WUNRN
WUNRN Requests Data Gender Disaggregation with This Report Call for Reliable Data on Groups at Risk of Discrimination.
Ethnic Origin & Disability Data Collection in Europe:
Measuring Inequality – Combating Discrimination
November 2014 Open Society Initiative for Europe
Direct Link to Full 80-Page 2014 Report: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/ethnic-origin-and-disability-data-collection-europe-20141126.pdf
The report Ethnic Origin and Disability Data Collection in Europe:
Measuring Inequality—Combating Discrimination is published within the
framework of the Equality Data Initiative, a project launched by the Open
Society Foundations in collaboration with the Migration Policy
Group and the European Network Against Racism to increase
awareness within the European Union for the need to collect reliable data for
groups at risk of discrimination.
The report challenges the commonly held view in Europe that the collection
of disability and ethnic data is categorically prohibited. It voices the
necessity to involve the affected communities in the process of defining best
practices and to respect binding core principles of data collection such as
self-identification of the data subject and consent-based, voluntary, and
anonymized data collection.
The focus of the research is on Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Ireland,
Romania, and Sweden in the field of public education and on France in the field
of public employment. Most of these EU member states collect data about their
citizens in one or other way. However—as the report suggests—their methods lead
to results that are either inaccurate or unreliable. The report makes
recommendations for action at both the national and EU levels in order to
achieve effective change in the field of equality data and to use data to
promote equal treatment.
Advocacy and strategic litigation are needed to steer national debates away from taboos, and question unlawful, harmful, or simply unsuitable data collection practices, and to call for the inclusion of disability and ethnic minority communities in the process. The European Commission and other EU institutions can provide guidance in this process by issuing recommendations and guidelines on equality data collection.