PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation In 2021, executive and legislative bodies in the Philippines111 and Armenia112 were actively considering the adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination law, while draft legislation, developed and advocated principally by civil society, was drawn up in multiple countries, including (but not limited to) the Dominican Republic, India, Kyrgyzstan and Paraguay. INDIA: ANTI-DISCRIMINATION AND EQUALITY BILL In 2017, Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament and a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, submitted draft comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, entitled the “Anti-Discrimination and Equality Bill, 2016”, as a private member’s bill to the Parliament of India.113 The Bill, which built upon previous legislative initiatives,114 was the first tangible articulation of comprehensive antidiscrimination law in India. Although the Bill lapsed, further work is being carried out by civil society in this area and there remains space for future legislative developments. The Bill as drafted is divided into five chapters. Chapter II establishes the personal scope of the law, the forms of prohibited conduct and positive duties. Chapter III provides for the establishment of a central equality commission, its mandate, resourcing and powers. Chapter IV contains provisions relating to remedy for acts of discrimination, while chapter V contains miscellaneous provisions regulating, inter alia, the burden of proof in discrimination cases and legal standing to bring a claim, which extends to an “aggrieved person” (an individual who has experienced discrimination), a close relative (where the aggrieved person has died), an organization representing aggrieved persons with their prior consent or any aggrieved person when acting on behalf of a group of aggrieved individuals.115 Section 3 contains an explicit list of protected characteristics, which includes the grounds of “caste, race, ethnicity, descent, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, sexual orientation, religion and belief, tribe, disability, linguistic identity, HIV status, nationality, marital status, food preference, skin tone, place of residence, place of birth or age”. The Bill additionally prohibits discrimination on the basis of “any other characteristic which,– (a) is either outside a person’s effective control, or constitutes a fundamental choice, or both; and (b) defines at least one group that suffers or is in danger of suffering widespread and substantial disadvantage, when compared with other groups defined by the same characteristic”.116 Discrimination would further be prohibited on the basis of a combination of any of the above characteristics.117 Under section 4, the term “protected group” is defined to include any “persons who are (correctly or incorrectly) perceived to be members of that group and persons who are associated with the members of that group and may or may not possess any formal recognition, social cohesion or a distinct cultural identity”. Sections 6 to 12 identify forms of prohibited conduct, which includes direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, boycott, segregation, discriminatory violence and victimization. Sections 14–16 establish “anti-discrimination”, “diversification” and “due regard” duties; the latter of which requires “all public authorities while making a rule, regulation, policy or strategic decision [to] give due regard to [the need to eliminate] all forms of discrimination to promote equality and diversity”. Under section 33, any breach of these duties may result in the making of an “appropriate order, declaration, 14 111 See, for instance, Commission on Human Rights, “Position paper on the Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Bill at the House of Representatives, 18th Congress” (Quezon City, 2020). Available at http://chr.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SIGNED-Position-Paper_ CADB_House-copy.pdf. 112 CCPR/C/ARM/RQ/3, paras. 9–10. 113 Anti-Discrimination and Equality Bill, 2016. Available at http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/LSBillTexts/Asintroduced/2991.pdf. 114 Including a draft law on an equal opportunity commission, which was published in a 2008 report by the Expert Group to examine and determine the structure and functions of an equal opportunity commission (Menon Committee), Equal Opportunity Commission: What, Why and How? (New Delhi, 2008). Available at www.minorityaffairs.gov.in/sites/default/files/eoc_wwh.pdf. 115 Anti-Discrimination and Equality Bill, 2016, sect. 37. 116 Ibid., sect. 3. 117 Ibid., sect. 3 (iii).