Reaction to Discrimination by Judicial Mechanisms

Chapter 4 sets out to pool the results of more than fifteen years of implementation of those provisions of RED and EED that give interested organizations an important role in providing a more effective level of protection to victims of discrimination. The chapter comparatively assesses the legal standing of NGOs in discrimination disputes and to what extent Member States have introduced also collective forms of redress. It then carries out in-depth case studies on the implementation practice in Romania, Hungary, and Germany to understand which factors (legal framework or implementation practice) influence the success or failure of a system. The research finds that the positive results of NGO litigation at individual and societal level could not be achieved because of, but despite of the role played by state authorities. Legal challenges relate to limited legal standing, sometimes restricted to certain levels of jurisdiction or certain bodies, and the fact that collective redress is foreseen only in about half of the Member States. Even where legislation is permissive, practical challenges involve an insufficient territorial coverage with NGOs acting in support of victims of discrimination, lack of funding, lack of awareness among victims about being able to turn to NGOs, lack of referencing systems, and an increasingly hostile environment vis-à-vis NGOs working for vulnerable groups. On the basis of these findings, structural, process, and outcome indicators to monitor the effective implementation of the provisions giving a role to NGOs in judicial dispute resolution are deduced.