Your Rights: The Human Rights Act: Convention Rights: Article 14 Prohibition on Discrimination

The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.

Article 14 covers discrimination on all the grounds set out in the article (sex, race, colour etc.) However, the list is open-ended. This is clear from the fact that the article refers to ‘other status’. Some other grounds for discrimination are now clearly accepted as coming within the scope of Article 14, for example discrimination on the basis of someone’s sexual orientation. What is not clear is how far further grounds for discrimination have to be linked to a personal characteristic or whether it is just necessary for someone to show that they have been treated differently from someone who is in a relevantly similar situation.

Article 14 is not free-standing. For there to be a breach of Article 14 the area in which a person is discriminated against has to come within the scope of one of the other Convention articles. This means that the way in which you are discriminated against has to be connected with one of the other articles. There does not, however, have to be a breach of the other article. So, a gay man who complained about the fact that he was only entitled to succeed to his deceased partner’s flat on less favourable terms than a surviving heterosexual partner would have done was able to rely on Article 14 because he was discriminated against on the basis of his sexual orientation and, as the discrimination concerned his home, it was within the scope of Article 8 (Mendoza v Ghaidan).

Even where you can show that you have been discriminated against and that the area in which you have been discriminated against comes within the scope of another article it is still possible for the Government or public authority to argue that the discrimination is justified. They must show that there is a good reason for treating you differently and that doing so is proportionate. Where they can show this there will be no breach of Article 14.

Relevant sections:

The right to receive equal treatment
Rights of immigrants
Rights of gypsies and travellers

Article 14: Prohibition on Discrimination