Promoting equality or fostering resentment? The public sector equality duty and religion and belief

Abstract

The paper assesses the extension of the public sector equality duty to cover religion and belief. The duty on public authorities is to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation on grounds of religion and belief; and advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people of different religions (and none). The paper considers a number of concerns about how this duty may be applied in the context of religion and belief, and, in particular, that it could give rise to resentment between communities rather than fostering good relations. It is suggested that the potential difficulties of such a duty, when applied to religion and belief, may be lessened if it is based overtly on a concept of equality which aims to address disadvantage, rather than on a concept based on dignity or recognition.

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