Starting points for equal treatment obligations of State institutions (Public Sector Duties) are well-developed concepts in North Ireland and the UK, which are seen as a further conceptual development of affirmative action.

Public Sector Duties legally bind State institutions to practise equal treatment while fulfilling their tasks. They must take equal treatment appropriately into account during all of their activities (i.e. providing services, decision making or when taking any action).

Public Sector Duties should compensate for disadvantages by forcing State institutions to give preferential treatment to people affected by discrimination in order to create an equal opportunity with those not affected by discrimination.

Public sector duties in the UK oblige State institutions that they must thoroughly analyze how their decisions and measures implemented will influence the lives of citizens affected by discrimination. In so doing, they intend for the institutions to take into account discrimination and the needs of the disadvantaged party in their everyday work processes, and, by doing so, give higher priority to diversity.

Affirmative action commitments do not focus on sanctioning the behavior of individual cases of discrimination, but instead on removing and preventing structural and institutional causes of discrimination. This way, inequality shall be addressed as such and everyone’s quality of life shall be improved.

Due to the orientation on civil law, State actors are only conditionally subject to the AGG. Within the framework of interaction with the State, the principle of the equal treatment in article 3 (3) German Basic Law is applicable in general. Concrete actions to make this regulation effective in practice are, however, completely absent. Therefore, a legal framework should be formed that binds State institutions and private enterprises to a certain extent.

The introduction of public sector duties should be accompanied by continued monitoring and by evaluation on a regular basis, so that an assessment of whether the desired results are reached or not is possible. To have an actual and sustainable effect on structures that create disadvantages, regular analysis and the publicizing of action plans are required. In the event of failure to comply with public sector duties, it should be possible to impose sanctions. This is the only way to create an environment of equal treatment that is not dependent on the good will of individual actors.

Proper implementation of obligatory public sector duties requires a structure or an institution that has the mandate to monitor, support, and control.

For more about this, see here and here.