The Judicial Diversity Committee of the Judge’s Council recently published its Report on Progress for April 2016 – March 2017 and revealed its first Diversity Action Plan for the coming year.
Last year saw some great initiatives, aimed at achieving greater diversity within the ranks of the judiciary, being undertaken by the Committee. These included launching a new Judicial Careers Portal, hosting several outreach events including a roundtable discussion with BAME lawyers, providing opportunities to qualified legal practitioners to partake in the Judicial Work Shadowing Scheme, utilising its pool of Judicial Role Model Judges and Diversity & Community Relation Judges and much more.
The Diversity Action Plan envisages building on the above by continuing the judiciary’s dialogue with BAME lawyers to understand the barriers they face, working with existing organisations to reach the broadest range of talent, encouraging more networking, running more workshops, and improving the evaluation of the Committee’s initiatives.
Faria Ali, Committee Member of NOTICED, commented “Both the Report and Action Plan make for a very encouraging read. It is exciting to see that the judiciary is taking the issues of diversity and inclusiveness so seriously and I am hopeful that we will see this being translated into a more representative judiciary in the coming years.”
A link to the full Report and Action Plan can be found here.