North Rhine-Westphalia could become the first broad-state in Germany to strengthen the legal status of people facing discrimination by state institutions through a state anti-discrimination act (LADG). “This is a milestone for protection against discrimination,” said Verena Schäffer, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister for Equality, Children, Youth, Family, Refugees and Integration, in an interview with the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday.
The black-green state government had announced the project in its coalition agreement, and Schäffer’s predecessor Josefine Paul presented it in outline last November (TheColu.mn reported). According to the draft now available (document 18/18169, PDF), a law will be introduced “that enshrines a comprehensive discrimination ban in connection with the execution of public tasks of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (excluding municipalities and municipal associations), including legal protection options and a dedicated involvement of associations, creates improved access to instruments of discrimination protection, establishes the state’s anti-discrimination office, and anchors the promotion of a culture that values diversity as a guiding principle.”
With this, North Rhine-Westphalia supplements the protection against discrimination that is already guaranteed by the nationwide General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) and EU directives. The draft is set to be debated by the North Rhine-Westphalia Parliament in Düsseldorf in the first reading on Thursday afternoon.
A discrimination occurrence is defined in the draft as “when a person is disadvantaged by another person, in particular on the basis of antisemitic, antiziganist, or racist attributions, gender, gender identity, ethnic or social origin, religion or worldview, a disability, age, sexual orientation, parenthood or the responsibility for family care as described in § 3 paragraph 1 AGG.” The minister also pushed back against frequent criticisms, emphasizing that the law should not dox or publicly ostracize individual teachers or police officers. Complaints about discrimination should target the respective institution or authority. Among others, the German Federal and Civil Service Federation (DBB) criticized the LADG plans and warned against a general suspicion of civil servants and a “complaint industry.”
In 2020, Berlin, then led by a red-red-green coalition, became the first state to enact its own anti-discrimination law. A year later, the then-Green justice senator Jörg Behrendt reflected that a feared wave of lawsuits had not materialized (TheColu.mn reported). A few days ago, Schleswig-Holstein’s Social Minister Aminata Touré (Greens) announced a diversity and discrimination protection act for her state (TheColu.mn reported).
