Assessing inequalities in your community

You probably have an idea on the various issues affecting equality in your community. This assessment should enable you to develop a clearer picture that will help you to examine the various aspects of equality in your community.

By conducting this assessment, you will gain a broad overview so as to know where to focus your efforts when taking action for an equal community.

You can complete this exercise by reflecting on the statements below but to make the most use of it, we recommend downloading the assessment PDF included in the downloads. This is an interactive PDF that you can use to assess equality in your community. Download it to your device by clicking on it.

• My community is a place where everyone is safe and secure. (UHDR, Articles 3 and 5)
• Members of my community are free from discrimination based on their gender, religion, the way they dress, who their friends are, the color of their skin, their caste or class, etc. (UDHR, Articles 1, 2, 7 and 16)
• Members of my community have equal access to the rights in the UDHR. (UDHR, Articles 2 and 7)
• Members of my community can freely express their beliefs and ideas without the fear of being discriminated against, excluded, threatened or attacked. (UDHR, Articles 18 and 19)
• Members of my community welcome people who seek asylum because they are persecuted in their country. (UDHR, Article 14)
• Members of my community can vote and are able to take part in government. (UDHR, Article 21)
• Members of my community are never treated or punished in a way that is degrading or cruel, or makes them feel less human. (UDHR, Article 5)
• In my community the personal space and possessions of every person are respected (UDHR, Articles 12 and 17)
• People who work in my community are paid well enough to have an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families and receive standard days off and holiday pay. (UDHR, Articles 4, 22, 23, 24 and 25
• In my community I take responsibility to ensure other people do not discriminate against others. (UDHR, Articles 2 and 29)
• In my community I am confident that nobody can take away the rights of others. (UDHR, Article 30)

Discussion

Inequality and discrimination can be blatantly obvious but sometimes they also happen in more subtle ways.

Reflecting on your own community and based on your assessment in this exercise, where do you see inequality and discrimination happening? Why would you want to change the discrimination and inequality in your community?