On 26 March 2009 the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia voted to approve the Anti-Discrimination Bill (the Bill) submitted by the Government. The vote marked the end of an 8 year process which had begun with the first draft of the Bill in 2001. The new law prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or other grounds.
News
5 March 2009
On 5 March 2009, the European Court of Justice held that article 6(1) of Council Directive 2000/78/EC did not make compulsory retirement ages unlawful in the case of The Incorporated Trustees of the National Council on Ageing (Age Concern England) v. Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Case C-388/07.
27 Febuary 2009
On 27 February 2009, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation decided its first case concerning regulations and procedures for assessing legal capacity, one of the key issues affecting people with mental disabilities and their participation on an equal basis with others in exercising basic human rights.
On 18 February 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) handed down the judgment in the case of Andrejeva v. Latvia (Application no. 55707/00). The applicant, Ms. Natalija Andrejeva, claimed a violation of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of discrimination) in conjunction with Article 1 of Protocol No.1 (right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions) and Article 6 (right to fair trial).
Today, on the inaugural World Day of Social Justice, The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) wrote to Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, welcoming the event as an important step to raise awareness on social inequality, poverty and the widening gap between the most and the least advantaged globally. In the letter ERT appealed to the Secretary-General to promote the Declaration of Principles on Equality and to recommend it to relevant UN organisations and agencies.
London, 23 January 2009
Today, The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) wrote to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand expressing deep concern over the fate of 126 Rohingya who had been held incommunicado since 16 January 2009 and subsequently forcefully expelled by being put on a boat and cast adrift in international waters. The victims of these abuses are stateless persons, members of a minority deprived of their Myanmar citizenship through discriminatory legislation in Myanmar, and do not have the protection of any state. Stateless persons are among the most vulnerable victims of discrimination and other human rights violations globally.
London, 9 January 2009
London, 8 January 2009
On 1 January 2009, the United States Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 entered into force. The purpose of the Amendments Act is to restore the intent and protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA 1990).
London 19 December 2008
On 18 December 2008, in New York, the UN General Assembly was presented with a statement endorsed by 66 states from around the world calling for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The statement, read out by the UN Representative for Argentina Jorge Arguello, condemns violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatisation, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also condemns killings and executions, torture, arbitrary arrest, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights on those grounds.
As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 60 this Wednesday, international think-tank The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) is warning that, in a global recession, governments worldwide must put equality at the centre of human rights legislation or risk creating more marginalised ‘sub-human’ peoples, such as the Roma in Europe and lower castes in South Asia.
