EU Charter for Equality

Speech by Cllr Zoé Patrick delivered to Full Council on Tue 17th Jun 2008

The European Charter for Equality of women and men in local life is set up to enable local authorites to use their powers and partnerships to achieve greater equality for their people. Signing the Charter makes a formal public commitment to the principle of equality of women and men and implementation of this means drawing up an Equality Action Plan setting out priorities. Well we have already done this in our Gender Equality Scheme and excellent document setting out our actions for 2007 - 2010. So this motion is not asking the Council to do something different, it is merely acknowledging the work that our officers have put into this document and enabling us to make this public and ensure people know that we have made that commitment. What is more, and we can take some kudos for this, is that we shall be one of the first authorities in England to have done this. Although there are over 500 municipalities in Europe who have signed this charter, here there is only one authority so far (Chester-le-Street) and I am sure that this is mainly because people are unaware of the EU charter.

I was fortunate to have attended a cross-party delegation from the LGA to Pisa earlier this year to witness the signing of the declaration and much work has gone into the preparation of this. Cllr Clare Whelan (Conservative), Cllr Mary Aspinall (Labour) have been doing a lot of the work involved over the years, so I was able to join in what was the final 'leg of the journey' - for want of a better expression, so I am sure that those members on the LGA from this authority, will realise the hard work which has already been put in.

This Charter outlines key principles dealing with multiple discrimination, balanced representation and participation, stereotypes and obstacles and develops policies and services which take into account the specific needs of women and men in local life. The Charter has now been circulated to all members of the LGA early this year, with the recommendation that the Charter can be used as a tool to implement the Gender duty, and as stated earlier I believe the work has been done. The Charter is published on the website but what I have done is circulate to all members today a couple of pages of the key principles so that it can be seen quite simply by us all.

This is not going to cause anyone any problems, we are simply acknowledging the work as important in our daily lives. I hope there will be no problem with this, it will be an excellent example that we can set in Oxfordshire, and something we can say we are doing well. Let us embrace this document and therefore show our residents that we truly are committed to the equality agenda.

Indeed, to quote Cllr John Howell's words from the Forward to this document

"There are three outcomes we wish to see this Scheme help deliver:

That planning at all levels within the Council Council is undertaken with the aim of eliminating discrimination by gender;

That our customers and those we serve are able to access the County Council and to deal with the County Council without discrimination by gender;

That our staff and those with whom we work operate in an environment in which decisions are taken without discrimination by gender.

This is a genuine commitment to gender equality which fits well with our overall ambitions for the people we serve.

Then this is followed by the councillor's signature.

So let us put our signature onto this important charter (I have a copy here). I don't think I need to speak any longer on this. There is certainly no need to complicate matters, I simply ask you to support this motion because I believe it is something that we must all believe in so it is just a matter of completing the formalities.