Background

During its May 2020 meeting, the OHCHR Publications Committee approved drafting of the Guide, including a timeline for Guide development, and the principle of broad and extensive consultation as to inputs.

Objectives

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Equal Rights Trust (ERT) are developing and producing “Protecting Minority Rights: A Practical Guide on Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation”. The publication aims to fill a long-term expressed and identified need for a go-to manual for Governments, Parliaments, NHRIs, UN staff, civil society representatives and minority and other human rights defenders in the main conceptual and content elements of anti-discrimination law, the various aspects of the comprehensive ban on all forms of discrimination and the protection of minorities, as grounded in the core international human rights treaties and related norms and standards, including as adjudicated. In addition to summarizing normative content, the publication will provide concrete country-based practices and practical guidance.

The Guide is a response to the dramatically heightened recommendations in this area in the recent period appearing in the Human Rights Council’ Universal Periodic Review from and to all regions of the world, as well as increasing convergence among the Human Rights Treaty Bodies on the need for comprehensive anti-discrimination law addressing all grounds. The Guide thus aims to meet guidance needs in this area arising from the recommendations of international human rights mechanisms, as concerns transposing the international law ban on discrimination into the domestic legal order, in particular as concerns minorities, with due regard to intersectionality. While the publication is a response to these long-term needs, the COVID-19 crisis—and in particular the dramatic disparities reported world-wide as concerns impact on minorities—provides additional urgency to production of the publication.