Annex 8 Template for drafting your framework document

Transcription

1 Annex 8 Template for drafting your framework document Please remember that this document is aimed at explaining how and why the proposed action(s) is/are presented for EU co-financing. It should be the result of discussions within the ad hoc working group and signed by the national authority in charge of equality and non-discrimination (PROGRESS anti-discrimination contact point). Its length shouldn't exceed 6 pages. Thank you for following the general structure below. 1. Dialogue mechanism put in place (max. 0,5 page) Please describe the consultation process prior to the preparation of your framework document: List of the members of the ad hoc working group: PROGRESS antidiscrimination contact point, members of the civil society, social partners, National Equality Body, etc. Grounds of discrimination represented (disability, age, sexual orientation, race/ethnic origin, religion). The Finnish ad hoc working group has been the Steering Committee of the on-going Equality is Priority 6 - project, and consists of the representatives of the project organisations: national authorities, umbrella and human rights NGOs representing different grounds of discrimination, self-governance and dialogue-promotion bodies, national equality bodies and the Progress antidiscrimination contact point. The members of the WG have represented the following grounds of discrimination: ethnic origin (the Sámi People, the Roma and immigrant NGOs), disability, sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBT persons), age, religion and multiple forms of discrimination. Members of the working group to be consulted have been: Sinikka Keskinen (Progress anti-discrimination contact point), Heidi Kankainen (Ministry of the Interior/Police); Antti Närhinen (Ministry of Employment and the Economy); Anssi Pirttijärvi (Ministry of Education and Culture); Viveca Arrhenius (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health); Heini Huotarinen ( Ministry of Justice); Esa Janatuinen (Finnish Defence Forces); Ulla Magga (the Sámi Parliament); Ristenrauna Magga (SámiSoster); Sarita Friman-Korpela (Advisory Board for Roma Affairs); Kaarina Ranne (Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations representing immigrant NGOs); Heli Markkula (Finnish Youth Cooperation Allianssi, umbrella for youth NGOs); Sara Sundell (Sexual Equality SETA); Pirkko Mahlamäki (Finnish Disability Forum); Abdessalam Jardi (The Islamic Council of Finland; Maria Swanljung (Ombudsman for Minorities); Raija Harju-Kivinen (Ombudsman for Children) and Milla Aaltonen (Finnish League for Human Rights). The priorities for the activities were discussed for the first time during the WG meeting on June 4th. After the Call for Proposals was published, a written summary in Finnish on the objectives, priorities and practical details of the Call was prepared and sent by to the members of the WG on July 3. The members of the WG were requested to make suggestions for activities. On the basis of the discussions and suggestions made, a draft Framework Document was prepared by the National Contact Point and published on the equality portal for comments and feedback for two weeks The ad hoc WG/Steering Committee held a meeting on August 16 to discuss the details of the project proposal and to formally adopt the Framework Document. 1

2 2. National situation and priorities for a. National context (max. 1 page) Please briefly describe recent legal, policy and institutional developments at national level in the field of equality and non discrimination on the grounds of disability, age, sexual orientation, race/ethnic origin, religion. The six -party Government of Finland has emphasized equality and non-discrimination in its Governmental Programme. The Programme includes four priority projects, one of them being the adoption of a new equality legislation, which would guarantee equal protection against discrimination regardless of the ground of discrimination (e.g. ethnic origin, disability, age, religion or belief and sexual orientation) and the field of life. The implementation of the national system for monitoring on discrimination is included in the Governmental Programme, as well. The proposal for the equality legislation has been prepared by the Ministry of Justice in co-operation with other ministries, social partners and civil society organisations. NGOs representing different grounds of discrimination have been involved. The proposal was passed for a wide round of statements in May 2013 and available for comments on internet ( The Parliament will start working with the revised proposal in autumn 2013 and the new legislation is supposed to come into force at the beginning of The new legislation would bring for example the following changes: 1) One authority, the Ombudsman for Equality, would be responsible for monitoring on and promotion of equality concerning all grounds of discrimination excluding gender (women, men and gender minorities) and for monitoring and reporting of trafficking on human beings; 2) National Discrimination Tribunal and Gender Equality Board would be combined as a one single impartial and independent judicial body; 3) Labour and occupational safety authority would continue to be responsible for monitoring on discrimination in working life but the Ombudsman would have a role, too, in the prevention of discrimination in working life; 4) Equality Plan covering all grounds of discrimination would be obligatory for all employers, who regularly have more than 30 employees. According to the existing legislation Equality Plans are obligatory only for public authorities. The National Programme on Human Rights has been under implementation. According to the midterm results, some of the Programme measures have already been successfully completed. Relating to the implementation process, a sub-committee will be established as a Task Force for LGBT-equality to evaluate and monitor on the situation of sexual and gender minorities in Finland. Government adopted a new immigration strategy; the related Action Plan will be prepared by the end of Concerning other programmes included to the Governmental Programme, the Social Guarantee for Young People has been under implementation as a whole since the beginning of According to the Guarantee, each person under 25 years and each newly graduated person, who is under 30 years of age, is entitled to a working/on-job-training/studying opportunity within 3 months from the date when s/he became unemployed. Finland continues to implement the national Roma Policy Programme; the National Institute for Health and Welfare is monitoring the implementation process with the support of a working group consisting of the representatives of different ministries and Roma NGOs. Measures have been taken especially concerning the promotion of education (Roma children and adults), housing and non-discrimination as well as awareness-raising among Roma NGOs and young people. Up to now, no exact information has been available on the measures taken at local level e.g. in the fields of social and health care (day-care, elderly care, social work etc.). The Policy Programme on Disability is also being implemented and the ratification process of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability is being prepared. The ILO Convention on Indigenous Peoples is being prepared by a working group set by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The process for joining the Convention has raised tensions in the Sámi Homeland, and there is an immediate need for thorough discussion and clarifications concerning the consequences of the ratification process. The process for the implementation of the Council of Europe recommendations on the measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity is no longer coordinated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs; instead there will be a Task Force led by the Ministry of Justice. Since 2002 it has been possible to officially register same-sex relationship but Finland has not so far adopted legislation on a gender-neutral marriage. An initiative for the Parliament for an equal marriage law was made by citizens in March this year. 2

