Report of the International Conference on Comparative Non-Discrimination Law, Utrecht 1998
| Author | Titia Loenen,Peter Rodrigues |
| Published date | 01 March 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/135822919900300407 |
| Date | 01 March 1999 |
International Journal
of
Discrimination
and
the
Law,
1999, Vol. 3, pp. 305-307
1358-2291/99 $10
© 1999 A B Academic Publishers. Printed in Great Britain
REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
COMPARATIVE NON-DISCRIMINATION LAW, UTRECHT
1998
Almost all over the world the right to equal treatment and non-
discrimination figures as a major issue for groups whose rights are
thwarted
or
marginalized one way
or
another. The right to equality
and non-discrimination occupies a prominent position in all the major
international human rights documents and national constitutions. Suf-
ficient reason for the Department
of
Women's
Legal Studies (Utrecht
University), the Equal Treatment Commission and the School
of
Human Rights Research to organize the International Conference on
Comparative Non-Discrimination
Law
(ICCNDL) from 22 till 24
June 1998 in Utrecht. The aim
of
this conference was to bring
together knowledge and understanding
of
the application and effect
of
the right to equality and the principle
of
non-discrimination in
legal theory and practice, seen from an international and comparative
law point
of
view. The
ICCNDL
can be considered the first World
Conference on Non-Discrimination
Law
because it was not restricted
to one ground
or
one country, but covering world wide all grounds
of
discrimination including sex, race, nationality, belief and convic-
tion, disability, sexual orientation, age and marital status. The three
day programme consisted
of
eight plenary sessions (lectures) and 37
workshops, which allowed for more profound discussion between
experts in the field. The lectures were set up in such a way that one
international expert approached a certain topic from an academic per-
spective and the other from the view
of
a practitioner. In all 177 par-
ticipants from 30 different countries registered for the conference and
except for Latin America, all continents were present. Besides parti-
cipants from Western European and North American countries,
people were present from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Gambia, Hun-
gary, India, Israel, Japan, Poland, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey and
Uganda.
The
first day focused on general themes including international
non-discrimination law, concepts
of
formal and substantive equality,
models and standards
of
review and positive obligations in relation to
non-discrimination. The opening lecture
of
Dr. K.
O'Regan
(Justice
Constitutional Court
of
South Africa) dealt with the complications
of
equal treatment in the new South Africa. She highlighted several
key sections
of
the Constitution which are directed at eliminating
systemic discrimination. With poverty being a thoroughly racial phe-
nomenon, South Africa faces its own specific problems in eradicating
To continue reading
Request your trial