Testing for Discrimination

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:17 -0500

Testing for Discrimination: Identifying and Prosecuting Human Rights Abuses

By Bea Bodrogi

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This tactical notebook focuses on the successful transplanting to Hungary of "testing," a tactic developed in the antidiscrimination movement in the United States. In testing, an advocacy organization that has received a complaint of an incident of discrimination, immediately sends out "testers" to replicate the incident. If a person, for instance, is denied a job based on their identity, "testers" are sent out immediately to apply for the same job and document their treatment. This documentation will be legitimate evidence of the systematic nature of the discrimination.

The Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI) was founded in 1994 in response to problems caused by longstanding prejudices against the Roma, the largest ethnic minority in Hungary. NEKI seeks to document the experience of discrimination and demonstrate the absence of legal protection for the Roma. The organization has been involved with cases including police brutality, skinhead attacks, and the denial of employment, housing and service in public accommodation.

Since discrimination is often subtle, direct evidence is rare. Adapting a method used by U.S. organisations, NEKI uses testing to collect evidence with which to challenge discrimination in court. After an incident of discrimination is reported to NEKI by a Roma victim, testers – both Roma and non - Roma – are sent to repeat the experience in order to document whether the incident represents a case of systematic discrimination, and to collect evidence for a possible court case. Testing is thus an evidence-gathering tactic that can fit directly into the legal strategy of an organization like NEKI, one confronting the impunity and public apathy about the prevalent problem of racism and discrimination.

The process is quite straightforward: Once NEKI receives a complaint, testers are sent to the place of the alleged discrimination. If the allegation concerns employment, for instance, testing is done by sending out a Roma and a non-Roma person who have similar characteristics and qualifications but differ primarily in their ethnicity. They are sent out at closely spaced intervals on the same day to apply for a job. To make the comparison clear, each tester is asked to take actions comparable to those of his fellow testers. Immediately after completing the test they record their experiences on a questionnaire detailing all the questions asked at the interview, treatment of the applicant, and the description of the job, including salaries and benefits. The test coordinator can then evaluate from this data whether differential treatment has taken place and decide if legal action can be initiated on the grounds of discrimination.

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anti-discrimination, testers

Testing for Discrimination

Testing for Discrimination: Identifying and Prosecuting Human Rights Abuses