DISCRIMINATION CONTRADICTS A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

In this pdf we can see about how discrimination contradicts human rights.Discriminate is to exclude a person from the full enjoyment of their political, civic, economic, social or cultural rights and freedoms. Discrimination contradicts a basic principle of human rights: that all people are equal in dignity and entitled to the same fundamental rights. This principle is repeated in every fundamental human rights document

(e.g. UDHR Article 2, CRC Article 2, ECHR Article 14 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 12). 

Although there is no single definition of ‘discrimination’ in human rights law, definitions of discrimination in human rights treaties, all of them contain certain common elements:

• 1. There is a cause for discrimination based on a variety of factors. Specifically names as causes of discrimination “the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status”. The last one, “or other status”, allows for many other causes of discrimination such as social class, occupation, sexual orientation or preferred language.

• 2. There are actions that are qualified as discrimination. These can be rejection, restriction or exclusion of a person or a group of persons. From the crudest violations of human rights, such as genocide, slavery, ethnic cleansing or religious persecution, to more subtle but also more frequent forms of discrimination, such as hiring and promotion for jobs, and verbal abuse. Common acts of discrimination among children are exclusion, bullying and name calling based on difference (e.g. ‘sissy’, ‘fatso’, ‘dummy’).

• 3. Discrimination also impacts on society as a whole, reinforcing prejudice and racist attitude. This is often based on ignorance, prejudices and negative stereotypes. Because many people fear what seems strange or unknown, they react with suspicion or even violence to anyone whose appearance, culture or behavior is unfamiliar. 

• 4. Other forms of discrimination include sexism, ageism, homophobia, antisemitism and religious intolerance and xenophobia, a fear or hatred of foreigners or foreign countries. Segregation, a form of separation of ethnical groups imposed by law or by custom, is an extreme form of discrimination. There have been official forms of segregation in Europe; for example, Jews were once isolated in ghettos. Today many people in several European countries are forced by hostile behavior or by economic segregation to live in separate communities.

To fight discrimination, some countries have adopted measures of positive discrimination, which is also known as affirmative action. In some situations positive discrimination means deliberately favoring a certain group or groups who have experienced historic and pervasive discrimination (e.g. establishing quotas from minorities, such as women or rural people) 

 In other situations positive discrimination means creating the conditions for people with difficulties (e.g. physical disabilities) to enjoy the same rights and opportunities. Another form of positive discrimination seeks to ‘repair’ former injustices. All these measures and practices seek to promote equality ‘through inequality’.

                    

References:

Compasito (2007) Manual on Human Rights Education for Children. [PDF document] Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/Usuario/Downloads/3%20(1).pdf