CCFON and CLC are urging the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to ensure that it adopts a multi-faceted approach to protecting human rights and recognising diversity rather than pursuing a one-dimensional ‘equality’ agenda. The call comes in the form of CCFON & CLC’s response to the EHRC’s consultation on its Casework and Litigation Strategy 2010 – 2012.
The Strategy will be used by the EHRC to decide which legal cases it will support over the next two years in order to “extend the reach of equality and human rights legislation and protection”. In their joint submission, CCFON and CLC express concern over the coverage and subjective nature of the criteria which could easily be misinterpreted encouraging further attacks on religious exceptions and Christian freedoms of thought, conscience, speech and behaviour.
Commenting on the EHRC’s Casework and Litigation strategy, Andrea Minichiello Williams (Director, CCFON & CLC) said: “It is vital that the EHRC adopt more robust and objective criteria that reflect the full orb of its founding mandate to ensure fairness and justice for all. If not, we face the prospect of a ‘hierarchy of rights’ developing in the UK in which some individuals and groups are ‘more’ equal than others.”
Click here to view CCFON & CLC’s joint submission to the consultation.