The Comment concerns the rights of minorities, who are not to be denied the right to enjoy their culture, practice their religion, or speak their own language. The Committee differentiates between the right to self-determination and the rights guaranteed in Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in order to avoid any future confusion between the two. Specifically, Article 27 guarantees rights to individuals, whereas the right to self-determination applies to groups.

The Comment discusses the responsibility of States Parties to ensure every citizen's rights to participate in public affairs, have access to public services, vote and be elected with no discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights gives people the right to determine their political status and form of government freely.

The Comment discusses the responsibility of States Parties' to ensure protection and enforcement of rights and freedoms guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights for all people in their territory, regardless of citizenship. These rights and freedoms include protection from discrimination. The obligation to respect and ensure the rights that are guaranteed by the Covenant should take effect immediately.

This document calls on member states to ensure that their legal system is free from antisemitic harassment, encourage education about antisemitism and promote remembrance and education about the holocaust, to collect and maintain statistical records on hate crimes motivated by antisemitism and so on. It calls on ODIHR to, inter alia, collect and disseminate best practices on preventing and responding to anti-Semitism.

This document calls on member states to enact or strengthen laws that penalise discrimination and incitement to hatred based on "race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status", consider establishing training programmes for police and judicial officials on hate crimes, collect statistics on hate crimes and report them to the ODIHR, promote intercultural dialogue between different groups and so on.

Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees humane treatment of persons deprived of liberty, applies to everyone without any distinction or discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. The Comment emphasizes the "positive obligation" Article 10 places on States Parties to prevent the torture or inhuman, degrading treatment of detained persons.

The Comment calls attention to and clarifies the rights of children, noting that they are granted special protections that go beyond those granted to adults. Children are protected from discrimination on grounds such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth. Children also have a right to family and State protection. The Comment points to certain provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that apply greater protection to minors.

Article 1(1) defines discrimination to include "(a) any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation; (b) such other distinction, exclusion or preference which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation as may be determined by the Member concerned after consultation with representative employers' and workers

This convention lays down rules and principles relating to the nationality of natural persons. Article 5 of the Convention prohibits discrimination on the ground of sex, religion, race, colour, national or ethnic origin in the rules governing nationality. It also prohibits discrimination between people who have acquired nationality upon birth and those whose have acquired nationality subsequently.

This declaration guarantees aliens living in the territory of a state several civil and political rights and the right to decent conditions at the workplace. Article 7 prohibits the individual or collective expulsion of aliens on the grounds of colour, culture, descent, national or ethnic origin, race and religion. It was adopted by General Assembly resolution 40/144 of 13 December 1985.