Recommendation 34

The ability of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission to bring cases under the Human Rights Act of their own motion is an important part of their function as human rights champions. It is possible that the omission of the retention of this ability from Schedule 5 of the Bill is inadvertent. In any event, it needs to be rectified. We recommend that Schedule 5 of Bill is amended to make clear that the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission retain their ability to bring own motion cases (see Annex, Amendments 18 and 19).