PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation Much remains to be done. The adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination laws is a necessary, but not sufficient, step in the journey towards the elimination of discrimination. The adoption of these laws is most effective when elaborated in comprehensive and adequately resourced national and regional action plans, in close collaboration with affected individuals, their organizations and movements. The guide provides a floor, not a ceiling. In Our Common Agenda, a vision of the future for global cooperation through an inclusive, networked, and effective multilateralism, the Secretary-General noted: “Racism, intolerance and discrimination continue to exist in all societies, as seen during the pandemic with scapegoating of groups blamed for the virus. As a start, the adoption of comprehensive laws against discrimination, including based on race or ethnicity, age, gender, religion, disability, and sexual orientation or gender identity, is long overdue.”1 It is no coincidence that an appeal for the enactment of comprehensive anti-discrimination law is at the heart of Our Common Agenda. States’ recognition of the need to eliminate all forms of discrimination – and their commitment to doing so – is manifest in both the opening words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the call of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals to leave no one behind. This guide provides instruction on how to develop and enact such laws and thus to provide the necessary framework and foundation for a world in which all are equal in dignity and rights. Dr. Evelyn Collins CBE Chair of the Board of Trustees Equal Rights Trust 1 viii Volker Türk United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights A/75/982, para. 34. The report of the Secretary-General was presented at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly in 2021. See also www.un.org/en/un75/common-agenda.