Taking Action

Policies that deliver universal, free high-quality healthcare for all (funding healthcare via tax, removing all user fees, adequate investment in infrastructure and affordable provision and care…). 

Progressive health spending policies.

Policies related to the provision of primary, specialist and continuing healthcare services; policies to ensure overall accessibility and affordability of adequate services for people with disabilities. 

Policies that address mental health problems with adequate systems, services and resources.

Policies that ensure the provision of substance abuse services, coordinated with mental health services and integrated into the healthcare system; prevention programmes; provisions to tackle prescription drug abuse. 

Policies that ensure that contracts with private sector operators within healthcare systems are made public and that there are public procurement rules. 

Policies that remove or discourage the provision of private health insurance as a recognised employment benefit in countries with universal, free access to healthcare.

Tax policies that apply differentiated rates to private healthcare providers to recover the cost to the public system of educating healthcare workers who work within the private.

Policies related to the provision of high quality maternal and child healthcare.

Policies related to public health and prevention measures; public education on nutrition with the goal of promoting healthier diets; investment in healthy living programmes.

Policies related to water supply and sanitation systems, promoting better hygiene practices, improving water quality and guaranteeing affordability of water and sanitation services for all.

Regulatory policies related to health and safety in the workplace, including an inspection regime.

Policies related to disaster risk reduction, including specific investments in disaster-prone zones and other policies to ex-ante reduce risk. 

Policies related to climate change adaptation including support for climate-resilient agriculture, investment in emergency planning and in early warning and weather data systems.

Policies to reduce risk of death and serious injury in road traffic accidents.

Policies to protect women at risk of violence and domestic homicide (safe accommodation), as well as policies to ensure that violence against women is reported / recorded, prosecuted and that women are afforded dignity and respect during the process. 

National action plans to combat racial and religious discrimination.

Policies that seek to break the cycle of gang membership and violence in deprived neighbourhoods.

Policies related to standards of policing (training in relation to human rights, systems to safeguard against cruel and unusual treatment and punishment, police brutality, etc).

Policies related to the treatment and safety of prisoners in detention.

Policies related to adequate policing in terms of coverage of police, presence in certain neighbourhoods, and improving the ability of police to control violence and protect lives.

Policies related to gun control that seek to regulate, restrict and decrease gun ownership and sales, as well as provisions to ban certain types of firearms and strictly regulates sellers and dealers involved.

Policies related to the appropriate control of offensive weapons (use of knives, daggers, other articles). 

Policies that regulate corporate practice in relation to health (price controls, affordability of drugs and medical equipment, control corporate advertising of harmful products, etc). 

Policies that foster positive change in harmful behaviour, offer rehabilitation and education to offenders and ensures support for victims.

Policies to protect women at risk of domestic violence, ensure that violence against women is reported, prosecuted and that women are afforded dignity and respect. 

Policies that address structural problems that lead to limited opportunities to some groups (gang culture and violence). 

Policies aimed at preventing violence against children, including sexual violence and abuse. 

Policies to address the use of new technologies in facilitating the sexual exploitation of children and online harassment and bullying.

Policies that ensure the recording, investigating and prosecution of racist or xenophobic incidents; laws to protect from and criminalise hate crime.

Comprehensive anti-discrimination laws providing for equal treatment for all and prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, age, race, ethnicity, religious views, disability, sexual orientation.

National action plans to combat racial and religious discrimination; educational programmes and public campaigns to promote respect for diversity.

Policies related to gender identity (processes of legal gender recognition accessible and respectful; ensuring protection for transgender persons, etc.).

Policies that promote progressive access to legal rights for certain individuals and groups where inequalities exists (e.g., women have the legal right to hold capital, land and to inherit in their own name).

Policies that guarantee access to justice and the proper investigation, punishment, and reparation of human rights violations.

Policies that ensure full recognition of International Human Rights treaties and standards in domestic law and provide for implementation.

Policies to prevent arbitrary arrest and ‘disappearance’, unlawful detention, unfair punishments and policies to prevent disproportionality. 

Policies that prevent arbitrary questioning, arrests and searches, for example based on the physical appearance. 

Policies related to due process and the conditions, treatment and safety of prisoners in detention and in other places of detention. 

Policies that ensure prison regulator is equipped and resourced to monitor and report on conditions in prison.

Policies which prohibit ‘fast track’ legal/administrative services for the rich – eg, with regard to buying citizenship, etc.

Policies related to standards of policing (training in relation to human rights, systems to safeguard against police brutality, etc.).

