Article 2 – Prohibition of Discrimination


Seeing what needs to be seen.

Daisy Ranoe
An artist, photographer, and creative director who focuses on challenging themes in an engaging format. She helps organizations with a social mission bring uncomfortable topics (such as poverty, inequality, and homelessness) closer to their audiences. She does this in an artistic way that draws people in. 

Article 2

  1. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
  2. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether this territory be an independent, Trust or Non-Self-Governing territory, or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

What does this right mean?

Almost all articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) state: ‘all persons’, ‘everyone’, ‘all’, or ‘no one’. This already indicates that the human rights in the Universal Declaration apply to everyone. Article 2 makes that explicit: everyone can appeal to the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Declaration (Section 1). This really means everyone: no one can be excluded from these rights and freedoms on the grounds of a differentiation such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Section 2 explicitly states that no differentiation between people may be made because of the status of the country or the area they come from.

I feel strengthened in my conviction that racism has no place in our society. This is a big victory not only for myself and people of colour, but for everyone who spent years standing up against racism, ethnic profiling and for equal treatment.

Mpanzu Bamenga (one of the petitioners in the case against the KNMa, see further down this page)

What is the history of this right?

People with various political ideas, cultural backgrounds and professions have collaborated on the Universal Declaration. In the various ‘drafting committees’ (the teams which wrote the Universal Declaration), there were people from various parts of the world. References to religions and traditions were left out of the text of the Universal Declaration on purpose. The right to equal treatment is one of the most important human rights, because it means everyone is equally protected under the law. This makes it one of the core articles of the UDHR.

Where and how was this right documented?

International

The prohibition of discrimination can also be found in the Preamble of the Universal Declaration, and in the Preamble and Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

ECHR

Shortly after the publication of the Universal Declaration, the member states of the Council of Europe signed the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1950. The prohibition of discrimination is in Article 14 of the ECHR. In the Twelfth Protocol to the ECHR, the prohibition of discrimination of Article 14 of the ECHR was worked out further. That Protocol also explicitly adopted the statement that the government is not allowed to discriminate.

Constitution and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Article 1 of our Constitution guarantees a similar right: the right to equal treatment and the non-discrimination principle. This is also documented in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Article 20 guarantees equality under the law, Article 21 protects the right to non- discrimination and Article 22 guarantees the variety of cultures, languages and religions within the European Union. The prohibition of discrimination has been worked out further in national regulations, but also in European guidelines and decrees. One example is the Equal Treatment of Men and Women Act [in Dutch].

How up to date is this human right?

One important example of a current violation of this right is the ethnic profiling at border checks. Human rights organisations stated in 2021 that the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee differentiated illegally based on people's ethnicities in checking their residence statuses. One of the things this meant in practice was that people were taken out of waiting lines at Schiphol Airport for checks because of their skin colours.

The Royal Marechaussee said that was necessary to safeguard security. The argument was that appearance characteristics do not have to, but still CAN say something about the inspected person's nationality or origin.

In 2021, the court ruled that this differentiation was justified. However, the Court of Appeal ruled that this differentiation constituted illegal discrimination. [Sources in Dutch.] The Court of Appeal ruled that ethnic profiling is contrary to Article 2 of the Universal Declaration and articles in various human-rights treaties. In the Dutch benefits scandal as well, discrimination by means of using algorithms played a role.