intervening State. The fact that the State considers a person abroad to be one of its “kin”, does not justify any unilateral intervention on that person’s behalf. II. State obligations regarding persons belonging to national minorities 5. States should guarantee the right of everyone, including persons belonging to national minorities, to equality before the law and to equal protection under the law. In this respect, discrimination based on belonging to a national minority or related grounds is prohibited. Achieving substantive equality may require special measures and such measures should not be regarded as being discriminatory. The principles of non-discrimination and equality are expressed in virtually all international human rights instruments, including notably the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 2 and 7), the ICCPR (Articles 2, 26 and 27) and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 2). Article 1 of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination makes clear that this instrument also prohibits discrimination on the basis of “descent, or national or ethnic origin”. Article 14 of the ECHR also expressly extends the principle of non-discrimination to cover grounds of “national or social origin, [or] association with a national minority” and Protocol 12 additional to the ECHR establishes a general clause against discrimination. In more recent times, the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of, inter alia, national and ethnic origin has been codified by the European Union in the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty (Article 13 TEU), the 2000 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 22) and the Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC. The OSCE has also included the principles of non-discrimination and equality in the Helsinki Final Act (Principle VII), in the 1989 Concluding Document of Vienna (paragraphs 13.7 and 13.8) and in the Copenhagen Document (paragraphs 5.9, 25.3 and 25.4). With regard to minorities in particular, the enjoyment of minority rights without discrimination is contained in the UN Declaration on Minorities (Article 2.1) and in the CSCE Copenhagen Document (paragraph 31). Not least, most OSCE participating States incorporate these principles and standards in their constitutions. Recommendations on National Minorities in Inter-State Relations 13