Non-Discrimination and Equality

Abstract

Abstract As a human rights instrument, the clear purpose of the Covenant is to protect the fundamental rights of every person without exception. That human rights are seen to adhere to every human being by virtue of their humanity means that they are possessed by every person to an equal extent. As the Preamble stresses, the Covenant is based upon an idea of the ‘equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family’. The concept of ‘equal rights’ is confirmed in the Covenant in a general manner by the fact that the rights pertain to ‘everyone’, and more specifically in article 3 which makes express reference to the equal rights of men and women. The idea of equality may also be found in a number of other provisions in the Covenant. Article 7 refers to ‘equal remuneration for work of equal value’, to ‘equal pay for equal work’, and to ‘equal opportunity for everyone to be pro moted’. Similarly, article 13 provides that ‘higher education shall be made equally accessible to all’. However, it follows from the structure of the Covenant that the most important provision as regards the promotion of equality or of equal rights within the Covenant is article 2(2). In that provision, recognition of a concept of equality is to be discovered in a negative formulation prohibiting discrimination.