PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation victims of discrimination253 and often detrimental to their claim. Thus, in cases of direct and indirect discrimination, it is illegitimate to dismiss a claim based on the absence of a comparator. Use of a comparator is not necessary – and indeed is inappropriate – in considering claims of harassment, failure to make reasonable accommodation or victimization, concepts that are discussed below. (c) Ground-based harassment SUMMARY • Anti-discrimination legislation should prohibit harassment. Ground-based harassment occurs when unwanted conduct related to any ground of discrimination takes place with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. • Harassment may be committed intentionally or unintentionally. • Sexual harassment is a discrete form of harm that entails conduct that is sexual in nature. The duty to prohibit sexual harassment forms a specific parallel obligation of States. Where the prohibition of sexual harassment is set out in anti-discrimination legislation, it should be defined separately and sit alongside a prohibition of ground-based harassment. Ground-based harassment is a form of discrimination that occurs when an individual experiences unwanted conduct, related to a ground of discrimination, that violates dignity and creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment, or that has this purpose, even if unsuccessful. A broad range of acts may fall within this definition, including an individual’s words, actions and other behaviour.254 As with other forms of discrimination, intent or motivation is not necessary to prove harassment – it is sufficient that the conduct in question has the effect of violating dignity and of creating a hostile environment.255 Ground-based harassment may also occur in situations in which an individual or group is deliberately excluded or targeted on the basis of a protected characteristic. In India, for example, anti-discrimination activists have highlighted concerns about the practice of social exclusion or economic boycott of individuals by a particular community, on the basis of caste, religion or ethnicity. In some jurisdictions, there is a discrete, separate criminal offence of harassment that is not part of antidiscrimination law.256 Such offences cover, for example, abuse, bullying, unwanted touching or other behaviour that makes a person feel distressed or threatened, but that is unrelated to a ground of discrimination. The law governing such offences falls outside the scope of the present guide. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated that harassment is a form of discrimination within the meaning of article 2 (2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,257 while the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has identified it as one of the “four main forms” of discrimination prohibited under the relevant Convention.258 Other treaty bodies have also recognized harassment as a form of prohibited conduct in their assessments of State implementation of the 36 253 See, for instance, in the context of pregnancy, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009), para. 10 (a); and, relatedly, Court of Justice of the European Union, Elisabeth Johanna Pacifica Dekker v. Stichting Vormingscentrum voor Jong Volwassenen (VJV-Centrum) Plus, Case C-177/88, Judgment, 8 November 1990. 254 See, for example, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 6 (2018), para. 18 (d). 255 See the discussion of intent in section I.A.2(a) of part two of the present guide. 256 See, for example, United Kingdom, Protection from Harassment Act, 1997. 257 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009), para. 7. 258 Defined as “unwanted conduct related to disability or other prohibited grounds [which] takes place with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”. Other “main forms” of discrimination identified are direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and failure to provide reasonable accommodation. See Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 6 (2018), para. 18 (d).