Race: General
Discrimination by educational establishments, whether in the public or private sector, is prohibited. This applies to primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions. Public sector educational establishments have a duty to ensure that facilities for education and any ancillary benefits or services are provided without racial discrimination.
The Department of Education may give directions to its educational institutions that have failed to observe their obligations. The general duty may only be enforced by the Department.
Education authorities are obliged to comply with parental preferences regarding the school they wish their child to be educated at. This is not limited by legislation on discrimination.
Goods, facilities, and services that are available to the public are included. They must not be made available in a discriminatory manner only. This applies whether or not the goods or services are subject to payment.
Facilities or services include accidents in public places, availability of accommodation in hotels, boarding houses, and similar establishments. Facilities provided by banking or insurance entities for grants, loans, credits, or finance, entertainment, recreation, or refreshment facilities, education facilities, transport, travel services, services provided by a profession or trade or by a public or local authority.
Private clubs with more than 25 members may not discriminate in admitting members or allowing them to avail themselves of the club’s services. Associations whose main objects are to benefit members of a particular racial group, defined otherwise than by colour, are exempt; therefore, clubs for particular nationalities.
Discrimination on racial grounds is prohibited in the areas of letting, sale, and/or properties in Northern Ireland. This applies to public and private authorities; private individuals who do not use an estate agent and who do not publish advertisements are not subject to the legislation.
Refusing the sale of property to a member of a particular racial group or charging differential prices or terms and conditions is prohibited. There is an exception where a person selling or renting the premises continues to live in the accommodation or share it. This applies where the residential accommodation consists of no more than two households, and the premises cannot accommodate more than six persons, including the occupier and their near relatives.
There are a number of exemptions for what would otherwise constitute unlawful discrimination: action required by legislation is deemed non-discriminatory. Discrimination based on a person’s nationality, place of residence, or length of residence outside the United Kingdom, which forms the basis of conditions imposed by a governmental department; acts done for safeguarding national security or public safety or public order.
Sports associations and competitive organisations that impose conditions based on place of birth, length of residence, nationality, in relation to eligibility or persons who represent an area or compete in a sporting organisation are exempted.
District councils are under a duty to make appropriate arrangements with a view to securing that their functions are carried out with due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful race discrimination and promote equality of opportunities between persons of different racial groups.
Local authorities have certain scope for imposing compliance conditions on their contractors to ensure that they are fair employers. This applies to their contractual powers.
Generally, they must not have regard to non-commercial matters when awarding contracts, including political interests of the contractors or their controllers or shareholders, financial support from any institutions to or from which the council gives or gets support or the country of origin of supplies or locations of any country of business interest of the contractor.
Local authorities may seek information as approved by the Department of Enterprise and Information relating to workforce matters as are reasonably necessary to ensure compliance with their obligations.
Where a relationship has come to an end, and an act of discrimination has taken place, or there has been harassment that is unlawful, it is unlawful to discriminate against another party on grounds of race, ethnicity, or national origin by subjecting them to a detriment or subjecting another party to harassment where the discrimination or harassment arises out of or is closely connected with that relationship.
Discriminatory practice is the application of a requirement or condition that results in an act of discrimination, which is unlawful based on the above criteria.
It is unlawful to publish or cause to be published an advertisement that indicates or might be understood as indicating an intention by a person to do an act of discrimination. This does not apply to certain advertisements that are subject to exemptions above. The publisher has a defence if they reasonably relied on assurances given by the person placing the ad. It is an offence to knowingly or recklessly give such assurances that are false in a material respect.
It is unlawful to instruct a person over whom one has authority or in accordance with whose wishes a person is willing to act to do anything that constitutes unlawful discrimination.
A provision in a charitable organisation’s constitutional documents that provides for conferring benefits on persons of a certain class by reference to their colour shall have effect as if it provided for conferring the same benefits on persons of the class, which is also applicable if the restriction by colour is disregarded or where the original class is defined by reference to colour only and persons generally. This does not affect provisions in such documents that provide for conferring benefits on persons of a class defined otherwise than by reference to colour.
Further general exceptions include action undertaken to afford persons of a particular racial group access to facilities or service to meet the special needs of persons of that group regarding their education, training, and welfare or ancillary benefits, enjoying certain exemptions that would otherwise constitute unlawful discrimination. Things done on grounds other than race, ethnicity, or national origins for the benefit of persons not ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland in affording them access to facilities for education or training or ancillary benefits, where it appears that the persons do not intend to remain in Northern Ireland after that period of education or training, are not unlawful.
The application of the requirement for vacancies in employment that the person has been unemployed for a particular period is not to be discriminatory. The Commission is to advise and request persons who propose to apply any requirement or condition above.
Discriminatory training that affords persons in a particular racial group access to facilities that would help them for work or encourages persons of a racial group to take advantage of the opportunities may be permitted where it reasonably appears that at any time in the 10 months preceding that there were no persons of that group or in substantial numbers of that group among the workforce in Northern Ireland. Similar provisions apply where the condition applies to an area within Northern Ireland. There are limits on this exemption.
An employer may afford employees of a particular racial group access to facilities that would help them for that work or encourage persons of a particular racial group to take advantage of such facilities where there are no or very limited numbers of persons of that group working in that establishment of that nature or the proportion of persons is small when compared with all of the persons employed or amongst the population of the area from which the employer normally recruits.
Acts done by the Chief Constable to ensure compliance with the post-Good Friday policing provisions regarding the selection of persons as police trainees and for filling posts are not invalidated.
The exemption based on national security may be supported by a certificate by the Secretary of State. There is provision for appeal against a certificate to the Tribunal established under the Northern Ireland Act.