Rapport varnar för att Storbritanniens Equality Act skapar diskriminering | NTD NYHETER

Could laws that aim to reduce discrimination end up achieving the opposite result, and even have knock-on consequences such as hindering a nation's economic potential? A new report by the campaign group Don't Divide Us says the answer to these questions is yes, and argues that the UK's Equality Act is not fit for its stated purpose. The Equality Act 2010 aims to reduce discrimination by giving protection to certain personal characteristics, such as race, religion, gender or functional disability. But Anna Lotfi, a lawyer with a focus on equality and human rights, says that this violates the principle of equality. The report examined more than 5,500 cases of racial discrimination between 2017 and 2024. It has been shown that only 201, i.e. 5% of cases of racial discrimination, have been approved in the working class. Even if the figure is low, it highlights a deeper cultural trend. Alka Selgal-Cuthbert, head of Don't Divide Us, says that it changes how people see themselves. This is a really worrying bit. We come to identify ourselves primarily by our ethnicity, primarily by our skin color, not by our actions, our thoughts, what we say, what we do, our professions, our friendship circles, or our interests that bring different people together. No, it's purely by our skin color. It is a shift away from judging people by their character, and instead judging them by their group affiliation. What that means in the workplace is that telling jokes, asking somebody what did you do over Easter weekend, counts as a microaggression. She said that this actually happened in a court case, and the argument was as follows. Celebrates Easter, so how dare you come in and ask about an Easter weekend when that could be aggressing somebody who's not a Christian. She says that this attitude creates division at workplaces. People are worried that what they say can be interpreted as problematic, regardless of how innocent it was meant. This affects people's ability to speak freely. The British government is now considering whether a new law on race equality should be introduced. In that case, it would strengthen the decisions in the current Equality Act. Anna Lotfi warns that this is a worm in our clothes. ...to increase their control of individuals, and to justify whatever it is they want to justify in the workplace and elsewhere. But it's clearly not something that the ordinary man or woman on the street needs. The report recommends a legal oversight of the Equality Act, to identify parts that are inconsistent with the principle of equality in the law, and finally to revoke the entire system with codified, protected properties that are inscribed in the law. Malcolm Hudson reporting for NTD News in London.