Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: European Commission proposal for a Council Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.
The cross cutting draft European Directive on anti discrimination and equal treatment sets out proposals to extend legal protection from unfair discrimination beyond the workplace. The Directive, if passed by the Council of Ministers, will extend existing EU protection to the provision of goods, facilities and services, education and healthcare. Crucially the Directive seeks to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of age, religion, disability and sexual orientation. The inclusion of age in the Directive is a defining moment in enshrining children’s rights in law. As it stands, the Directive will provide much needed legal protection from unfair age discrimination to children, young people and adults. Initial debates on the Directive indicate that the desire to protect all people from discrimination and unequal treatment on all the above grounds is not shared by all Member States. Take action now! CRAE is coordinating Young Equals - a group of charities and children and young people who are campaigning to stop age discrimination. For more information go to: http://www.crae.org.uk/protecting/age-discrimination.html Further information CRIN is developing a new website on discrimination against children to be launched next year. The site will examine discrimination across the spectrum of children’s rights, with a particular focus on age discrimination. We are collecting national laws from around the world which protect children from age discrimination, examples of how these have been used and information about how they came about. Please send information and examples to [email protected].
The final decision on the Directive will be taken by government representatives from Member States in the Council of Ministers. Please encourage them to support age discrimination protection for children.
Several Committees are currently considering the Directive and the European Parliament is due to decide its final recommendations to the Council of Ministers on 2 March 2009.
Age discrimination affects children and young people in a wide range of areas. Please send any evidence you have of age discrimination to [email protected].