Article 7 – Equality before the law
We sometimes have to endure that situations are very complicated to children, but what we CAN do something about is how children and parents experience such a procedure.
Tessa Dopheide, children’s judge (view the video below)
Video
Artikel 7
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
What does this right mean?
Every person has to be treated equally by the law. So, laws are not allowed to be discriminating. Unequal laws function in a discriminatory way to certain population demographics or disadvantage these groups. Some of the ways in which this can happen are based on sex, age, skin colour or disability.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
What is the history of this right?
One example of discriminatory laws were the segregation laws in the United States. There was a time in which people of colour in North America had fewer rights than white people. It was legally documented that black people were not allowed to visit certain places, such as parks, theatres and restaurants.
During the Second World War as well, Jews, homosexuals and people of colour were among those who had fewer rights than others. For instance, Jews had to wear a Star of David for identification. Certain places, such as schools, became forbidden territory to Jews, just like with the segregation laws in the United States. Jews were also only allowed to marry other Jews. These were the ways in which they were restricted in their freedoms and rights.
Where and how is this right documented?
According to Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution, everyone in the Netherlands is to be treated equally. We also call this the prohibition of discrimination. Furthermore, we see in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that people are to be treated equally. For instance, every human being has the right to be themselves according to this covenant. The legislator is required to respect various kinds of people and value them equally. In the European Convention on Human Rights, the prohibition of discrimination is documented too. In various European regulations and guidelines, the prohibition of discrimination is worked out further. In the Netherlands, the prohibition of discrimination is included in various laws too. On top of that, the Netherlands has the General Equal Treatment Act. This law has in-depth descriptions of various prohibitions of unequal treatments.
How topical is this human right?
Laws in the Netherlands are becoming more and more equal and inclusive. As a homosexual in the Netherlands, you have rights equal to any other Dutch person. But in countries such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh, homosexuality is illegal, and you are thus punishable under the law as a homosexual. So, in this case, a certain group is treated unequally by the law. At the same time, there is discrimination in practice in the Netherlands too, as was shown in the benefits affair and ethnic profiling at the border. Equal treatment also means that female employees may not be fired if they are pregnant, or that it is illegal to not hire people from a particular religion.
Sometimes, there is a good reason to infringe on this right, such as with affirmative action. In such cases, it is actually allowed to treat certain groups of people unequally. Think along the lines of certain quotas a company has to meet, such as a minimum number of women on the board or a minimum number of employees with disabilities. These unequal laws are meant to stimulate equality in society. This often causes discussions on affirmative action.