Iceland needs comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and an equality body
[10/02/12
09:00] “Iceland should adopt comprehensive equal
treatment legislation and set up an effective and independent
national equality body to promote its implementation” said the
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas
Hammarberg, at the end of a two-day visit to Iceland.
The current non-discrimination provisions in
Icelandic law do not protect all vulnerable
groups of people to the same extent. People with
disabilities, older persons, members of ethnic
and religious minorities and transgender persons
would benefit from stronger guarantees against
discrimination. “Equal treatment legislation
should cover all the relevant grounds of
discrimination in all walks of life”, stressed
the Commissioner (more)
“OSCE and Council of Europe should strengthen co-operation to increase human rights protection””
[02/02/12
15:00] “The Council of Europe, the OSCE and other
international actors need to further co-operate to counter
negative developments in relation to human rights issues” said
today Commissioner Hammarberg addressing the Permanent Council
of the OSCE.
Commissioner
Hammarberg said that the priorities of the Council of Europe and
the OSCE, especially in the human dimension, are similar,
despite the differences in the two organizations’ mandates. He
mentioned the importance of taking good account of human rights
aspects of addressing protracted conflicts in Europe and said
that the Council of Europe stands ready to co-operate with the
OSCE on this. (more)