Article 14 requires that all of the rights and freedoms set out in the Act must be protected and applied without discrimination

Discrimination occurs when you are treated less favourably than another person in a similar situation and this treatment cannot be objectively and reasonably justified. Discrimination can also occur if you are disadvantaged by being treated the same as another person when your circumstances are different (for example if you are disabled or pregnant).

It is important to understand that the Human Rights Act does not protect you from discrimination in all areas of your life – there are other laws that offer more general protection, such as the Equality Act 2010.

What the Act does do is protect you from discrimination in the enjoyment of those human rights set out in the European Convention of Human Rights. Article 14 is based on the core principle that all of us, no matter who we are, enjoy the same human rights and should have equal access to them.

The protection against discrimination in the Human Rights Act is not ‘free-standing’. To rely on this right, you must show that discrimination has affected your enjoyment of one or more of the other rights in the Act. However, you do not need to prove that this other human right has actually been breached