Under many state laws, and some federal laws, certain employers are required to establish and maintain anti-discrimination policy to protect their employees. Even if not specifically required by law, it is a good idea for any employer to have this policy in place. Not only do they enable an employer to make it clear to their employees that certain types of behavior are intolerable, they may also provide a defense for an employer should a lawsuit arise. However, if a written policy is in place, the employer must make sure that they follow it!

An anti-discrimination policy could contain the following language:

The employer is an "equal opportunity employer." The employer will not discriminate and will take "affirmative action" measures to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, creed, color, national origin, or sex.

Note: Not all employers are required to comply with affirmative action requirements, so that language may be deleted in those situations. In addition, the last sentence can be tailored to conform to the law in your particular state. For example, if you must also comply with laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, you may include that language as well.

The concept of active ageing evokes the idea of longer activity, with a higher retirement age and working practices adapted to the age of the employee.

Active ageing requires flexible working solutions and labour market policies - we need to better mobilise potential and more strongly support flexible, accessible and inclusive working solutions.

Active ageing can be one the solutions for addressing our skills shortages - we need to ensure that the needs of the labour market are met and retain or retrain our mature workforce.

Active ageing is a necessary counterpart to a longer statutory working life - we need to integrate training and life-long learning in active ageing policies to ensure that mature people are better equipped and encouraged to remain in work longer.

Promoting active ageing means creating better opportunities so that older women and men can play their part in the labour market..."

Raise awareness

Stimulate debate, exchange of information and best practices

Offer a framework for action

Remove barriers - particularly with regard to employment

Social inclusion refers to a policy designed to ensure that all people are able to participate in society regardless of their background or specific characteristics, which may include: race, language, culture, gender, disability, social status, age, and other factors. Compared to the general population, groups with such special characteristics are much more likely to face low education, unemployment, homelessness -- and resulting poverty and social exclusion.

The goal of social inclusion is to give all people an equal chance for participation in society. In order to achieve this goal, the barriers to participation in all aspects of life, such as education, employment, leisure, and citizenship must be addressed. The barriers may be material, such as physical inaccessibility; but very often the barriers are intangible, for example, discrimination, which serves to exclude.

An inclusive society, by definition, is characterized by respect for identity of all and a reasonable balance between the rights and duties of all individuals and society as a whole.

There are five priority issues that need to be addressed in order to improve the healthcare sector. These priority issues, all calling for continued increases or improvements, are:

The overall capacity of the Ministry of Public Health.

The number of skilled providers.

Access to healthcare.

Quality of healthcare provision.

The public's knowledge and awareness of health issues.

Total dependency on external funding renders the whole health sector extremely vulnerable to political considerations and to the availability of enough funding to satisfy the growing needs and demands.

Solidarity is the integration, and degree and type of integration, shown by a society or group with people and their neighbours. It refers to the ties in a society that bind people to one another.

What forms the basis of solidarity varies between societies. In simple societies it may be mainly based around kinship and shared values. In more complex societies there are various theories as to what contributes to a sense of social solidarity.

The term "solidarity" includes foreign aid channelled to any designated "impoverished" group. "Research" or "popular education" of the poor by professionals is designated as "solidarity."

An Accessibility Plan sets out how each local authority plans to improve access to employment, learning, health care, food shops and other services of local importance, particularly for disadvantaged groups and areas. Accessibility targets are defined in the accessibility plans, these are often the distance or time to access services by different modes of transport including walking, cycling and public transport.

Another dimension of accessibility is the ability to access information and services by minimizing the barriers of distance and cost as well as the accessibility and usability of the interface. In many countries this has led to initiatives, laws and/or regulations that aim toward providing universal access to the internet and to phone systems at reasonable cost to citizens.