On Human Rights Day 2024, the Equal Rights Trust co-convened an event with the UN Human Rights Office and Aix-Marseille University to promote the UN Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation and to discuss efforts to enact and implement these laws, two years after the launch of the Guide. The event brought together academics, activists and advocates from Belgium, France and Mauritius, as well as experts from the African Court on Human and Peoples'​ Rights and Equinet, European Network of Equality Bodies. 

The Human Rights Day event marked the culmination of a two-year joint programme of activities by the Trust and the UN Human Rights Office which has seen us convene more than a dozen online events engaging activists from 70+ countries; provide briefings to legislators and policy-makers in countries ranging from Costa Rica to Norway; and convene public events with international partners such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. With this promotional phase of work complete, the partners’ efforts are now focused on supporting equality movements in priority countries to develop and advocate for comprehensive laws, aligned with the standards in the Guide (as detailed below).

In the two years since its publication, the Practical Guide has had a significant impact on law, policy and practice at both the international and domestic levels. For example:

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has made the adoption of comprehensive equality laws a top priority for his Office. Promoting the adoption of these laws is now the primary goal of the Non-Discrimination Pillar of the UN Human Rights Office Strategic Plan. In the last quarter of 2024, United Nations staff working in more than 80 states have participated in a global mapping exercise on equality laws and prospects for equality law reform managed by the Trust and the Human Rights Office.

• UN human rights treaty bodies, which have historically recommended the adoption of specific, single-ground anti-discrimination laws, are now routinely recommending the adoption of comprehensive equality laws, citing the Practical Guide. In October 2024, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights referred to the Guide in its Concluding Observations on Malawi, where it urged the State to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation in line with its standards. This is the fourth of the eight UN Treaty Bodies to expressly endorse the use of the Practical Guide.

• National Human Rights Institutions in four countries - Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico – have initiated equality law reform projects in response to the publication. In Mexico, for example, the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED) published a report on legislating against discrimination which is focused on aligning the national equality law framework with international standards, and which draws heavily on the Practical Guide.

• Civil society equality law movements have been established in response to the publication of the Practical Guide in Costa Rica, Japan and Nepal. It has also been cited in legislative resolutions and inquiries in Argentina and Northern Ireland and in a resolution was passed by the Parlasur – the parliamentary institution of the Mercosur trade bloc in Latin America. The Guide has been translated into national languages by national human rights institutions in Brazil and the Republic of Korea and by a civil society organisation in Japan.

At the event at Aix-Marseille University, the Trust’s Director presented the next step in the ongoing collaboration between the Trust and the UN Human Rights Office to promote the adoption of comprehensive equality laws: a global initiative to to respond to the needs and demands of civil society equality law movements in a group of priority countries, identified through a global mapping and consultation exercise which has been underway since 2023. To find out more, contact info@equalrightstrust.org.