States Parties to the treaty “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 2 of the ICESCR guarantees the economic, social and cultural rights enshrined in that Covenant to everyone without such distinctions. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) affords protection against racial discrimination, which is understood as “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”39 35. Provisions that prohibit discrimination are also firmly enshrined in regional human rights treaties, including Articles 1 and 24 of the ACHR,40 Article 14 of the ECHR and Protocol 12 to the ECHR,41 Article 4 of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and other standards, such as the European Union (EU) Racial Equality Directive.42 36. As the UN Human Rights Committee has stressed, “[n]on-discrimination, together with equality before the law and equal protection of the law without discrimination, constitutes a basic and general principle relating to the protection of human rights”,43 and, therefore, relating to the protection of human rights defenders. In accordance with Article 26 of the ICCPR, equality before the law and equal protection of the law imply that laws, as well as practices arising from laws, must not have a discriminatory impact; as such, both direct and indirect discrimination are prohibited. Indirect discrimination occurs, for example, when a seemingly non-discriminatory provision in law affects certain groups disproportionately. As set out by the Human Rights Committee, the right to equality before the law and 39  Article 1, ICERD. 40  Article 1 of the ACHR affords protection of all Convention rights without distinction and, in addition, Article 24 provides for the overall right to equal protection before the law. 41  The prohibition of discrimination contained in Article 14 of the ECHR is of a limited nature, and only applies to the rights guaranteed by the Convention. However, Protocol 12 to the ECHR contains a general prohibition of discrimination. 42  Council Directive 2000/43/EC, 29 June 2000, implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ. do?uri=CELEX:32000L0043:en:HTML>. 43  UN Human Rights Committee, “General Comment No. 18: Non-discrimination”, 10 November 1989, para. 1. Based on the definition of “discrimination against women” contained in Article 1 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the term “discrimination” should be understood, in the view of the Human Rights Committee, to imply any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference which is based on any ground as set out in Articles 2 and 26 of the ICCPR, and which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms. See ibid. para. 7. 34 Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders