Summary
All are equal before the law, and laws should be equally enforced.
Election Parts
Issues
- Freedom from Discrimination and Electoral Dispute Resolution
- The Legal Framework and Voter Education
- Rule of Law and the Legal Framework
- Equal Treatment of Candidates and Parties
- The Legal Framework and Candidacy and Campaigning
- Legal Framework for Voting Operations
- The Legal Framework and Dispute Resolution
- Legal Framework and Vote Counting and Tabulation
- Freedom From Discrimination in the Voter Registration Process
- Freedom From Discrimination in Voting Operations
- The Legal Framework and Election Management
- Freedom From Discrimination and the Electoral Management Body
- The Legal Framework for Electoral Systems and Boundary Delimitation
- The Legal Framework and the Media
- Freedom From Discrimination in Voter Education
- Freedom From Discrimination in the Legal Framework
- The Legal Framework and Voter Registration
- Special Measures
- Freedom From Discrimination in the Electoral System and Boundary Delimitation Process
- Freedom From Discrimination and the Media
Criteria
- The principles of rule of law were promoted
- The electoral management body treated all citizens equally
- The laws regulating elections were equally enforced and were not arbitrarily applied
- The regulation of the media promoted equality and absence of discrimination
- The electoral dispute resolution process did not discriminate on the basis of prohibited grounds
- The legal framework for elections included guarantees of equality before the law
- All citizens received voter education regardless of their race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation or gender identity, property, birth, or other status
- Eligibility requirements for voter registration were reasonable and objective and did not discriminate on the basis of prohibited grounds
- The voting process did not discriminate against anyone on the basis of prohibited grounds
- The state took steps to ensure de facto equality between men and women
- Electoral dispute resolution took place in accordance with the principles of the rule of law
- The electoral system did not discriminate against citizens on grounds prohibited by international law
- Regulations for candidacy and campaigning were not discriminatory
Quotes
- All shall be equal before the law and shall be entitled, without any discrimination, to equal protection before the law.
- All peoples shall be equal; they shall enjoy the same respect and shall have the same rights. Nothing shall justify the domination of a people by another.
- Every person shall have the right of access to public property and services in strict equality of all persons before the law.
- States Parties recognize that all persons are equal before and under the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law.
- States Parties shall accord to women equality with men before the law.
- Women and men are equal before the law and shall have the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.
- All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.
- All persons are equal before the law. Consequently, they are entitled, without discrimination, to equal protection of the law.
- State Parties shall protect the right to equality before the law and equal protection by the law as a fundamental precondition for a just and democratic society.
- In compliance with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, color, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: (a) The right to equal treatment before the tribunals and all other organs administering justice
- Each State Party to the present covenant undertakes : (a) to ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms are herein recognized as violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.
- Migrant workers and their families shall have the right to equality with nationals of the State concerned before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against them or their rights and obligations in a suit of law, they shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.
- Every human being is equal under the law and has a right to equal protection against any form of discrimination and intolerance in any sphere of life, public or private.
- States Parties reaffirm that persons with disabilities have the right to recognition everywhere as persons before the law.
- Everyone is equal before the law.
- Every woman has the right to the recognition, enjoyment, exercise and protection of all human rights and freedoms embodied in regional and international human rights instruments. These rights include, among others: …f.The right to equal protection before the law and of the law.
- Procedural laws or their application that make distinctions based on any of the criteria listed in article 2, paragraph 1 or article 26, or disregard the equal right of men and women, in accordance with article 3, to the enjoyment of the guarantees set forth in article 14 of the Covenant, not only violate the requirement of paragraph 1 of this provision that "all persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals," but may also amount to discrimination.
- [T]he positive obligations on States Parties to ensure Covenant rights will only be fully discharged if individuals are protected by the State, not just against violations of Covenant rights by its agents, but also against acts committed by private persons or entities that would impair the enjoyment of Covenant rights in so far as they are amenable to application between private persons and entities. There may be circumstances in which a failure to ensure Covenant rights as required by article 2 would give rise to violations by States Parties of those rights, as a result of States Parties' permitting or failing to take appropriate measures or to exercise due diligence to prevent, punish, investigate or redress the harm caused by such acts by private persons or entities.
- While article 2 limits the scope of the rights to be protected against discrimination to those provided for in the Covenant, article 26 does not specify such limitations. That is to say, article 26 provides that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law without discrimination, and that the law shall guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any of the enumerated grounds. In the view of the Committee, article 26 does not merely duplicate the guarantee already provided for in article 2 but provides in itself an autonomous right. It prohibits discrimination in law or in fact in any field regulated and protected by public authorities. Article 26 is therefore concerned with the obligations imposed on States parties in regard to their legislation and the application thereof. Thus, when legislation is adopted by a State party, it must comply with the requirement of article 26 that its content should not be discriminatory. In other words, the application of the principle of non-discrimination contained in article 26 is not limited to those rights which are provided for in the Covenant.
- The right to equality before the courts and tribunals and to a fair trial is a key element of human rights protection and serves as a procedural means to safeguard the rule of law.
- All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
- We look forward to faster progress towards the return of refugees and displaced persons and the implementation of relevant international standards, particularly those related to equal treatment without regard to ethnicity, freedom of the media, and free and fair elections.
- At the beginning of the new century and millennium, we reaffirm our commitment to the promotion of democracy and its core values in our respective countries. In particular, we undertake to work with renewed determination to enforce the equality of all citizens before the law and the liberty of the individual.
- Every person has the right of recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Every person is equal before the law. Every person is entitled without discrimination to equal protection of the law.
- Compl[y] fully with their international human rights law obligations and commitments with regard to participation in political and public affairs, including reflecting them in their national legislative framework.
- Every human being has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
- [Consider] signing and ratifying or acceding to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other core international human rights treaties.
- Tak[e] proactive measures to eliminate all barriers in law and in practice that prevent or hinder citizens, in particular women, persons belonging to marginalized groups or minorities, persons with disabilities and persons in vulnerable situations, from participating fully in effectively in political and public affairs, including, inter alia, reviewing and repealing measures that unreasonably restrict the right to participate in public affairs, and considering adopting, on the basis of reliable data on participation, temporary special measure, including legislative acts, aimed at increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in all aspects of political and public life;
- Everyone is entitled to enjoy all human rights without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Everyone is entitled to equality before the law and the equal protection of the law without any such discrimination whether or not the enjoyment of another human right is also affected. The law shall prohibit any such discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against any such discrimination.
- Every person who has the right of suffrage must be allowed to exercise his/her suffrage right in a nondiscriminatory manner on the basis of equal treatment before the law.
- Every victim of a human rights violation, including of a violation based on sexual orientation or gender identity, has the right to effective, adequate and appropriate remedies. Measures taken for the purpose of providing reparation to, or securing adequate advancement of, persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are integral to the right to effective remedies and redress.
- Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This includes the expression of identity or personhood through speech, deportment, dress, bodily characteristics, choice of name, or any other means, as well as the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, including with regard to human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, through any medium and regardless of frontiers.
- The framework also must provide requirements for election officials and law enforcement personnel to honor equal protection of the law and provide effective remedies in securing proper election campaign conditions.
- Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, including for the purposes of peaceful demonstrations, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Persons may form and have recognised, without discrimination, associations based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and associations that distribute information to or about, facilitate communication among, or advocate for the rights of, persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.
- Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law, in the determination of their rights and obligations in a suit at law and of any criminal charge against them, without prejudice or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Human beings of all sexual orientations and gender identities are entitled to the full enjoyment of all human rights.