PART TWO: CONTENT OF COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW right to non-discrimination under 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 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.259 Sexual harassment is a discrete but related form of harm, which has an autonomous definition in international law. SEXUAL HARASSMENT PART TWO – I Under European Union legislation, harassment (which may occur on the basis of an individual’s sex, as well as other grounds) and sexual harassment are defined separately as discrete forms of harm. While both offences include conduct that violates human dignity and has the effect of creating “an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”,260 sexual harassment relates specifically to conduct that is sexual in nature and need not be related to a protected characteristic.261 Examples of sexual harassment include sexual remarks, the display of pornographic or sexually explicit materials, as well as forms of sexual contact, that may constitute separate offences under the criminal law.262 In their recent concluding observations, both the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Human Rights Committees have called on States to prohibit sexual harassment in their national legal frameworks.263 These bans should sit alongside, and in addition to, prohibitions of groundbased harassment, as defined in this section.264 To differing extents, each of the regional human rights systems has recognized harassment as a form of prohibited conduct. Harassment is explicitly prohibited in the European Union equal treatment directives.265 In its guidance on the right to non-discrimination, the European Court of Human Rights has identified harassment “as [a] particular manifestatio[n] of direct discrimination”.266 While the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have primarily discussed harassment in the context of sexual harassment,267 both have applied the principle in respect of a broader list of grounds.268 In particular, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has noted that: “Harassment may amount to discrimination on account of race, colour, religion, national origin, age, sex/gender, sexual 259 See, for example, CCPR/C/BLR/CO/5, para. 19; CERD/C/ITA/CO/19-20, para. 25; and CEDAW/C/JPN/CO/7-8, paras. 12 (e) and 13 (c). The ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations has similarly noted that the ban on discrimination under article 1 (1) (a) of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), covers “discrimination-based harassment”. See ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, General Observation on Discrimination Based on Race, Colour and National Extraction (2018). 260 Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation (recast), arts. 2 (1) (c)–(d). 261 Ibid., art. 2 (1) (d). 262 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 19 (1992), para. 18. 263 See, for example, CCPR/C/JAM/CO/4, para. 24; and E/C.12/TKM/CO/2, para. 21 (f). 264 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 23 (2016), para. 48. 265 Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, art. 2 (3); Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, art. 2 (3); Council Directive 2004/113/EC of 13 December 2004 implementing the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services, arts. 2 (c) and 4 (3); and Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation (recast), arts. 2 (1) (c) and (2) (a). Additionally, Directives 2004/113/EC, art. 2 (d), and 2006/54/EC, art. 2 (1) (d), define sexual harassment separately to include “any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature [which] occurs, with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”. 266 European Court of Human Rights, Guide on Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and on Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the Convention: Prohibition of Discrimination, para. 30. 267 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Violence and Discrimination against Women and Girls: Best Practices and Challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean (OEA/Ser.L/V/II, Doc.233/19) (2019); African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Principles and Guidelines on the Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, para. 59 (k). 268 For instance, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has condemned acts of harassment committed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, calling on States to “adopt and enforce effective measures to prevent discrimination” against such persons “in public and in private educational institutions”. See Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “The IACHR is concerned about violence and discrimination against LGBTI persons in the context of education and family settings”, 22 November 2013. 37