PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation that the applicant “was married … according to the rites and traditions of the Roma community”, noting that they had six children together and lived together until Mr. Muñoz Díaz passed away.941 The Court ruled that, as such, the denial by the Spanish authorities of a widow’s pension to Ms. Muñoz Díaz constituted discrimination: The prohibition of discrimination enshrined in Article 14 of the Convention is meaningful only if, in each particular case, the applicant’s personal situation in relation to the criteria listed in that provision is taken into account exactly as it stands. To proceed otherwise in dismissing the victim’s claims on the ground that he or she could have avoided the discrimination by altering one of the factors in question – for example, by entering into a civil marriage – would render article 14 devoid of substance.942 In cases concerning Roma/Gypsies, the European Court of Human Rights has also broadly affirmed that, in situations in which Governments establish in national law minority rights protection regimes, protections included there – such as protection from eviction – cannot be lesser than those provided for other forms of housing.943 RECOGNITION OF THE KRISS ROMA IN COLOMBIA In 2018, the Ministries of the Interior and Justice and Law of Colombia completed, together with representatives of the country’s Roma communities, the process of creating a protocol for the recognition of the Kriss Roma and recommendations for access to justice (within the framework of Decree 2957 of 2010). Dissemination of and awareness-raising about the contents of the protocol began in 2019, in particular among justice officials in which Kumpañy Roma have a presence. These measures were accompanied by efforts to ensure the implementation of its recommendations, carried out with the support of the Mission to Support the Peace Process of the Organization of American States.944 A decisive moment in the understanding of minority rights requirements occurred in the early 1980s when the Human Rights Committee held that equality obligations were inherent in minority and indigenous rights, and hence that arrangements for minority or indigenous community self-governance should be implemented in line with States’ obligations to ensure non-discrimination. In the landmark case of Lovelace v. Canada, the Human Rights Committee ruled, in effect, that gender equality requirements inhered in article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on minority rights guarantees. The case concerned a First Nations woman named Sandra Lovelace, who found that, after her divorce from a non-aboriginal man and her effort to return to the Tobique Reserve, she and her children had lost their status as First Nations people, depriving them of access to housing, education and health care. A First Nations man in a similar situation would not have been similarly deprived of his status or entitlements. The Government of Canada endeavoured to argue that First Nations communities, including the one at issue, enjoyed autonomous status governed by treaty, precluding the possibility of override from the federal level. The Human Rights Committee held that article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights had been violated.945 In its subsequent guidance in general comment No. 28 (2000), the Committee explained as follows: The rights which persons belonging to minorities enjoy under article 27 of the Covenant in respect of their language, culture and religion do not authorize any State, group or person to violate the right to the equal enjoyment by women of any Covenant rights, including the right to equal protection of the law. States should report on any legislation or administrative practices related to membership in a minority community that might constitute an infringement of the equal rights of women under the Covenant (communication No. 24/1977, Lovelace v. Canada, Views adopted July 1981) and on measures taken or envisaged to ensure the equal right of men and women to enjoy all civil and political rights in the Covenant. Likewise, States should report on measures taken to discharge their 136 941 Ibid., para. 52. 942 Ibid., para. 70. 943 European Court of Human Rights, Connors v. the United Kingdom, Application No. 66746/01, Judgment, 27 May 2004. 944 Example provided by Government of Colombia, responding to a note verbale by OHCHR calling for inputs to the present guide. 945 Human Rights Committee, Lovelace v. Canada, communication No. 24/1977.