Policies related to adequate policing (coverage of police, presence of officers in neighbourhoods, quality service…).

Policies to promote public safety and freedom of movement, such as safety on public transport.

Policies to reduce risk of serious injury in road traffic accidents.

Policies to prevent the possession, receipt, distribution, advertisement and production of child pornography and to combat child sex trafficking. 

Anti-trafficking policies. 

Policies to ensure that all have equal access to legal knowledge, advice, assistance and representation, including the provision of free legal assistance to those unable to afford it. 

Policies related to gun control that seek to regulate, restrict and decrease gun ownership and sales, and provisions to ban certain types of firearms. 

Policies related to the appropriate control of offensive weapons (use of knives, daggers, other articles). 

Policies that deliver universal, high-quality primary and secondary education for all.

Policies that deliver affordable and accessible high quality tertiary education.

Progressive education spending policies.

Policies which address broader issues such as accessibility and affordability of transport for children and young people, safety from harassment and bullying in schools, etc. 

University admissions policies that include inequality reduction targets and quotas for low-income students, state schools, students with disabilities and from minorities.

The design of school admissions policies to ensure that children from the most advantaged family backgrounds are unable to secure privileged access to the highest performing state funding schools.

Policies that ensure the provision of scholarships to promote equitable access to higher education.  

Policies that ensure that contracts with private sector operators within education systems are made public.

Public procurement rules which: disqualify companies for eligibility to bid for contracts if they use tax havens, if there is evidence of blacklisting unionised workers, give preference to companies paying a living wage, etc.

Policies that address taxation within private sector education access appropriately, such as the removal of the payment of private education fees as an employment benefit in countries with universal, free education system.

Policies to combat child labour and help children at risk of child labour to access and stay in education. 

Policies to address the negative social attitudes related to gender discrimination generally, to prevent identity-based discrimination within the education system and to tackle gender-based violence at school.

Policies focus on the harmful effects of streaming and setting within schools and classrooms. 

Policies that address special educational needs and seek to provide targeted educational support.

Policies that eliminate legacy places in prestigious universities.

Policies for the provision of universal, affordable, quality early childhood development services targeting both the 0-3 and pre-school age groups.

Policies to deliver high quality careers advice in schools.

Policies to ensure the provision of paid apprenticeships.

Policies that address access to books and make provisions for public libraries or electronic access.

Policies related to investment in ICT infrastructure, equipment and training schemes in schools, public libraries. 

Policies that deliver affordable, quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training.

Policies related to equal access for all to training opportunities during employment. 

Policies that promote functional lifelong literacy and numeracy skills.

Policies that promote a culture of lifelong learning including the provision of accessible and affordable adult education opportunities. 

Economic development and investment policies that prioritize job creation and inclusive growth.

Active labour market programmes that target those most at risk of low pay and focus on helping workers to secure high quality, secure jobs. 

Active labour market programmes that target the long-term unemployed.

Policies which aim to provide public employment and paid work to the poorest and socially marginalised (public works programmes or rural employment guarantee schemes).

Legislation which protects the right of workers to unionize and strike.

Policies to promote worker representation on boards and remuneration committees and in company decision-making processes, particularly of women and minorities. 

Policies which support collective bargaining over pay and employment conditions, and adequate minimum wages policies. 

Policies that support the transition to formality (enable businesses to register more easily, formal access to finance, skills training or business advice services, etc.).

Policies designed to provide protection for informal domestic workers. 

Policies which seek to expand social security coverage for informal workers (including domestic workers) and self-employed workers.

Policies related to occupational health and safety, including workplace inspections, and compensation policies and criminal penalties for violations.

Regulation and policies to tackle forced labour, slavery-like conditions, child labour and exploitation in the workplace. 

Policies that seek to regulate false self-employment and disguised employment practices; regulations to ensure proper monitoring and enforcement. 

Policies that provide universal or publicly subsidized childcare and long-term care services, to reduce the burden of unpaid care work on women. 

Publicly funded educational programmes and campaigns to promote greater awareness of gender equality and challenge gender-role ideology.

Policies that provide paid maternity and paternity leave; policies that provide flexible arrangements at work.

Policies to eliminate racial and gender discrimination in the workplace, including the use of quotas and affirmative action policies. 

Employment protection legislation and regulations concerning hiring and firing (anti-discrimination rules, etc.).

Policies to deliver greater investments and protection in agriculture, forestry and fishing and rural infrastructure especially in marginal territories.

Policies and programmes aimed at supporting smallholder farmers (particularly women) access appropriate inputs, improve knowledge and productivity; reduce the risks they face.

