Non-discrimination

An anti-discrimination law had been put in place in Germany. However, seeking legal help for those who experienced discrimination at the workplace based on their identity could be difficult, not only because it was challenging to prove but also because there were low levels of awareness about legal protection in this regard, as well as about subsequent rights to compensation. As a result, it was problematic to obtain statistics on how many people were victims of discrimination and the proportion of those who sought legal help. It was also noted that it was very difficult to litigate against state players. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of cases of discrimination based on race or origin had increased according to the participants. In the majority of cases, people of Asian origin were victims of these attacks.

The LGBTIQ+ community had noticed many positive developments over the past few decades, including at legislative level, although efforts to improve their integration still needed to be stepped up. In 2017, same-sex marriages were introduced. For lesbian couples, if one of the women gave birth to a child, the other woman did not enjoy equal parenting rights. Recently, the community had been under fire from right-wing and populist movements. Surveys showed that transsexual people encountered even more discrimination at the workplace than homosexual people did.

In 2017, Saxony proposed an ambitious plan in relation to LGBTIQ+ rights, but it was not fully implemented; the plan failed, for example, to grant healthcare to transsexual people. Many cases of discrimination had been reported in Saxony, but the police had not reacted sufficiently. In October 2020, a gay couple was stabbed in Dresden; one of the men died, the other was seriously injured. It took a long time before police identified this as a hate crime. Bavaria was the only federal state without any action plan to tackle homophobia or transphobia. However, the Bavarian authorities explained that in January 2021 an office for the protection of LGBTIQ+ people had been set up to protect both victims and witnesses of crimes against the community. Participants called for the implementation of the European LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025⁽⁶⁾ and expressed the belief that it would considerably improve the situation in Germany.

Concerning elderly people, some of the stakeholders believed that the age limit required for some services was often not justified and that the approach should be individual, for instance in the case of health insurance or car rental. Authorities explained that in these cases, statistical data assessing potential risks were used to determine insurance premiums. Elderly people experienced discrimination in the recruitment process and theirsubsequent complaints were usually dismissed as age-related. People older than 65 had to pay extra for comprehensive car insurance. Loans could not be granted to people above a certain age limit. It was underlined that digitalisation was posing difficulties for the elderly and therefore non-digital alternatives should be kept available to ensure that they had the same access to services, especially when it came to healthcare.

Although Sinti and Roma had been living in Germany for 600 years, they still did not enjoy the same citizens' rights as ethnic Germans. Their children continued to experience discrimination in schools. It was stated that, in discussions in the General Council convened a week before the EESC's country visit to Germany, the German State Secretary of EU Affairs had acknowledged that mounting antiziganism and anti-Semitism in Germany should be a new wake-up call for the country.

Representatives of linguistic minorities reported that they were faced with attacks by right-wing movements and experienced discrimination in the workplace. In Saxony, which was home to Sorbs, signs could be written in their language along with German signs.

Women remained underrepresented in the German Bundestag: less than one third of parliamentarians were female⁽⁷⁾. The average federal pay gap was estimated at 19% (2019)⁽⁸⁾. The pension gap was even more striking: women aged 65+ received 59.6% of that which their male peers⁽⁹⁾ received. Organisations protecting women rights reported cases of forced marriage at a young age, female genital mutilation and the traffic of women. Childcare facilities remained insufficient, which made it more challenging for mothers of young children to be integrated into the labour market. Authorities agreed that COVID-19 imposed extra tasks, which typically fell on women; they had to deal with telework and home-schooling
of their children at the same time, which was often difficult to combine. One CSO participant was concerned that positive developments achieved in gender equality before the pandemic might be reversed.

(6) LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025 | European Commission (europa.eu)
(7) German Bundestag – members https://www.bundestag.de/en/members.
(8) Eurostat – https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Gend…
(9) Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth – The Gender Pension Gap