PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation
remedy. They also reflect the fact that discrimination has pernicious and far-reaching effects on society and that
it can be both the cause and the consequence of negative social forces, such as ableism, ageism, homophobia,
racism, sexism, transphobia and xenophobia, which result in harms at the individual, community and societal
level.
It is firmly established that persons whose rights have been violated are entitled to an effective remedy. Thus,
for example, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination includes,
under article 6, an explicit right to effective remedy for racial discrimination. In its general recommendation
No. 26 (2000), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination affirmed that that included
both punishment for those responsible for discrimination, as well as pecuniary and moral damage.568 The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights includes a specific obligation on States to ensure remedy
for any violation of Covenant rights, and the Human Rights Committee has emphasized that States must ensure
that survivors of discrimination have accessible and effective remedies to vindicate their rights,569 including the
right to non-discrimination. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated that institutions
dealing with discrimination should be empowered to provide effective remedies, including “compensation,
reparation, restitution, rehabilitation, guarantees of non-repetition and public apologies”.570 The Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has made similar recommendations,571 noting States’
obligations to “provide and enforce appropriate, timely remedies for discrimination” and “ensure that remedies
are adequate, effective, promptly attributed, holistic and proportional to the gravity of the harm suffered”.572
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has emphasized that sanctions for breach of the
right to non-discrimination must be “effective, proportionate and dissuasive”.573
The Human Rights Committee, in its general comment No. 31 (2004), which deals with States’ general legal
obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has noted that “reparation can
involve restitution, rehabilitation and measures of satisfaction, such as public apologies, public memorials,
guarantees of non-repetition and changes in relevant laws and practices, as well as bringing to justice the
perpetrators of human rights violations”.574 The Committee has further noted that “in general, the purposes
of the Covenant would be defeated without an obligation … to take measures to prevent a recurrence of a
violation”, going on to note its own repeated calls for “measures, beyond a victim-specific remedy, to be taken
to avoid recurrence of the type of violation in question”.575 The Committee’s recommendations in this respect
are aligned with the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of
Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian
Law, which lists five elements of “full and effective reparation”: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation,
satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.576
In line with the Human Rights Committee’s approach, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women has noted that remedy includes restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and “measures of
satisfaction, such as public apologies, public memorials and guarantees of non-repetition”,577 a position largely
echoed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.578 The Committee on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities has noted that in situations in which discrimination is of systemic nature, the mere granting
76
568
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, general recommendation No. 26 (2000), para. 2.
569
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 2 (3); and Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 31 (2004), para. 15.
570
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009), para. 40.
571
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 32.
572
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 33 (2015), para. 19 (a) and (b).
573
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 6 (2018), para. 31 (f).
574
Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 31 (2004), para. 16.
575
Ibid., para. 17.
576
Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights
Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (General Assembly resolution 60/147, annex), paras. 15–22, at para. 18.
The Basic Principles and Guidelines have been cited with approval by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which has
noted that they “provide useful indications as to the obligations that follow for States from the general obligation to provide access to
effective remedies”. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 24 (2017), para. 40.
577
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 32.
578
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009), para. 40.