A BILL seeking to cover a wider range of discriminatory practices hurdled committee level at the House of Representatives on Thursday, May 20, 2021.
During a virtual hearing, the House Committee on Human Rights approved the consolidated version of the Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination bill, which seeks to prohibit discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics, language, religious belief or expression, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth and other status, and other protected attributes.
The measure also provides penalties for acts that inflict stigma, vilification and ridicule; profiling; inflicting harm on health and well-being; abuses by State and non-State actors; and arbitrary detention and confinement against those identified by this measure.
Other salient features of the proposed measure include:
* It will be deemed illegal for any person to commit any acts that promote and encourage stigma, including content in the media and educational textbooks.
* No person will be denied his political, civil, and cultural rights.
* A person cannot be refused admission, denied honors or scholarships, or be expelled from any educational institution on the basis of the protected attributes.
* It will also be illegal to deny the right to expression, whether it is in the form of speech, deportment, dress, bodily characteristics, or choice of name.
* A person cannot be denied employment, refused promotion, or even terminated on the basis of the protected attributes.
* No person will be denied access to goods and services, including being refused entry into an establishment. (PNA)