2012 was another very busy year. No fewer than 5,118 people contacted  the Centre with a request for information, advice or assistance. In  order to give a swift and satisfactory response to each of these  questions, we honed the methodology of our approach, without failing to  give special attention to the psychological needs of the complainants.  Always preferring conciliation, negotiated solutions and alternative  measures, the Centre only brought legal action in five cases of  discrimination.

 The complaints referred to us for investigation often enable us to put  our finger on things that are wrong or not going well in our society,  and give us the opportunity to take preventive measures. On the one  hand, these activities involve training, providing information and  raising awareness; in this respect the Centre embarked on new paths in  2012, including e-learning and coaching of organisations, to mention but  two. On the other hand, it is also our task to draft opinions and  recommendations for better regulations, in the light of surveys and  studies (such as the diversity barometer) or the role the Centre often  plays as a forum for debate and discussion. The objective here is to  bring together various players with a view to making headway on specific  problems related to discrimination, diversity, fundamental rights of  foreigners, et cetera. In October 2012, the municipal elections  presented the opportunity to stress the major role of local  decision-makers in the fight against discrimination and in the promotion  of equal opportunities and the respect for the fundamental rights of  foreigners.

In 2012, we started up the service for the monitoring of the United  Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; a new  mission entrusted to us jointly by the federal, regional and community  authorities in 2011. A step was thus taken both towards the new  interfederal Centre and towards an approach to disability now centred on  human rights rather than solely anti-discrimination. The Centre is well  aware that the expectations are considerable – a case such as  Plopsaland is proof of that – and intends to continue to work with the  utmost zeal in an endeavour to make good these expectations.

The Centre has achieved renown not only in Belgium. Indeed, it is also  very well-known and much appreciated at international level, further to  its active participation in some eight cooperation agreements. The  Centre also received numerous international visits in 2012, not only  from EU countries, but also from Brazil, Vietnam and Taiwan. Equal  opportunities and human rights have been a matter with which the  international community has concerned itself from time immemorial, with  countries undertaking vis-à-vis each other to place the bar ever higher  in this field.
In December 2006, a working group set about the task of converting the  Centre into an interfederal institution. A political agreement was  concluded to this end between the federal government, the regions and  the communities in July 2012. This agreement is structured around four  component parts: an interfederal centre for the fight against  discrimination, a federal centre for the analysis of migration flows, an  interfederal institute for the equality of women and men, and a human  rights umbrella organisation. For the time being, the Centre is hoping  above all that this political agreement will soon become a reality.

The creation of a new interfederal centre for the fight against  discrimination will enable every resident in our country to approach one  and the same institution for any request for information, advice or  assistance on the subject of discrimination (with the exception of sex  discrimination), without having to rack his brains over whether this is a  federal, regional or community matter. Due to the fact that all the  expertise will be pooled in a single interfederal centre, citizens will  also be certain to receive the best possible treatment, and the total  cost will only represent a fraction of what it would have been if each  authority had created its own separate institution. Meanwhile, the  federal centre for the analysis of migration flows will be providing  information on migration flows, ensuring respect for the fundamental  rights of foreigners, and promoting the fight against human trafficking.
This new structure will mean that the two ‘centres’ should benefit from  greater independence and enhanced effectiveness, and the Centre  sincerely hopes that the ‘interfederal human rights  umbrella  organisation’, which has been promised for so long, soon sees the light  of day, since it  should improve harmonisation and coordination of all  the human rights mechanisms in place in this country and remedy the  shortcomings at which the UN (rightly) continues to point an accusing  finger. This will also result in better guarantees as regards the  respect for the fundamental rights of every resident of our country, and  the more comprehensive and coherent fulfilment of our international  commitments.

2013 will therefore not only be the year that sees the Centre celebrate  its twentieth anniversary, on 15 February, but also, without doubt, the  year of far-reaching structural change.
We hope you enjoy reading this report, which you can download below.

Edouard Delruelle, Deputy Director Jozef De Witte, Director