3 2b. Needs at national level (max 1,5 pages) Identify the needs which your country is facing in terms of legislation implementation, policy development and awareness-raising activities in the field of non discrimination. Where possible, use results of surveys, studies in order to support your argumentation. There is a need to reform the existing antidiscrimination legislation, mostly because the current situation provides unbalanced legal protection for different grounds of discrimination. The Parliament will process the proposal for the reformed legislation during the autumn 2013, and if accepted, it will come into force at the beginning of The possible adoption of the new laws causes extensive needs for training, information sharing and awareness-raising. Furthermore, the obligation for drawing up Equality Plans in private sector organisations, which is included in the proposal, will remarkably extend the target audience of training activities. One of the biggest obstacles for tackling discrimination is still the insufficient identification of discriminative practices and structures. The forms and channels of discrimination change all the time, which generates continuous challenges for anti-discrimination work. Recent research shows that the share of hate speech on internet and social media has increased quickly, while means and methods to combat it are still rather undeveloped. Developing of communication tools and campaigns are needed to meet the new challenges. Concerning both the identification of discriminative practices and the knowledge on the possible new legislation/existing legislation, many professional groups need further awareness-raising and training. During the on-going PROGRESS -project police-trainers, journalists, staff in advisory services, employment officials and local decision-makers will be trained. Other professionals in need of further training are for example staff working in the regional labour and occupational safety authorities (who are responsible for supervising equality in working life), the police, judges, prosecutors, social and youth workers, day-care personnel, student counsellors etc. This need for further training is proved for example by a new research on access to justice. According to the above-mentioned research, it has not been easy for the victims of discrimination to find the right redress mechanisms. Most of the interviewees had sought advice from some other party than a public authority in order to find the right authority to turn to. Many interviewees felt like they had been bounced from one authority to the next, which in their opinion had negatively affected the process and its outcome. They were not satisfied with the outcome of their own process, nor did they feel that justice had been done. However, they did consider the outcome significant enough to the extent that they were prepared to file a new complaint. According to the interviews, the main obstacles and challenges in accessing justice are the mental stress caused by the processes, the long duration of the processes, and the operation of public authorities. There were cases in which, e.g. the police had first refused to receive the appeal or the regional labour and occupational safety authority was not able to provide advice on how to proceed with the appealing process. According to the same research and many others (e.g. EU -Midis by the FRA), one severe problem in the fight against discrimination is under-reporting. For example, reporting on discrimination to the regional labour and occupational safety authorities is at low level in spite of the fact that they are responsible for monitoring on discrimination in working life on all grounds of discrimination and have a country-wide organisation. This concerns especially discrimination on the basis of disability and sexual orientation. Concerning the police, further steps to lower the threshold for reporting should be taken as well. Previous PROGRESS -projects have prepared and disseminated brochures and other materials targeted at certain authorities and at certain victimsgroups. The next step would be to assist and motivate the concerned authorities to enhance their own information sharing and awareness-raising mechanisms and tools in order to establish a sustainable basis for continuous measures to encourage for reporting on discrimination. NGOs play a key role in spreading information and counselling on discrimination. The possible new legislation will further strengthen their role giving them the option to promote appeals of discrimination on the behalf of the victim. It is utterly important to build capacity and increase expertise among NGOs for assisting and supporting the victims of discrimination even in the current situation and especially if the new legislation will be adopted. According to the application documents, the Roma Portal was identified as the most transnationally transferrable component of the on-going Finnish PROGRESS -project. Since the Finnish Roma community is rather small and led by small groups of NGO -activists, the development of Roma policy in Finland would greatly utilise from transnational communication and exchange of experience. On the other hand, the well-developed and stable structures of the Finnish Roma policy and practices could be one good example for other member states. There is a need for deepening transnational co-operation between Roma actors and activists, especially young people, both in Finland and in other member states also due to the increasing transnational movement. 3

