British one-stop shop on discrimination

THE EDITOR: The current British Labour Government headed by a charismatic PM Tony Blair adhered to a comprehensive, transparent and credible consultative process before tabling this week  a White Paper entitled “Fairness For All — A New Commission for Equality and Human Rights”. It is to be noted that the Paper is a Department of Trade and Industry initiative but Downing Street firmly backed its remit to rid British work-places of violations of human rights and equality. The Paper, an equality cum human rights reforming, innovative, institutional official response to managing British diversity, is geared to mitigating and reducing discrimination and human rights abuses notably in the work-place on six strands of race, gender, age, religion, disability and sexual orientation.

It outlines the rationale that underpins the proposed establishment (in two years by 2006) of a Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) via an Act  to be tabled in Parliament that will result in the three existing equality/human rights institutions being replaced by the one proposed composite CEHR organisation — namely the Commission on Racial Equality (CRE), the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Disability Rights Commission (DRC). In a recent speech to the CBI, PM Tony Blair eulogised the values to Britain of its cherished legacy of diversity. The Paper underlines the need to pursue a robust legislative/institutional approaches as the sine qua non to implement strategic policies, programmes and priorities articulated by Government and geared to embed and create a cohesive, multicultural society based on mutual respect for and appreciation of diversity (multiculturalism) and human rights. That approach is premised on an inclusive agenda-similar to the one flirted with by former PM Panday but only. Except for the Equal Opportunities Commission there were no institutional/legislative proposals and it is ignored and shunned by the present PNM since 1956.

The Paper states that actual, potential and perceived discrimination and human rights abuses and infractions militate against the effective and total mobilisation and harnessing for national development, cohesiveness and prosperity of all the available human potential of British diversity. Unlike in other diverse societies the policy paper provides for the equality/human rights agenda to be the concern of all communities and not exclusively beneficial to and targeting ethnic minorities that make up  8 percent (4.5m) of Britain’s 55 million people. An interesting proposal of the CEHR is to initiate and promote debate on the impact of diversity with a view to it being included in the national educational curriculum. There are interesting proposals to treat with the physically — challenged (22 percent of pop.). With the benefit of distance and objectivity I often wonder having regard to the two current cosmetic, under-funded and totally non-productive approaches to achieving equality and good race relations being pursued in T&T at the highest political levels, why are we spinning top in mud?

STEPHEN KANGAL
East Croydon
England