Commissioner for Human Rights

Marcin Wiącek met with Anne Gaspard, Co-Director of the European Network of Equality Bodies

Date:

Commissioner for Human Rights Marcin Wiącek met with Co-Director of the European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet) Anne Gaspard on 5 September 2022. The meeting at the Commissioner’s Office was also attended by Deputy Commissioner Valeri Vachev and Aleksandra Szczerba of the Office’s Equal Treatment Department. 
The participants of the meeting discussed the Commissioner’s priorities in the area of equal treatment and non-discrimination. The Commissioner presented problems relating to the functioning of an independent equality body encountered in the day-to-day activities of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights. He noted that guarantees of equal and effective protection against discrimination for all were still not fully ensured after Poland’s adoption of the parliamentary act implementing EU regulations on equal treatment in 2010. A particular problem is the closed catalogue of legally protected characteristics and of areas covered by the prohibition of discrimination under the act. 
The Co-Director of Equinet presented the details of her organization’s current activities and its plans for the coming months.
The European Network of Equality Bodies is a platform for cooperation, capacity building and mutual support between national equality bodies in respect to the legal interpretation and implementation in practice of EU equal treatment directives as well as the promotion of equal treatment and elimination of discrimination.