Equality and Non-discrimination

Primary tabs

This case was brought on behalf of Shanti Devi, a women living in poverty from a Scheduled Caste, after she died as the result of being refused adequate maternal healthcare despite the fact that she qualified for the free services under existing state-sponsored schemes. In 2008, Shanti Devi was forced to carry a dead fetus in her womb for five days after being denied medical treatment at several hospitals because her husband was unable to show a valid ration card for medical services, despite being qualified for one as they lived below the poverty line.

The Applicants alleged that their property rights in agricultural lands had been infringed by a provision in the Zimbabwean Constitution which effectively vested the ownership of all agricultural lands compulsorily acquired under it to the State, as well as racial discrimination in the application of the provision. The provision additionally ousted the jurisdiction of the courts to entertain any challenge concerning such acquisitions of agricultural land.

This was a class action brought on behalf of children residing in a school district with a comparatively low property tax base - 98% of whom were Mexican-American. The plaintiffs challenged the reliance of the State of Texas on local property taxes to finance schools, which meant that students in poorer districts received only two-thirds of the amount students received in the wealthier districts.

Sandra Lovelace, a Maliseet Indian, lived on the Tobique Reservation with her parents until she married a non-Indian man. The marriage ended, and Ms. Lovelace returned to the reservation to live with her parents, however, she could not purchase a home on the reserve because the council prioritized housing for members of the group.

The case was filed in March 2003 to force the Comisión Nacional de Pensiones Asistenciales (national agency in charge of welfare pensions) to grant a disability pension to Daniela Reyes Aguilera, a Bolivian girl who has a disabling condition preventing her from moving legs and arms, speaking, and eating on her own. Article 1, paragraph "e" of Decree 432/1997, which requires foreign citizens to prove legal residence in Argentina for at least twenty years in order to qualify for disability pensions, was contested as unconstitutional.

Under the SSPA system in Hong Kong, children are evaluated and placed into corresponding secondary schools based upon an Internal Assessment (IA) and an Academic Aptitude Test (AAT). placed into secondary schools based on those scores.  However, the IA and AAT scores were evaluated and analyzed based on sex, particularly because girls typically scored higher on the Internal Assessment portion and boys faired better on the Academic Aptitude standardized test.

Upon going into labor, Ms. A.S., a member of the Roma community, needed an emergency Caesarian section. Immediately before the surgery, a doctor asked Ms. A.S. to sign consent forms on which the doctor had hand-written a statement that Ms. A.S. consented to a sterilization procedure. Ms. A.S. did not understand the statement or that she had been sterilized until after the operation took place. Her claim of civil rights violations and negligent sterilization was rejected at the local level. In her communication to the CEDAW Committee, it found that the Ms. A.S.

The Naz Foundation India, a non-governmental organization committed to HIV/AIDS intervention and prevention, filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court challenging the constitutionality of Section 377 of the India Penal Code, which makes it illegal to engage in any "unnatural" sexual act, defined as sex other than heterosexual intercourse. The Delhi High Court dismissed the original writ of petition in 2004 for lack of a cause of action.

FEANTSA alleged that France was in violation of Article 31 of the Revised European Social Charter (RESC) due to its failure to ensure an effective right to housing for its residents in a range of different contexts.

This petition was brought to challenge the constitutionality of imposing a "capitation fee" (a fee based on the number of persons to whom a service is provided, rather than the actual cost of providing a service) on those people who wanted to enter a private medical school and were not admitted to the "government seats". These seats are reserved by the Government of India for members of communities that are explicitly recognized by the Indian Constitution as requiring support to overcome historic discrimination, or other groups designated by the government.