Memorandum by the Inter Faith Network
for the UK
INTRODUCTION
1. The Inter Faith Network for the UK welcomes
the opportunity to provide a memorandum for the Committee in the
context of its inquiry into equality.
BACKGROUND
2. The Inter Faith Network for the UK was
established in 1987 to promote good relations between people of
different faiths in this country. Its 133 member bodies include
representative bodies of the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu,
Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian faiths; national, regional,
local and other inter faith bodies; and educational and academic
bodies specialising in inter faith relations.
3. The Inter Faith Network:
— Works to raise awareness of the importance
of good inter faith relations.
— Runs an information and advice service.
— Publishes materials to help people
working in the religious and inter faith sectors.
— Holds meetings of its member bodies
and sets up multi faith working groups, seminars and conferences
to pursue particular issues in greater depth.
4. The faith community national representative
bodies meet together for discussions on matters of common concerns
in the Network's Faith Communities Forum.
THE COMMISSION
FOR EQUALITY
AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
5. The Network has been involved since the
adoption by the European Council of Ministers in December 2000
of its directive on discrimination in the fields of employment
and training with the subsequent process which has now led to
the establishment of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
In broad terms the Network has welcomed the creation of this new
organisation. In addition to making possible a more comprehensive
and integrated approach to its agenda, it will provide a resource,
in the absence of any pre-existing Commission in this field, for
dealing with issues relating to the discrimination strand of religion
and belief and the religion and belief dimension of its "good
relations" work.
6. The Chair and Commissioners and some
senior staff have been appointed to the CEHR but is only now beginning
to build up its staff and is currently engaged in reflection and
consultation on how best to discharge its responsibilities. Preliminary
indications are that it intends to undertake a good deal of its
work on a "cross strand" basis and there are sound arguments
for doing so. At the same time, it is very important that the
Commission should maintain units of expertise in the character
and concerns of particular strands where there are pre-existing
commissions whose work it will inherit (ie race, gender and disability),
as well as building up fresh expertise in those areas for which
there is no pre-existing commission (ie religion and belief, sexual
orientation and age). This will be important if the different
constituencies with which the Commission will be dealing are to
have confidence in its capacity to understand and deal adequately
with their concerns. It will also ensure that there is a knowledgeable
port of call for those falling within a particular category to
approach on a particular issue, even if this may then need to
be dealt with by the Commission on a broader basis. We hope that
the Committee will encourage the CEHR to take these requirements
into consideration in structuring its organisation.
7. We have been encouraged by the assurances
that have been given that the Commission wishes to develop strong
procedures for consultation with different constituencies in line
with the statutory requirement on this in the Equality Act 2006,
and plans to develop a range of appropriate partnerships in its
work.
8. Since the primary purpose of the Inter
Faith Network is to build good relations between those who belong
to different faith communities in this country, the Commission's
work on "good relations", where it is under a statutory
obligation to give priority to matters relating to race, religion
and belief, is of particular interest. It will be important to
ensure that there is clarity in the allocation of responsibilities
for carrying out different aspects of community cohesion and "good
relations" work between Government departments, the Commission,
other public bodies and voluntary sector organisations. We look
forward to more detailed discussions on this with the Commission.
TAKING FORWARD
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM
THE EQUALITIES
REVIEW AND
THE POSSIBLE
CONTENTS OF
THE DISCRIMINATION
LAW REVIEW
AND A
SINGLE EQUALITY
BILL
9. The Network has no observations to make
at this stage on these matters.
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