy, psychology, sociology, political science, and race relations. Expert contributors tackle a host of knotty issues, ranging from the history of affirmative action to the theories underpinning it. They show how affirmative action has been implemented over the years, discuss its legality and constitutionality, and speculate about its future. Volume one traces the origin and evolution of affirmative action. Volume two discusses modern applications and debates, and volume three delves into such areas as international practices and critical race theory. Standalone essays link cause and effect and past and present as they tackle intriguing—and important—questions. When does "affirmative action" become "reverse discrimination"? How many decades are too many for a "temporary" policy to remain in existence? Does race- or gender-based affirmative action violate the equal protection of law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment? In raising such issues, the work encourages readers to come to their own conclusions about the policy and its future application.

This book addresses the legal feasibility of ethnic data collection and positive action for equality and anti-discrimination purposes, and considers how they could be used to promote the Roma minority’s inclusion in Europe. The book’s central aim is to research how a societal problem can be improved upon from a legal perspective. The controversy surrounding ethnic data collection and positive action severely limits their use at the national level. Accordingly, legal and political concerns are analysed and addressed in order to demonstrate that it is possible to collect such data and to implement such measures while fully respecting international and European human rights norms, provided that certain conditions are met. Part I focuses on ethnic data collection and explores the key rules and principles that govern it, the ways in which this equality tool could be used, and how potential obstacles might be overcome. It also identifies and addresses the specific challenges that arise when collecting ethnic data on the Roma minority in Europe. In turn, Part II explores positive action and the broad range of measures covered by the concept, before analysing the applicable international and European framework. It reviews the benefits and challenges of implementing positive action for Roma, identifies best practices, and gives special consideration to inter-cultural mediation in the advancement of Roma inclusion. The book concludes with an overview of the main findings on both topics and by identifying three essential elements that must be in place, in addition to full respect for the applicable legal rules, in order to combat discrimination and achieve the inclusion of Roma in Europe by complementing existing anti-discrimination frameworks with the collection of ethnic data and the implementation of positive action schemes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate legislation and leading cases concerning positive discrimination in the European Union, with a particular focus on the recent debate about the most radical positive action measure: the implementation of women?s quotas by supranational legislation. This study seeks to answer the question if such a radical derogation from the equal treatment principle can be tolerated, keeping in mind the fundamental character of this principle in European law. The concept of substantive equality will be analysed and set against the ECJ case law under review. It will be criticised that the ECJ focused once more on a formalist approach and allows for positive action measures only to a very limited extent. If the European Union would impose women?s quotas for board members via supranational legislation, would this still be considered as a measure of positive discrimination or would it rather be a form of negative discrimination against men?

Today, it may seem like the college admissions process has become more inflated and difficult to navigate than ever before. Many parents have become vocal about the standardized testing and college preparation that begins as early as elementary school. In fact, some families hire advisors to help their children chart a path to the most prestigious schools when they are barely teenagers. This text examines the historical college admissions process and where we are today through the thoughtful analysis of researchers, politicians, officials, and ordinary people in order to show students all sides of this often high-stress topic.

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed how far we as a European society still are from the proclaimed Union of Equality. The book explores how the promise of equal treatment can become a reality and compliance with the EU acquis relating to equality and non-discrimination can be improved. It studies enforcement and promotion aspects of the two watershed directives of 2000, the Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC and the Employment Equality Directive 2000/78/EC, through the lens of reflexive governance. This governance approach is proposed as having great potential in enhancing the likelihood of sustainability (or continuation) of reforms in the current candidate countries and EU Member States through its emphasis on reflexive learning processes and the cooperation between EU institutions, national authorities, and civil society actors. In order to deploy this potential, there is, however, a need for more consistent and transparent monitoring, both with regard to candidate countries as well as old and new Member States, and a reconsideration of the understanding of monitoring as such. It should be seen as helping to deconstruct own preference-formations and as a possibility to learn from successes and failures in a cooperative and recursive process. To work on these lacunae and improve learning and monitoring processes, this book identifies indicators, that are deduced from the comparative review of the implementation practice of the member states. This book is thus a contribution to the existing literature in the fields of Europeanization, governance, and the right to equality and non-discrimination.

Affirmative Action and the Law analyses the practical application of affirmative action measures and their efficacy in achieving substantive equality through the lenses of the United Nations human rights machinery and the legal regime and policies implemented in China, India, Central and South America, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The product of a joint research project involving academics from the Brazil, Chile, Mexico, India, Spain and the United Kingdom, the findings identify and reflect on trends emerging from State practice across the world in eradicating structural inequality through special measures for certain designated groups. The book seeks to provide a coherent and systematic approach to the analysis of special measures in the targeted countries. It also comprises two case-studies with in-depth insights on gender diversity on the boards of public listed companies in the UK and the European Union and the access of persons with disabilities to higher education in Brazil. The book will be a valuable resource for students and academics in the field of human rights, law, sociology and politics. It will also provide a source of good practice for states and policy makers in the framing of responses to increased inequality at national and international level; and for civil society actors seeking to explore meaningful interaction with a highly controversial topic in society.