| Policy brief 3 |
| Tuesday, 01 September 2009 | |
|
The use of racial anti-discrimination laws N° 3
Studying racial discrimination complaints: A gender perspective
WP4 has been designed to analyse data sources on racial discrimination complaints and case law studies within a gender perspective. This data has been collected from equality bodies, local antidiscrimination offices and NGOs in the six countries participating in the research.
Our objectives for this workpackage have been firstly, to achieve a better understanding of the impact of gender on the experience of racial discrimination and also on the use of the legal administrative instruments. Our second goal has been to obtain a better understanding of how gender influences the way in which complaints are processed and the extent to which gender may be significant within methods adopted in settling disputes.
The first section of the WP4 report
focuses on the construction of the sample
and issues of conducting international
research. Here, the availability and
coverage of comparable statistical data
has been a key factor as the project has
recognised the substantial differences in
collection methods between national
contexts. These variations exist not only in
terms of motivations for data collection or
in criteria and categories used, but also in
the particular methods of collection
themselves. Privacy protection laws have
meant that access to the data has been
restricted in all countries with the
exception of Sweden where transfer of
data was well facilitated for the
researchers.
The sample comprises 864 cases with a greater incidence of those concerning women (429 compared to 392 men). It clearly reveals that those who use legal resources to address discrimination primarily consist of individuals of foreign origin who have a high level of education and who hold steady employment. |