Building a preventative culture December 2021 The Race Relations Act 1965 (UK) was amended in 2000 to introduce the duty, which was ‘designed to shift the onus from individuals to organisations, placing for the first time an obligation on public authorities to positively promote equality, not merely to avoid discrimination’.37 The duty entailed an obligation on public authorities to have ‘due regard’ to the ‘need to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups’.38 The duty was regulated via the then Commission for Racial Equality and enforced through judicially enforceable compliance notices and judicial review claims.39 In 2008, the Commission for Racial Equality surveyed the UK race equality duty alongside other positive race-related duties in Canada, the USA and the European Union, noting that these new types of racial equality duties recognise racial discrimination as a pervasive social problem, rather than an offence which can be attributed to a single individual or group, and place the onus of redressing inequality on those who have the greatest power to achieve social change, rather than on those who are most at fault.40 Subsequent to the implementation of the race equality duty in the UK, it was recognised that other areas of discrimination law could benefit from similar duties. The disability equality duty was introduced in 2006, and the gender equality duty in 2007.41 In 2007, the UK consolidated its various human rights authorities (such as the Commission for Racial Equality) into one national body, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). With the introduction of the Equality Act, the public sector equality duty replaced the standalone duties with the overarching PSED across all nine protected grounds. (ii) Contents of the PSED The PSED incorporates a general equality duty, alongside specific equality duties set out in regulations, which are intended to aid performance of the general duty.42 The general duty is a legal responsibility that applies to key public authorities and to private bodies carrying out a public function.43 It incorporates three arms – public authorities must show they have paid due regard to the need to • eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by the Act • advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it • foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.44 FREE AND EQUAL An Australian Conversation on Human Rights 65