PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination law was recognized as being necessary “to achieve a number of the Sustainable Development Goals and related targets”.76 III. REGIONAL AND NATIONAL LAW DEVELOPMENTS At the regional level, the value of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation has been recognized by supranational normative bodies, including those with adjudicating powers. Regional human rights bodies in Africa, the Americas and Europe have all concluded that States parties to the human rights instruments in those regions have an obligation to enact comprehensive anti-discrimination laws. At the national level, anti-discrimination laws have been adopted that – although in some cases imperfect – seek ostensibly to provide comprehensive levels of protection, thus demonstrating a clear consensus among States on the need for comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. On each continent, further legislative reform efforts are currently under way, as the push towards the adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination law has grown into a truly global movement. A. Africa Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights provides that: “Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognized and guaranteed in the present Charter without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or any status.” Article 1 of the Charter requires States to “recognize the rights, duties and freedoms enshrined in [the] Charter and … to adopt legislative or other measures to give effect to them”. The prohibition of discrimination enshrined in article 2 is recaptured in the preamble to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. Under article 2 of the Protocol, States are required to take all “appropriate legislative, institutional and other measures” to combat discrimination against women. In 2010, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted its Principles and Guidelines on the Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which emphasize States’ obligations to “recognise and take steps to combat intersectional discrimination based on a combination of (but not limited to) the following grounds: sex/gender, race, ethnicity, language, religion, political and other opinion, sexuality, national or social origin, property, birth, age, disability, marital, refugee, migrant and/or other status”.77 Consistent with this guidance, the Commission has recommended that States adopt “comprehensive equality and non-discrimination law”.78 In view of the recommendations of the Commission, several States in Africa are in the process of reviewing their legislative frameworks on equality.79 In some countries, such as Kenya, the possibility of adopting comprehensive anti-discrimination law has been considered as part of these processes.80 8 76 A/HRC/42/38, paras. 147–148. 77 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. 38. 78 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, “Concluding observations and recommendations on the 8th to 11th periodic report of the Republic of Kenya” (2016), para. 55 (ii). 79 See, for instance, CCPR/C/KEN/4, para. 170. See also discussion of Tunisia, below. 80 Indeed, in 2017, the delegation of Kenya to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women indicated that comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation was being reviewed by the Kenya Law Reform Commission. See OHCHR, “Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considers the report of Kenya”, 2 November 2017.