Multilevel governance, equality and human rights: evaluating the first decade of devolution in Wales

The creation of a ‘regional’ legislature for Wales in 1999 presents the opportunity to evaluate the promotion of equality and human rights in the context of multi-level governance in the UK. A decade on, positive aspects include the political reprioritisation of equalities in policy and law and new forms of representative and discursive politics. However, significant shortcomings are also evident. Overall, the Wales case study suggests that sub-unitary-state legislatures have the potential to tailor equalities policies to meet local needs more effectively, yet progress may be arrested by context-specific factors, as well as those that resonate with the international literature on mainstreaming equalities in the work of government