08/03/2011 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
At a hearing on the declaration of Principles on Equality and activities of the Council of Europe, organised by the Legal Affairs Committee in Paris today, participants stressed that the right to equality before the law and the protection of all persons against discrimination are fundamental provisions of international human rights law. They underlined that the European Convention on Human Rights itself contained a non-discrimination and equality provision only with regard to the enjoyment of other rights envisaged by the Convention.
They agreed that therefore the European Court of Human Rights was limited to treating the right to non-discrimination only as a subsidiary right, in conjunction with other substantive or procedural rights enshrined in the Convention. “For too long non-discrimination has been regarded and applied as merely an accessory human right in both the institutional machinery of the Council of Europe and its member states, thus limiting the right to equality. Equality must be understood as a solid and effective legal right and factual inequalities that exist in every member state must be taken into consideration,” said Boriss Cilevics (Latvia, SOC), rapporteur on this question.
The so-called Declaration of Priniciples on Equality, drafted and signed by legal practitioners, academics and human rights activists in 2008, moves beyond the notion of equality that is largely applied in many Council of Europe member states, participants stressed. It comprises:
- the right to equality before the law
- the right to equal protection and benefit of the law
- the right to recognition of the equal worth and equal dignity of each human being
- the right to participate on an equal basis with others in any area of economic, social, political, cultural or civil life.
“The consistent incorporation of the principles on equality may substantially improve the effectiveness of application of existing legal instruments,” the rapporteur concluded.