What is discrimation?
Discrimination is when someone is treated differently from another person in the same or similar circumstances.
In some situations, being treated differently is allowed. It’s not easy to stop discrimination, especially in people’s ‘private’ lives. For example, if someone doesn’t want to be your friend because of the colour of your skin or won’t play with you because you’re a girl, there’s no law that can make them.
But the Human Rights Act 1993 makes it illegal to be discriminated against in ‘public’ life. Public life includes things like:
- access to education;
- access to goods and services;
- access to public places, vehicles and facilities;
- employment;
- land, housing and accommodation;
- government or public sector activities;
- industrial and professional associations, qualifying bodies and vocational training bodies; and
- partnerships.
If you’ve been discriminated against in one of these areas because of one of the reasons listed below, you may have enough reason to make a complaint. Keep in mind that they only apply to public life, not private life.