Policies aimed at supporting small and medium sized enterprises. 

Policies related to improving land tenure security and regularisation of land titles of smallholders; guarantee women’s land ownership, and the collective territorial rights of indigenous communities.

Policies aimed at the redistribution of land ownership.

Policies related to agricultural sector competitiveness, to avoid and/or regulate monopolistic agribusinesses.

Policies that incentivise and promote market linkages with smallholder farmers and enterprises. 

Policies that regulate large scale extractives projects of private companies (eg. agribusiness and mining) to protect the livelihoods and income of farmers and communities affected.

Policies to promote greater financial inclusion, ensuring access to affordable credit and banking products, in particular for women.

Policies which promote workers’ ownership of shares in businesses and incentivize business models that prioritise fairer returns. 

Policies that promote equal pay and seek to reduce gender pay gap.

Policies to regulate high pay including reforms to wage setting systems for top executives, publishing the company’s pay ratio between CEO and median way, etc.  

Policies and regulations related to the corporate governance (make-up of company boards, limits to the expenditure on dividend pay-outs, etc.).

Regulation of the financial services market and, particularly, short-term, high-cost lenders. 

Policies that ensure publicly funded debt counselling services are provided with comprehensive geographic coverage to help those indebted.

Policies to deliver tax transparency (publication of anonymised tax records, country-by-country reporting for multinationals).

Redistributive tax policies and enforcement (increasing marginal tax rates for high earners, effective modes of taxation of high net worth individuals, corporate income taxation, etc.). 

Progressive tax policies related to taxation of property, land and ownership. 

Policy reforms to close tax loopholes and adequate resourcing for enforcement efforts to address tax avoidance and evasion. 

Policies that create improved tax regimes for the financial sector such as financial transactions taxes.

Policies related to the transparency of ownership of land and property and the taxation of both.

Universal basic income policies.

Gender sensitive and universalistic social protection policies: universal child benefits, unemployment benefits and pensions (including equity enhancing, non-contributory public pensions).

Policies and regulations which address the liability of companies to their pension funds.

Policies related to increasing service coverage of water supply and sanitation systems, promoting better hygiene practices, improving water quality and guaranteeing affordability for the poor and in rural areas. 

Policies that expand access to electricity, including through use of off-grid, decentralised, renewable energy options.

Policies that regulate privatised water and sanitation services to ensure investment in infrastructure, efficient service provision and affordability. 

Policies that regulate privatised energy markets to ensure on-going investment in (especially low carbon) infrastructure, efficient service and affordability.

Policies that protect the consumer in privatised utilities markets and guard against poor quality service, incorrect billing, large disparities in pricing, etc.

Policies to combat malnutrition including nutrition-specific interventions that avert maternal and child under-nutrition combined with direct cash transfer programmes. 

Policies related to the supply of housing and housing quality.

Urban planning policies to tackle residential segregation, to ensure mixed-neighbourhoods and mixed housing developments, and retention of public spaces for public use. 

Policies related to the provision of financial assistance to secure housing for low-income households. 

Policies to eliminate discriminatory practices and barriers in public and private sector housing. 

Policies related to the provision of temporary adequate accommodation for vulnerable groups (homeless people, victims of domestic violence, prison leavers…).

Policies and regulation aimed at the mortgage industry to guard against predatory lending and ensure safe lending practices.

Policies which enable governments to seize unused land and unoccupied property for social purposes. 

Policies related to rent regulation and tenancy protection, especially in relation to eviction. 

Policies related to health and safety in rented accommodation.

Policies to control speculative practices within the housing market, including a special high rate ‘empty property tax’ related to vacant houses, a foreign buyer tax, etc.  

Progressive tax policies related to property, land and home ownership. 

Policies designed to upgrade slums: quality of housing, water, sewerage, drainage, street lighting, paving, recreation areas or access to social services. 

Publicly funded educational programmes and campaigns to promote awareness of gender equality and challenge gender-role ideology in relation to the division of household resources, domestic duties and care. 

Policies related to public funding necessary to ensure good public transport infrastructure and healthy, clean local environments..

Policies related to the natural environment (making green spaces available for free, public use in cities, provision of safe and accessible parks, etc.).

Policies related to the operations of public development banks to improve investment in public infrastructure and investments in the green economy.

Policies that support local government tax collection efforts, combined with central government, to directly address spatial inequalities through infrastructure. 

Policies related to disaster risk reduction and investment that aid emergency planning.

Policies designed to improve air quality such as regulations to control industrial emissions, domestic fuel use or emissions limits for cars.

