PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation • The obligation to consult and ensure the participation of affected groups in all policy, strategies, monitoring, research and positive action initiatives. It should be noted that not all of these measures should be – or indeed could be – fully implemented or included within a comprehensive anti-discrimination law. Some measures of implementation require States to adopt policies or practices that cannot be detailed in legislation, while others entail fiscal or economic measures that are dynamic in nature. Thus, while international law is clear that States must ensure the effective implementation of the rights to equality and non-discrimination, the principal instruments for the most part leave the design of such measures to national discretion.800 Nevertheless, it is important that States ensure that their anti-discrimination legislation requires the adoption of implementation measures and provides the framework for their operation. A. Equality policies and strategies States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities all make an overarching commitment to “undertake to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy” of eliminating discrimination.801 As clarified by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the “policy” commitment here is understood as State policy in its broadest sense, requiring the “adoption of a comprehensive range of measures”, ranging from the adoption of constitutional guarantees of non-discrimination to the repeal of discriminatory legislation.802 However, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women stresses that, as an essential element of this broad, overarching policy commitment, States should adopt “comprehensive action plans … which provide a framework for the practical realization of the principle of formal and substantive equality of women and men”.803 The statements of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women reflect the clear international consensus that States are required to develop, adopt and implement equality and nondiscrimination policies, action plans and strategies. The duty can be viewed as entailing two aspects. First, States must adopt specific strategies focused on the achievement of equality and non-discrimination. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has commented that States “should ensure that strategies, policies, and plans of action, are in place and implemented in order to address both formal and substantive discrimination by public and private actors”.804 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has, as noted, recognized that States should adopt comprehensive action plans for the realization of equality between men and women.805 Similarly, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has emphasized that full implementation of the right to non-discrimination necessitates the development “in close consultation with organizations of persons with disabilities … and other relevant stakeholders … an equality policy and strategy that is inclusive and accessible to all persons with disabilities”.806 Second, States should integrate equality and non-discrimination planning into their broader policy development programmes. For example, in addition to requiring the adoption of specific equality and non-discrimination 116 800 See, for example, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 23: “This obligation to use means or a certain way of conduct gives a State party a great deal of flexibility for devising a policy that will be appropriate for its particular legal, political, economic, administrative and institutional framework and that can respond to the particular obstacles and resistance to the elimination of discrimination against women existing in that State party.” 801 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, art. 2 (1); and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 2. Article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities sets out States’ general obligations thereunder, which include the adoption of “all appropriate measures” and a specific obligation “to take into account the protection and promotion of the human rights of persons with disabilities in all policies and programmes”. 802 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 24. 803 Ibid. 804 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009), para. 38. 805 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 24. 806 Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 6 (2018), para. 73 (j).