Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 100:"Page 6, line 14, at end insert—" ““(e)   participate in reporting processes which exist to monitor compliance with international human rights treaties to which the United Kingdom is party.”” The noble Lord said: In speaking to Amendment No. 100, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 156. As regards Amendment No. 100, there needs to be a clear power for the commission to take part in the reporting processes which exist to monitor compliance with the international human rights treaties by which the United Kingdom is bound. Currently, the Bill does not make that clear. The Paris principles state that a national institution shall have the responsibility to contribute to the reports which states are required to submit to UN bodies and committees in accordance with their treaty obligations. That additional duty would sit in Clause 12 which sets out how the commission shall monitor the law. As regards Amendment No. 156, Clause 9 defines human rights in a very broad way, which is to be welcomed. It will be for the commission to decide which ““other human rights”” fall within Clause 9(2)(b). But in other parts of the Bill the definition of human rights is limited and confined to the Human Rights Act. Under Clause 12 the commission will be obliged to monitor the effectiveness of the equality and human rights enactments. Clause 35, the interpretation clause, makes it clear that ““human rights enactment”” means the Human Rights Act 1998 alone. The implication is that the commission will not, on the face of the Bill, be obliged to monitor the international human rights instruments under which the UK has obligations. Amendment No. 156 seeks to broaden the definition of human rights enactments in Clause 35 to encompass the definition in Clause 9. It is right, of course, that the Human Rights Act should form the main focus of the human rights work of the commission in much of its work, but the other human rights should not be excluded. I am sure it is not intended that they should in any way be excluded. I am thinking about the reports, for example, to the Committee for Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Commission for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee against Torture, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and, above all, the Human Rights Committee, dealing with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. And let us not forget the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. All of that needs to be within the mandate of the commission. I beg to move.