A/70/335 (A/HRC/29/46). Since March 2015, the Special Rapporteur has convened a side event on racial and ethnic profiling by law enforcement, which took place in Geneva on 1 July 2015. 7. The Special Rapporteur was invited to an expert meeting on xenophobia convened by the Centre for Migration of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg from 24 to 26 July 2015. He also addressed Strathmore University Law School, Nairobi, at its annual conference on terrorism and human rights on 4 and 5 August 2015. III. Disaggregated data: normative framework A. International framework 8. The Special Rapporteur wishes to recall that non-discrimination is a crosscutting human right norm closely linked and intertwined with the principle of equality, as laid out in articles 1 and 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reassert that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and enumerate the prohibited grounds of discrimination. Non-discrimination is embedded in all major international human rights treaties, including the International Bill of Human Rights, whose instruments unanimously and explicitly prohibit discrimination, inter alia, on grounds of, race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. 1 9. Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, specifically defines racial discrimination which refers to “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life”. 10. In its general comment No. 20 (2009) on non-discrimination in economic, social and cultural rights, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined discrimination in similar terms, including any treatment nullifying or impairing the enjoyment on an equal footing of the rights in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and incite ment to discrimination and harassment. The set of human rights treaties, which have been developed to protect the rights of individuals pertaining to particularly vulnerable groups, aim, first and foremost, to protect those individuals from human rights vi olations resulting from discrimination. 2 __________________ 1 2 15-14106 See Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 2, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 2 and 26, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 2 (2), and the Charter of the United Nations, preamble, articles 1 (3) and 55. See International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 5/24