The Equal Rights Trust and the United Nations Human Rights Office have launched the Russian edition of the United Nations Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation (English edition available here).
The Practical Guide is the outcome of a unique partnership between the Trust and the Human Rights Office, established in response to requests from the Trust’s partner equality activists for clear, definitive guidance on States’ obligations in this area of law. The result of a three-year collaborative project involving exhaustive legal research and consultation with states, experts and activists from across the globe, the Guide was launched at the University of Peace in Costa Rica, as part of Human Rights Week 2022. Both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a group of 30+ UN independent human rights experts called on states to use the publication of the Guide as “catalyst to action”.
Since the launch of the English edition, the two organisations have worked together to promote its use. In early 2023, we held 12 online consultation events engaging hundreds of activists from 70+ different states, in all global regions. During 2023, the Guide was translated into Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish by the UN Human Rights Office, It was also translated into national languages by national human rights institutions in Brazil and the Republic of Korea and by a civil society organisation in Japan. The Russian edition was launched in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in April 2024.
The Spanish edition of the Guide was launched on 15 May 2024 at an event convened by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, which was also streamed on the Court’s YouTube channels for participants from across Latin America. The event was moderated by Dr Mihir Kanade, Head of the Department of International Law at the UN University for Peace and opened by Pablo Saavedra Alessandri, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It was broadcast across the wider region on the Court’s The panel discussion included remarks from the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr Nazila Ghanea, and presentations by national experts on law reform efforts in Argentina and Costa Rica. The event was followed by a seminar for lawyers at the Inter-American Court that explored recent developments in equality law.
The launch event formed part of a week-long visit to Costa Rica by the Trust, the Human Rights Office and the Special Rapporteur, during which they engaged with government, legislators and civil society on the need for the country to enact comprehensive equality law. The government of Costa Rica recently launched a new Strategy to Combat Discrimination and Hate Speech developed with support from the UN, and discussions focused on the need for equality law reform to achieve the aims and objectives of the Strategy.
