NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

2.17 General prohibition of discrimination (Article 1 of Protocol No. 12) Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the Convention 1. The enjoyment of any right set forth by law shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status. 2. No one shall be discriminated against by any public authority on any ground such as those mentioned in paragraph 1. Protocol No. 12 to the Convention was drawn up within the Council of Europe by the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH). It was opened to signature by the member states of the Council of Europe on 4 November 2000. However, only 18 member states had ratified it. 1287 The states that signed and ratified this Protocol are mostly small countries and Easter European states, such as Ukraine and Romania. Germany, France, the United Kingdom do not wish to make this treaty applicable on their territory. The general principle of equality and non-discrimination set forth in Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 is a fundamental element of international human rights law. It has been recognised as such in Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1288 Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1289 and in similar provisions in other international human rights instruments. The Convention also contains the relevant provision in this respect, namely, in Article 14. However, the protection provided by Article 14 of the Convention with regard to equality and non-discrimination is limited in comparison with those provisions of other international instruments. The principal reason for this is the fact that Article 14, unlike those provisions in other instruments, prohibits discrimination only with regard to the “enjoyment of the rights and freedoms” set forth in the Convention. Certain specific guarantees concerning equality have also been laid down in Article 5 of Protocol No. 7 to the Convention, but they relate only to spouses. The various ways of providing further guarantees in the field of non-discrimination through a protocol to the Convention have been proposed or studied since the 1960s by both the Parliamentary Assembly and the committees of experts of the CoE. As a result, Protocol No. 12 appeared. Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 titled ‘General prohibition of discrimination’ extends the scope of protection not only to ‘any right set forth by law’, as the text of paragraph 1 might suggest, but beyond that. This follows in particular from paragraph 2, which further provides that no one may be discriminated against by 1287 Chart of signatures and ratifications of Protocol No. 12 to the Convention. Available from URL: accessed 1 August 2015. 1288 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. URL: accessed 7 March 2015. 1289 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. New York, 16 December 1966. United Nations, Treaty Series , vol. 999, p. 171 and vol. 1057, p. 407.

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