Compendium of Standards, Good Practices and Recommendations
that “the protection of human rights, including minority rights, is inextricably linked
with the preservation of peace and stability within and between States.”366 The OSCE
participating States have also committed to protecting and promoting human rights of
Roma and Sinti, including by strengthening policies and practical measures to counter
racism and discrimination against them.367
The approach in many domestic legal systems of treating members of the armed forces as
“citizens in uniform” requires that service personnel be, so far as is consistent with military
life, accorded the civil and constitutional rights of other citizens, without discrimination.
Article 2(1) of the ICCPR requires its States Parties:
“to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject
to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political
or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
Similarly, Article 1 of the ECHR obliges States Parties to, “secure to everyone within their
jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in Section I of this Convention” and Article
14 prohibits discrimination when it comes to the enjoyment of rights and freedoms. For
example, with regard to the freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights
has underlined that “Article 10 does not stop at the gates of army barracks. It applies to
military personnel as to all other persons within the jurisdiction of the Contracting States.”368
Some armed forces have had successful experiences of providing an inclusive environment
for all service personnel. In others, a supposedly ethnically representative approach has led
to armed forces with units drawn almost exclusively from certain ethnic groups. Different
challenges in promoting equality and preventing discrimination arise in each case.
Box 10.2: Definition of discrimination
Discrimination means any differential treatment based on grounds such as “race”, colour,
language, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin, as well as descent, belief, sex,
gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics or status,
which has no objective and reasonable justification (see paragraph 7 of explanatory
memorandum to ECRI General Policy Recommendation 15).369
366 OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (OSCE HCNM), Ljubljana Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies, (The Hague, OSCE HCNM, 2012), p. 2, https://www.osce.org/hcnm/ljubljana-guidelines. See
also factsheet on the OSCE HCNM: https://www.osce.org/hcnm/33317?download=true.
367
“ODIHR mandate on Roma and Sinti issues: Key documents”, at https://www.osce.org/odihr/154691.
368 European Court for Human Rights, Grigoriades v. Greece, op. cit., note 42, Para. 45.
369 While there are various definitions of discrimination from relevant international instruments and norms, this
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