4 2c. Priorities for (max. 1,5 pages) Taking into account your national context and the needs of your country identify some priorities for Have a close look at framework documents produced for last similar calls. Some elements could still be valid, others may be updated. On the basis of the dialogue with the ad hoc working group and the feedback given through portal the Suggestions Paper was revised as well as the draft of the Framework document and discussed in the ad hoc working group meeting on August 16. The following actions were suggested for the Finnish priorities of the application: 1. Non-discrimination mainstreaming Establishment of a network of experts at governmental level for a continuous identification and modelling of best practices of anti-discrimination work Further training of key professional groups on the situation of different age and minority groups, on the existing forms of discrimination and evidence base results of research, and experiences of discrimination as well as methods and tools to combat it Assistance for key professionals to carry out measures to lower the threshold for reporting on discrimination in order to establish sustainable and targeted information sharing mechanisms Inclusion of training on the new antidiscrimination legislation, if adopted, in training activities included in the project by modifying them accordingly Campaign for sports clubs aimed at better acceptance of diversity. Awareness-raising on the results of studies on the current situation and on the utilisation of the existing material Advanced training programmes for NGOs representing different age and minority groups in order to promote their anti-discrimination work and assistance for the victims of discrimination as well as knowhow on project design, management and reporting on the results 2. Diversity management in the public and private sector Organisation of activities at local level to develop diversity management in the public sector by joint efforts of local authorities and NGOs representing different age and minority groups Support for the implementation of the Finnish Diversity Charter in by training for equality planning in the private sector and presenting different models and materials to process and present Equality Plans 3. Roma Establishing transnational co-operative networks between Roma NGOs and individual activists as well as other NGOs, dialogue promotion bodies and authorities Transnational exchange of experience on best practices to share information on the Roma communities from the perspectives of history, culture and socio-economic situation Presenting of the Finnish Roma Portal as an example on good practice to include Roma in the mainstream historical, cultural and educational context Presenting of other good examples from the selected member states 5. Measurement of discrimination Study (and the related seminar) on the awareness and practical implementation of anti-discrimination legislation among local authorities in the Sámi Homeland 7. Discrimination of LGBT people Targeted information sharing and encouragement campaigns from the side of the responsible authorities carried out together with NGOs representing LBGT -groups in order to decrease the under-reporting on discrimination 8. Communication and awareness raising Developing of new communication tools and campaign type of activities to meet the challenges brought by the increased hate speech on internet and social media and other new forms of discrimination The ad hoc WG decided to include x priorities: xxxx The suggested activities were designed in details by the project staff and the National Contact Point. 4

