Protection from discrimination

Abstract

The terms 'equality' and 'non-discrimination' imply high socio-political, legal and ethical values. Many have written about them; others have lived and died for them. Although these concepts have a history in the national law of many countries and are now firmly established within the field of international human rights, it is still necessary to discuss their nature and scope. Their development on the international level created a situation wherein that which was previously considered to forn1 part of a States' sovereignty, and, thus, each State was free to determine its domestic standards of 'equality' and 'non-discrimination', has now become the domain of the international community. International standards have been laid down, and specialised bodies have been created to ensure their observation, with the consensus of the great majority of the States members of the international community. On the global level, much has been done by the United Nations, whereas on the regional level the Council of Europe has sought to set standards for its member States in relation to those issues which, as time goes by, appear on the international scene. Thus, whilst in the early days of these institutions much was said and done in relation to the prevention of discrimination on the basis of, inter alia, race, sex and religion, with the passage of time new challenges arose requiring new efforts in law and vigilance in practice. Whereas till the end of the 1970s equality and non-discrimination were mainly concerned with the traditional challenges, in the 1980s and 1990s (particularly as a result of the political changes which took place in Eastern Europe) several problem areas arose in connection with the phenomena of equality and non-discrimination; some are new whilst others, though old, took on a new appearance. The AIDS pandemic is one of these; others concern the emergence of new minorities, the new process of impoverishment resulting from economic structural changes coupled with a decline in the support of the welfare society, as well as a sharp rise in xenophobic attitudes. Although the traditional grounds of non-discrimination have been the concern of the international community for decades, they only became topical in Malta in the recent past. In fact, today much debate is going on in relation to the rights of women, particularly married women, whereas issues of political and religious discrimination only arose before the local courts in the 1980s. As Malta is now a signatory to the major international conventions dealing with the traditional grounds of non-discrimination, such as the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, as well as the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights (which, since 1987, has also been incorporated into Maltese law), it is felt that it would be more opportune to examine these in view of the obligations which have, thus, been assumed. Together with all this, an examination of the local constitutional developments, as well as well as of the jurisprudence in the field of non-discrimination, is essential in order to know which differentions in treatment are permitted vis-a-vis certain categories of the population are permitted and which are not.