Equal treatment and equal opportunities
The principle of equal opportunities means the prohibition of discrimination. In the society, legal regulations on the prohibition of discrimination and the institutions responsible for the enforcement of these legal regulations guarantee equal treatment.
Legal framework
The policy on equal opportunities comprises all those legal and non-legal tools that aim to assure, in the different areas of life, that everybody gets on and prevails with equal opportunities. Consequently, the policy on equal opportunities is not the same as the policy on equal treatment. In Hungary, Article XV of Chapter ‘Freedom and responsibility’ of the Fundamental Law that came into force on 1st January 2012 defines the framework for the policy on equal opportunities. (http://njt.hu/cgi_bin/njt_doc.cgi?docid=140968.322953).
By now in Hungary, the legal and institutional frameworks of the policy on anti-discrimination equal opportunities are present and established. We have taken the initial steps, but the policy on equal opportunities is far from actually infiltrating the different branches of social policy and, especially, every day, concrete social actions. Minimum realisation of inclusion and acceptance and equal opportunities is still a fundamental social problem affecting large number of people, and only well thought-over legal regulations and strong social solidarity can change and remedy this situation.
The first step of harmonisation with the EU legislation was the amendment of the Labour Code in 2001 that included the provision, for the first time, on the principle of equal pay for equal work. The following step of legal harmonisation was the approval of Act CXXV of 2003 on equal treatment and the promotion of equal opportunities (further on: Ebktv). This piece of legislation lists and names the disadvantaged groups suffering from discrimination, elaborates the mechanism of sanctioning and clearly ascertains that it is, in the first place, the task of the state to assure equal opportunities.
The Ebktv is a general act that prohibits, based on the same rules, discrimination against all disadvantaged groups. This law specifically names 19 protected characteristic features and it is possible to enforce the law based on ‘other situations, characteristics or features’ as well. In this regard, the Ebktv gives a uniquely wide interpretation, in comparison to other EU member states of the groups of people who can receive protection based on discrimination. The act is general also in the sense that its scope covers all the legal relations that may occur in all areas of life, specifying in detail the legal regulations applicable for employment, social provisions, health-care, housing, education and training and use of goods and services.
Since the approval of Ebktv, there is constant development in the legal regulations and the institutions prohibiting discrimination and the act was amended several times since its approval. The amendment of 2009 introduced the notion of subsidies based on the principle of equal opportunities that prescribes for the local governments of the settlements to approve a five-year Local Equal Opportunities Programme (LEOP). Following 1st July 2013, the local governments of the settlements are entitled to receive funding from the sub-systems of the national budget, EU funds, or other programmes financed based on international treaties on individual decisions through tendering if they have an effective LEOP compliant with the stipulations of this law.
This article based on the following document: Socialized Operation of Cultural Institutions