A/73/227 culture, religion or nationality, then the rights of anyone can be so condit ioned”. 8 These commitments were reiterated in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995, in which it was asserted that “any harmful aspect of certain traditional, customary or modern practices that violates the rights of women should be prohibited and eliminated”. 9 This represented the international community reaffirming article 5 (a) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In other words, equality and universal human rights are not overridden by culture or what is claimed to be culture. 21. General Assembly resolution 60/251 mandates the Human Rights Council to promote “universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner ” (para. 2). The Council regularly reiterates the importance of ensuring and being guided by the principle of universality. 10 The most recently drafted human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, all specifically reaffirmed universality or the applicability of human rights to all regardless of group affiliation. 22. Special procedures mandate holders, experts from the treaty monitoring bodies and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have likewise reasserted this tenet and emphasized the importance of ensuring that “traditions”, “attitudes” and “customary practices” are not elevated above universal human rights standards. 11 As the Human Rights Committee has underscored: “While acknowledging the diversity of morality and cultures internationally, the Committee recalls that all States parties are always subject to the principles of universality of human rights and non-discrimination” (A/69/40 (Vol. I), para. 127 (10)). Likewise, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has insisted that “cultural characteristics could not be allowed to undermine the principle of the universality of human rights, which remained inalienable and non -negotiable” (A/52/38/Rev.1, para. 64). 12 23. The principle of non-discrimination, enshrined in a large number of international legal instruments, constitutes an important legal basis for the relationship between universality and diversity. According to these texts and their interpretation by the relevant treaty bodies, discrimination constitutes any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference or other differential treatment that is directly or indirectly based on the prohibited grounds of discrimination and which has the intention or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights. Everyone must enjoy the same rights, regardless of their distinctive features. At the same time, the enjoyment of rights and freedoms __________________ 8 9 10 11 12 8/26 Charlotte Bunch, “Legacy of Vienna: Feminism and Human Rights”, International Expert Conference on Vienna+20, Vienna, 27–28 June 2013. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4–15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1 (Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action), para. 224. See, for example, Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1, 6/6, 14/7, 22/5 and 25/11. See E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.5, paras. 9, 20, 76 and 80; A/HRC/4/34, para. 47; A/HRC/18/35/Add.5, para. 67; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 19 (1992) on violence against women, paras. 11 and 23; and general recommendation No. 21 (1994) on equality in marriage and family relations, paras. 21 and 22; Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Harmful traditional practices affecting the health of women and children ”, fact sheet No. 23, August 1995. See also A/53/38/Rev.1, para. 282. 18-12312