The purpose of the Non-discrimination Act is to promote equality and prevent discrimination. The Non-discrimination Act also improves the legal protection for a victim of discrimination in situations under the act’s scope of application.
The Non-discrimination Act prohibits
- direct discrimination,
- indirect discrimination,
- harassment
- and an order to discriminate against someone.
The forbidden reasons for discrimination are
- age,
- origin,
- nationality,
- language,
- religion,
- conviction,
- opinion,
- political activity
- trade union activity
- family relations
- health,
- disability,
- sexual preference
- or other personal reason.
The act obliges authorities to promote equality in a goal-oriented and planned manner in all of their activities. Authorities have an obligation to change circumstances that prevent the realisation of equality.
Positive discrimination aims at ensuring genuine equality
The Non-discrimination Act allows the use of positive discrimination. Positive discrimination can be used when a person is in danger of being in an unequal position due to their background or personal feature.
Positive discrimination aims at ensuring the realisation of genuine equality or preventing harm caused by discrimination. This procedure may contain the offering of special services or benefits to representatives of a specific group. Positive discrimination must be justified to be acceptable, and the methods aiming for it must not contradict the fundamental rights system. According to legislation, positive discrimination must also be proportionate to the desired objective.
Read more:
Non-discrimination Act
Equality and non-discrimination
Equality.fi
