Sexual Orientation Discrimination in the European Union: National Laws and the Employment Equality Directive

ISBN-13: 9789067042130 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 272 str.

Kees Waaldijk; Matteo Bonini-Baraldi

Opis

Chapter 1 1 Introduction Among the recent positive developments in European Union law with regard to the legal situation of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons, the clear prohibition of discrimination in employment and occupation contained in the Employment Equality Directive is the most important. Certainly, since 1999 article 13 of the EC Treaty, which forms the legal basis for this Directive, already mentions sexual orientation among the protected grounds, but this Treaty provision only enables the Council of the EC to adopt appropriate action against discrimination. This is precisely what happened on 27 November 2000, when the Council adopted Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in em- 2 ployment and occupation (hereafter the Directive). Prior to its enactment, eight of the then fifteen Member States, two of the current new Member States (the Czech Republic and Slovenia), and one of the current acceding countries (- mania) had legislation in place prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in employment. However, these laws followed a variety of approaches, which were not always consistent with the Directive s requirements. All Member States were required to make some changes to their legislative framework in order to imp- ment the provisions of the Directive with respect to discrimination based on sexual orientation (and with respect to discrimination based on any of the three other grounds covered by the Directive: religion or belief, disability, age)."

Spis treści

The Employment Equality Directive and other aspects of European law.- General situation with respect to sexual orientation discrimination at national level.- Comparative analysis of legislation implementing the directive in the fifteen old member states.- Implementation of the directive in the ten new member states and in the two acceding countries.- Overview of the state of implementation of the directive.- Conclusions.

Blurb

The Employment Equality Directive requires EU Member States to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in the field of employment. This book is the first to assess to what degree the Directive’s requirements have been met by the twenty-five Member States and by Bulgaria and Romania.

The authors discuss the relevant aspects of EU law and provide a detailed analysis of the quality and conformity of national anti-discrimination legislation aimed at implementing the Employment Equality Directive. In this analysis special attention is paid to the implications of what distinguishes sexual orientation from other forbidden grounds of discrimination. Therefore the book focuses on the various private and public aspects of sexual orientation, such as preference, behaviour, partnership and ‘coming out’. It discusses direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, permissible and impermissible exceptions, sanctions, and the role of interest groups and specialised enforcement bodies. This is done against the background of international human rights law and in relation to the general legal situation with respect to lesbian and gay rights in the twenty-seven countries.

The unique perspective taken by the authors and the in-depth and systematic coverage of a wide range of jurisdictions make this book useful not only to judges, legal practitioners, policy makers, academics and students in the EU, but also to readers further afield, interested in European, anti-discrimination, sexual orientation and/or employment law.

Kees Waaldijk is a senior lecturer at the E.M. Meijers Institute of Legal Studies of the University of Leiden, specialising in law & homosexuality issues. Matteo Bonini-Baraldi is a researcher, working at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna. Together they headed the European Group of Experts on Combating Sexual Orientation Discrimination set up by the European Commission.