Policies that provide paid maternity and paternity leave, including the protection of women’s rights to return to work; promote flexible work arrangements to respond to care needs. 

Policies that provide universal or publicly subsidized childcare and long-term care services, to reduce the burden of unpaid care work on women. 

Policies related to the supply of adequate and affordable social care for the elderly and people with disabilities for independent and dignified living.

Policies that guarantee free and fair elections. 

Policies to ensure freedom of expression, assembly and protest. 

Policies which establish quota systems or other special measures to ensure the representation of women, minorities and politically marginalised group.

Policies to prohibit and restrict gerrymandering.

Policies that enable formal citizen participation and oversight, including inclusive and transparent budgeting processes, public consultations, etc. 

Policies that support the formation of stakeholder groups in society and their participation in decision-making processes (trade unions, civil society organisations…).

Policies that guarantee access to adequate information and transparency; right to information laws. 

Policies related to public disclosure of lobbying activities (lobbying register, contributions to political campaigns, etc.). 

Policies to ensure disclosure of all political financing, and separate reporting of electoral campaign financing. 

Policies that ensure public access to registers of MPs interests (declarations of all income sources, companies owned, involvement in companies or other bodies).

Policies for the public disclosure of the annual tax declarations of MPs; regulations to prohibit the use of tax havens/secrecy jurisdictions by MPs. 

Policies to protect whistleblowers in both the public and private sector. 

Policies which cap the amount of political donations from wealthy individuals and corporations, with parties’ operations and election activities being publicly funded. 

Policies to regulate the ‘revolving door’ issue such as restrictions on public officials engaging with a lobbying firm after leaving the public sector, etc.

Policies related to a free press and the concentration of media ownership. 

Policies that create contextual and institutional standards of inclusion, equality, respect and recognition of diversity. 

Policies related to monitoring and availability of discrimination statistics; official recognition and accountability for historical patterns of oppression, discrimination and marginalisation. 

Policies that promote diversity training in all public institutions.

Policies related to gender identity (making processes of legal gender recognition accessible and respectful, ensuring protection from discrimination).

Policies that ensure full recognition and implementation of International Human Rights treaties and standards in domestic law.

Comprehensive anti-discrimination laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, age, race, ethnicity, religious views, disability, sexual orientation in any area of human life. 

Mechanisms for complaints and bodies equipped to investigate, conciliate and prosecute breaches of anti-discrimination laws.

Enhance legal and institutional frameworks protecting individuals' relational autonomy and self-determination. 

Access to legal protection of one's intimate relationships, and especially legal recognition of LGBTI partnerships that confer equal rights.

Adaptive, inclusive and equitable family law codes and protections. 

Enhancing access to adolescent medical decision-making relating to abortion, sexual health and contraception. 

Implementing a legal minimum age of marriage.

Policies that promote access to equitable divorce.

Policies to strengthen rights to family reunion in the context of displacement and migration.

Policies that provide psychological and mental health support to migrants and refugees at risk of social isolation due to family separation. 

Encourage and fund community capacity building and participatory social initiatives such as community rehabilitation programmes for instance. 

Setting up public programmes to foster reconciliation, and peace-building in conflict or post-conflict contexts, providing public psychological support.

National action plans to combat racial and religious discrimination, and educational programmes and public campaigns to promote tolerance and respect for diversity.

Policies that enhance learning about colonial history and accountability for historical patterns of racial oppression. 

Educational programmes aimed at tackling sexism and gender based stereotypes, as well as harmful social norms surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity.

Face to face community outreach programmes to tackle prejudices against ethnic and gender/sexual minorities. 

Provide local support to marginalised groups to increase their access to social support and general acceptance in society. 

Encourage and support civil society organisations and advocacy groups aimed at providing social support and safe spaces to marginalised groups.

Encourage the creation of targeted community, cultural and research centres, aimed at addressing the history and culture of marginalised groups.

Policies that challenge cultural hegemony by tackling underrepresentation and misrepresentation of marginalised groups in the media and cultural production. 

Providing adequate structures for the social support of the elderly: encouraging targeted social and cultural activities for those at risk of social isolation.

Investment in accessible culture, media and sports activities and infrastructures that promote social cohesion and self-development.

Promoting cultural and social activities in schools and other education institutions. 

Provision of public libraries and sufficient investment to ensure a culturally and ethnically diverse range of books and audio-visual materials, a wide range of cultural activities to build community cohesion and inclusion, etc.

Policies related to the natural environment accessible to all, such as the making green spaces available for free, public use in cities, safe and accessible parks.