Emma Lantschner
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- November 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780192843371
- eISBN:
- 9780191925979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192843371.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, EU Law
Chapter 5 comparatively assesses the implementation of the provision of the RED dealing with the Equality Bodies’ function of providing independent assistance to victims of discrimination in pursuing ...
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Chapter 5 comparatively assesses the implementation of the provision of the RED dealing with the Equality Bodies’ function of providing independent assistance to victims of discrimination in pursuing their complaint. Although the EED does not call for the establishment of such bodies, most countries have extended their mandates to include the discrimination grounds covered by this Directive. After discussing issues related to the structure of these bodies, the chapter focuses on the legal framework and implementation practice concerning the independence of Equality Bodies. It then looks separately at predominantly tribunal-type bodies and predominantly promotion-type bodies. While the former spend the bulk of their time and resources hearing, investigating, and deciding on individual instances of discrimination brought before them, the latter can either engage in mediation or consultation, engage in various ways before courts, or decide (mostly in a legally non-binding form) cases brought before them. Case studies look at the practical implementation in Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria for the former type of body, and in Belgium, Ireland, and Germany for the latter type of body. The findings show that Equality Bodies are suffering from inadequate resources, limited independence, and lack of awareness of their existence and the support they can provide. Nevertheless they have contributed to individual redress, societal change, and legal clarification by litigating cases as far as the CJEU. The chapter closes with indicators derived from the comparative analysis that can be used to monitor the effective implementation of the obligation to establish bodies that independently support victims of discrimination.Less
Chapter 5 comparatively assesses the implementation of the provision of the RED dealing with the Equality Bodies’ function of providing independent assistance to victims of discrimination in pursuing their complaint. Although the EED does not call for the establishment of such bodies, most countries have extended their mandates to include the discrimination grounds covered by this Directive. After discussing issues related to the structure of these bodies, the chapter focuses on the legal framework and implementation practice concerning the independence of Equality Bodies. It then looks separately at predominantly tribunal-type bodies and predominantly promotion-type bodies. While the former spend the bulk of their time and resources hearing, investigating, and deciding on individual instances of discrimination brought before them, the latter can either engage in mediation or consultation, engage in various ways before courts, or decide (mostly in a legally non-binding form) cases brought before them. Case studies look at the practical implementation in Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria for the former type of body, and in Belgium, Ireland, and Germany for the latter type of body. The findings show that Equality Bodies are suffering from inadequate resources, limited independence, and lack of awareness of their existence and the support they can provide. Nevertheless they have contributed to individual redress, societal change, and legal clarification by litigating cases as far as the CJEU. The chapter closes with indicators derived from the comparative analysis that can be used to monitor the effective implementation of the obligation to establish bodies that independently support victims of discrimination.
Georges Vigarello
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231159760
- eISBN:
- 9780231535304
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231159760.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This book maps the evolution of Western ideas about fat and fat people from the Middle Ages to the present, paying particular attention to the role of science, fashion, fitness crazes, and public ...
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This book maps the evolution of Western ideas about fat and fat people from the Middle Ages to the present, paying particular attention to the role of science, fashion, fitness crazes, and public health campaigns in shaping these views. While hefty bodies were once a sign of power, today those who struggle to lose weight are considered poor in character and weak in mind. The book traces the eventual equation of fatness with infirmity and the way we have come to define ourselves and others in terms of body type. The text begins with the medieval artists and intellectuals who treated heavy bodies as symbols of force and prosperity. It then follows the shift during the Renaissance and early modern period to courtly, medical, and religious codes that increasingly favored moderation and discouraged excess. Scientific advances in the eighteenth century also brought greater knowledge of food and the body’s processes, recasting fatness as the “relaxed” antithesis of health. The body-as-mechanism metaphor intensified in the early nineteenth century, with the chemistry revolution and heightened attention to food-as-fuel, which turned the body into a kind of furnace or engine. During this period, social attitudes toward fat became conflicted, with the bourgeois male belly operating as a sign of prestige but also as a symbol of greed and exploitation, while the overweight female was admired only if she was working class. The book concludes with the fitness and body-conscious movements of the twentieth century and the proliferation of personal confessions about obesity, which tied fat more closely to notions of personality, politics, taste, and class.Less
This book maps the evolution of Western ideas about fat and fat people from the Middle Ages to the present, paying particular attention to the role of science, fashion, fitness crazes, and public health campaigns in shaping these views. While hefty bodies were once a sign of power, today those who struggle to lose weight are considered poor in character and weak in mind. The book traces the eventual equation of fatness with infirmity and the way we have come to define ourselves and others in terms of body type. The text begins with the medieval artists and intellectuals who treated heavy bodies as symbols of force and prosperity. It then follows the shift during the Renaissance and early modern period to courtly, medical, and religious codes that increasingly favored moderation and discouraged excess. Scientific advances in the eighteenth century also brought greater knowledge of food and the body’s processes, recasting fatness as the “relaxed” antithesis of health. The body-as-mechanism metaphor intensified in the early nineteenth century, with the chemistry revolution and heightened attention to food-as-fuel, which turned the body into a kind of furnace or engine. During this period, social attitudes toward fat became conflicted, with the bourgeois male belly operating as a sign of prestige but also as a symbol of greed and exploitation, while the overweight female was admired only if she was working class. The book concludes with the fitness and body-conscious movements of the twentieth century and the proliferation of personal confessions about obesity, which tied fat more closely to notions of personality, politics, taste, and class.