5 3. Link between national priorities and proposed action(s) (max. 1,5 pages) Briefly mention the action(s) which you propose for EU support under the present call JUST/2013/PROG/AG/AD (a more detailed description will be given in annex 1-'Project description and implementation'). Explain how the action(s) fit(s) into your national priorities for (The action(s) proposed may only respond to some of your priorities. If so, please comment). The following actions are proposed to be carried out: 1. Non-discrimination Mainstreaming Programme The Programme aims at better and sustainable capacity to identify and combat discrimination and promote diversity in different fields of life. It is targeted at decreasing the current under-reporting on discrimination and at increasing the role and expertise of NGOs in the fight against discrimination. The Programme consists of the following components: 1) Establishment of a Governmental Network of Experts; 2) Training of Key Professionals and NGOs Component and 3) Capacity Building Programme for NGOs. The action fits into national and European priorities, since it aims at further developing equality mainstreaming methodologies and practices within governmental organisations, lowering of the threshold for reporting on discrimination, increasing the expertise and practical skills of anti-discrimination work among key professional groups and NGOs active in the field as well as at building capacity within groups exposed to discrimination. The following activities will be carried out under the Non-discrimination Mainstreaming Programme: A Network of Experts will be established to identify, collected, model and report on good practices to promote diversity at governmental level. These activities will include programme design, equality impact assessment of legislation and strategic policy papers, co-operation with the civil society and especially with different age and minority groups, research and studies carried out by different ministries, transparency of working practices, recruitment of staff and processing and monitoring on Equality Plans of different ministries. Training of Key Professionals and NGOs Component consists of a series of national and regional workshops targeted at different professional groups and NGOs. A series of three workshops will be organised for 1) the police, 2) social and youth workers, 3) labour inspectors and 4) student counsellors. Two workshops will be organised for 1) judges and prosecutors and 2) NGOs. Furthermore, a series of training events will be organised for sports clubs. All 20 workshops will be half-a-day events concentrating on the situation of different groups exposed to discrimination, the appearance, forms and channels of discrimination and on the methods and tools to promote diversity. In case the new antidiscrimination legislation will be adopted, the workshops will be modified to one-day events and another half day will be used for training on the new laws. Capacity Building Programme will at first stage involve 10 NGOs for preparatory actions and projects, of which 6 will be selected to an advanced training programme. The NGOs to be selected to the Programme would represent one or several of the following age and minority groups: immigrants, the Roma, the Sámi People, religious minorities, persons with disability, aged people, young people and LBGT -groups. At the 1 st stage each NGO will together with a local public organisation design and carry out a preparatory project to prepare a project idea, partnership and background material for a project application, which will be prepared at the 2 nd stage for which the 6 best preparatory projects will be selected. During the 2 nd stage, an application for one of the following funding instruments will be prepared: European Social Fund, Finnish Lottery Fund RAY and Ministry of Education and Culture, Funding for minorities, non-discrimination and accessibility. The working methods during the 1 st stage are workshops and training weekends and during the 2 nd stage an evening school, training weekends and a moving writing clinic. 2. Diversity Management Programme The Programme will be implemented in close co-operation with the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, and it consists of the following two components: 1) Diversity Management at the Public Sector and 2) Support for the Implementation of the Finnish Diversity Charter. The action fits into national and European priorities, since it builds capacity for better acceptance of diversity and non-discrimination in the working life, promotes mutual learning and exchange of experiences and contributes to equal opportunities for all in the working life. Furthermore, it promotes the mainstreaming of diversity and non-discrimination in the private sector by assisting private organisations in their equality planning. 5

6 The Programme is supplementary to other national activities to monitor on discrimination in working life, since e.g. a national project has been established to create a system for a continuous monitoring on discrimination in starting one s working relationship (recruitment), during the working relationship (at workplace) and in the termination of the working relationship (dismissal processes). The following activities will be carried out: Support for diversity management at the public sector by the organisation of client councils, client forums and other feedback and hearing mechanisms in co-operation of local public authorities and NGOs/communities representing different age and minority groups in order to develop design-for-all services and to promote diversity in local public human resource policy and management. Provision of further support to the implementation of the Finnish Diversity Charter by building capacity within the already established Diversity Network for equality planning in the private sector. The supportive measures include workshops, a planning guide and concrete models for processing Equality Plans and making equality impact assessments in private companies. Indicators for private workplace equality planning will be established and expert assistance for individual companies provided. 3. Roma Programme The preparation of the Roma Portal is on-going in Finland as a part of the PROGRESS -project. The portal will include 12 webpages, of which one is targeted at the Roma themselves, one at authorities and one at pupils in the upper grade of comprehensive school; all others are targeted at general public, researchers, students and anyone interested. This project component has been identified as the best transferrable part of the on-going project. The Ministry of the Interior has agreed with the Hungarian Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement on cooperation in organising a Transnational Workshop on Roma and Non-discrimination. The topics of the Workshop would be presentations on good practices to promote the equality of the Roma communities in different member states. From the Finnish side, the purpose and the contents of the Portal would be presented. Due to the cost-efficiency, the Workshop would be organised in Budapest. The travelling and accommodation costs of one representative per member state would be covered by the Finnish project. The action fits into the national priorities, since it offers an opportunity for Finnish representatives of the Roma communities to transnational learning and exchange of experience. Especially young people would be encouraged to participate and create transnational networks and possible forthcoming partnerships with Roma organisations from other member states. 4. Communication and Awareness- raising Programme The Programme is aimed at developing of new communication tools and campaign type of activities to meet the challenges brought by the increased hate speech on internet and social media and other new forms of discrimination. It consists of two components: 1) Preparation of a Manual for young people belonging to different minority groups for combating discrimination on internet and social media and 2) Campaign against discrimination on Internet and Social Media. The actions fit into national priorities, since they develop and present tools and methods to combat new forms of discrimination. Both components also build capacity among minority youth to tackle discrimination as a part of the target group itself. Mahdolliset lisäykset Date, name and signature of the national authority in charge of equality and nondiscrimination (PROGRESS anti-discrimination contact point): 6