The New Commission for Equality and Human Rights: Building Community Cohesion and Revitalizing Citizenship in Contemporary Britain

This article is an examination of some of the key aspects of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights in Britain proposed in the Fairness for All White Paper in 2003. The article focuses on the role the new Commission will play in the specific areas of revitalizing citizenship, building community cohesion and in conflict resolution in contemporary Britain. The article examines the presentation in the White Paper of the ‘anticipated future challenges’ (in relation to ethnic and religious minority groups) that allegedly threaten twenty-first century Britain and the role the new Commission is to play in responding to these future challenges. In the article it will be suggested that the ‘core functions’ associated with the proposed Commission are closely related to many of the developments associated with radical democratic theory, that is: (1) the promotion of intersectional and de-centred social identities and concomitantly an intersectional perspective on inequality and discrimination; and, (2) the development of an overarching project that encourages the construction of chains of equivalence between diverse ‘protected groups’ within a culture in which human rights are respected as the ‘common place’ of citizenship. The article concludes that the most significant threat to the Labour Government’s promotion of a human rights ‘culture change’ as suggested in the White Paper is the Government’s increasing disrespect of human rights in the name on the war on terrorism