PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation in the work of public and private sector organizations; and (c) mainstreaming duties, aimed at centralizing equality in the decision-making processes of public authorities.546 While it is beyond the scope of the present guide to discuss these categories at length, an introduction to each of the basic models, and their scope of application, is set out below. A compendium of good practices in this area was published in 2022.547 (a) Preventative duties Preventative duties require duty bearers to adopt measures aimed at preventing acts of discrimination from occurring. These duties are often articulated in broad terms, for instance, requiring that an employer “take measures” to prevent discrimination in the workplace, but are sometimes expressed more concretely, such as a condition that an organization adopt a workplace harassment policy or publish data relating to equal pay.548 While preventative duties are closely tied to the immediate obligation to refrain from discrimination,549 they differ from non-discrimination provisions in that breach occurs due to a failure to follow the relevant procedure and so it is not necessary to establish evidence of a rights violation. In this respect, preventative duties are useful in challenging structural forms of discrimination, particularly in those areas in which individuals may be discouraged from bringing cases, such as the employment sector. (b) Institutional duties Institutional equality duties involve the imposition of an obligation on private organizations (alongside public sector bodies) to review their internal policies, procedures and practices, and integrate equality planning into their modes of work. In this way, institutional duties may help facilitate the conditions necessary to challenge those entrenched institutional norms that lead to discrimination and perpetuate inequality.550 Institutional equality duties are defined by Equinet as “statutory duties on organisations to promote equality for employees or for people accessing their services”.551 These duties typically apply in the fields of employment and education, but may also apply in a broader range of areas of life. Institutional duties can encompass a wide range of the proactive implementation measures discussed elsewhere in the present guide, including the preparation of equality action plans (which may include strategies for training, and awareness-raising on equality), the collection of disaggregated data to inform equality planning and measures to increase diversity. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated that “public and private institutions should be required to develop plans of action to address non-discrimination”.552 Pursuant to this principle, in many national jurisdictions, positive statutory duties have been placed on employers, local authorities or other bodies to be planned and systematic in advancing equality and combating discrimination. Some equality bodies have been accorded roles to support and enforce such duties, which have proven to be key in addressing systemic discrimination and in moving towards the achievement of full equality in practice. NORTHERN IRELAND: EQUALITY DUTIES UNDER THE FAIR EMPLOYMENT AND TREATMENT ORDER The Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order was adopted in 1998, consolidating and expanding earlier legislation. Under the Order, employers with more than 10 employees are required to monitor the community composition of their workforce (defined under the law as the “Protestant community, or the Roman Catholic community”) and submit annual returns to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. If, during this process, an employer identifies gaps in the proportionate representation of its workforce, it must take remedial action to address the imbalance. Article 55 of the Order requires employers to carry out a full review of their relevant employment policies and practices (for instance, relating 70 546 Crowley, Making Europe More Equal, pp. 8–9. 547 Equinet, “Compendium of good practices on equality mainstreaming: the use of equality duties and equality impact assessments” (Brussels, 2021). 548 Ibid., pp. 16–21. See also Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 23 (2016), paras. 48 and 62. 549 For further discussion of this framework, see section I.B of part one of the present guide. 550 Crowley, Making Europe More Equal, pp. 10–11. 551 Ibid., p. 8. 552 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009), para. 38.