Miriam Levenson (asker) Jan 22, 2009:

Agree most with Ken - Emancipation is indeed correct, no argument there, but even in Google the committees mentioned are most related to groups having been enslaved or severely repressed. To this (American) native speaker, the only mental association I have with "emancipation" is in relation to African slaves. The dictionary defintion doesn't restrict emancipation to slavery alone (think also about the emanicpation of women, for example) but even then the flavor is "to release someone from servitude" and less "stop discriminating against them in terms of job opportunties." So my vote so far goes to "equal opportunities".

Ken Cox Jan 22, 2009:

comment My misgivings regarding 'emancipation' arise from the fact that (at least to me) it implies systemic ('structural') discrimination, as in denying women the right to vote or otherwise enjoy the same rights as men. If the objective is to combat disadvantages suffered by persons or ethnic groups due to their backgrounds, rather than structural discrimination, I'm not convinced that 'emancipation' is the right word (aside from the association with the women's emancipation movement, it has associations with downtrodden groups and throwing off the chains of oppression...).