PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation focus and individual members of these groups.23 There is also increasing recognition of a right to equal legal capacity, as an inherent component of States’ obligations to ensure equality before the law or equal protection of the law. In this respect, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has noted that “there are no permissible circumstances under international human rights law in which a person may be deprived of the right to recognition as a person before the law, or in which this right may be limited”.24 Beyond these treaties, guarantees of equality and non-discrimination may be found in a range of international instruments. States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child are required to “respect and ensure” the rights set forth in the Convention “without discrimination of any kind”25 and a similar obligation is provided in the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.26 The General Assembly has opened discussion of a possible specific human rights instrument on the rights of older persons,27 which is expected to include a similarly robust commitment to non-discrimination. States have also accepted non-discrimination obligations in discrete areas of life, such as employment and education, and as concerns particular groups, such as indigenous peoples, through their ratification of International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions28 and the Convention against Discrimination in Education.29 B. Obligations to respect, protect and fulfil By ratifying human rights instruments, States assume an immediate obligation to take all measures – administrative, legislative and judicial – necessary to give effect to and fulfil the rights that they provide. Treaty ratification gives rise to three separate, but interrelated, obligations on the State: to respect, to protect and to fulfil the rights provided therein.30 Understanding of the “respect, protect and fulfil” framework has been developed through the work of the treaty bodies and others, which have applied the framework, inter alia, in respect of the right to non-discrimination.31 As the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has noted, the obligation to respect is a negative obligation, which requires that States refrain from discrimination in law, policy or practice.32 It can be viewed as entailing two primary components. First, States undertake to refrain from engaging in discriminatory acts or adopting, implementing, or pursuing policies that are discriminatory in purpose or 2 23 Although the existence of such a specific international legal instrument is in no way a precondition for State action to ensure equal recognition and protection for all, which is an immediate obligation, emanating directly from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 24 Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 1 (2014), para. 5. 25 Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 2 (1). 26 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, art. 1 (1). 27 Information about the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing is available at https://social.un.org/ageing-working-group. 28 See, in particular, Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100); Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111); and Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 1989 (No. 169). In 2019, the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) was adopted. At the time of writing the Convention has been ratified by 10 States. It entered into force in June 2021. 29 Convention against Discrimination in Education, adopted in 1960. 30 See, for instance, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 24 (2017), para. 10; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 9; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, “Statement on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its implications under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination” (2020), p. 2; and Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 6 (2018), para. 30. The Human Rights Committee has articulated the obligations of States under article 2 (1) of the Covenant in terms of the negative obligation to refrain from discrimination and the positive obligation to adopt protective measures. In its general comment No. 18 (1989), the Committee makes clear that fulfilment of the rights to equality and non-discrimination requires positive action. See, respectively, Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 31 (2004), paras. 6 and 8; and general comment No. 18 (1989), para. 10. 31 See, for instance, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 6 (2018), para. 30; and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 9. 32 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 9. See also Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 31 (2004), paras. 6 and 8.