Serious criminals may be discriminated against by sending them to jail while other groups may be unjustly discriminated against through bias and prejudice.
People may discriminate on age, caste, criminal record, height, disability, family status, gender identity, gender expression, generation, genetic characteristics, marital status, nationality, color, race and ethnicity, religion, sex and sex characteristics, sexual orientation, social class, species, as well as other categories.
Discrimination consists of treatment of an individual or group, based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or social category, in a way that is worse than the way people are usually treated. It involves the group's initial reaction or interaction going on to influence the individual's actual behavior towards the group leader or the group, restricting members of one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to another group. Discriminatory traditions, policies, ideas, practices and laws exist in many countries.
A report by UNICEF, Plan International and UN Women has highlighted remarkable gains in education saying more girls are going to school and staying in school than ever before.
Released ahead of the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the report said the number of out-of-school girls has dropped by 79 million in the last two decades. It said girls became more likely to be in secondary schools than boys in just the last decade.
The report, ‘A New Era for Girls: Taking stock on 25 years of progress’ was issued in the context of the Generation Equality campaign to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
According to the report access to education is not enough hence the need to change people’s behaviours and attitudes towards girls. True equality will only come when all girls are safe from violence, free to exercise their rights, and are able to enjoy equal opportunities in life. Threfore African governments should account for their commitment to the historic Beijing Declaration.
Adolescent girls suffer heightened discrimination as a result of their age and gender and yet continue to be side-lined in their communities and in decision-making spaces, largely invisible in government policy. Empowering adolescent girls yields a triple societal benefit. If we fail to grasp this and to end the discrimination girls continue to face the world over, we will stand little chance of achieving the gender equality ambitions set out in Agenda 2030.
According to the report, violence against women and girls is still common. In 2016, for example, women and girls accounted for 70 per cent of detected trafficking victims globally, most for sexual exploitation. It said an astonishing 1 in every 20 girls aged 15-19 – around 13 million – has experienced rape in their lifetimes, one of the most violent forms of sexual abuse women and girls can suffer.
Girls today are at a startling risk of violence in every space – online and in the classroom, home and community – leading to physical, psychological and social consequences.
The report notes that harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) continue to disrupt and damage the lives and potential of millions of girls globally. Each year, 12 million girls are married in childhood, and 4 million are at risk of FGM. Globally, girls aged 15-19 are as likely to justify wife-beating as boys of the same age.
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