Article 13 project: Mobilising Communities, Advocates and Lawyers to Challenge Racial and Other Discrimination in an Expanding Europe
This evaluation looked at a two-year programme funded primarily by the European Commission which aimed to increase take up of anti-discrimination legislation in five EU member states (Czech Republic Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden). The project activities included training for lawyers and national workshops to bring together activists and lawyers, who were then supported to select and work together on strategic anti-discrimination cases.
The evaluator found that the training was well designed and well run and appreciated by most of the participants, some of whom referred to their ongoing use of what they had learnt. However the bringing together of activists and lawyers, did not, in most cases lead to collaboration on strategic cases. MRG did identify and support six cases, but these were found through wider networks of partners and activists rather than strictly from those who had attended the events.
Recommendations included that the two year time frame for the project was unhelpful as it meant that the project could not support cases throughout the long period that it takes to conclude a case. It noted that the project did not address or tackle some other barriers to litigation such as limitations on legal aid and that the support that the project had been able to give was also quite limited which may have contributed to the fact that fewer cases than expected came forward.
Download evaluation: Article 13 project: Mobilising Communities, Advocates and Lawyers to Challenge Racial and Other Discrimination in an Expanding Europe