ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW

Introduction

Discrimination has become a ‘wound’ in today’s society of late. Majority of the people in different parts of the world are complaining to be discriminated day in day out something which is inhumane in the current wave of society. Oblivious to the fact that different countries have some laws to fight this ‘wound’, it is still tormenting and affecting a good number of the world’s population. Moreover, international law organizations like The United Nations have come to the rescue through The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) where global discrimination charges and issues are addressed. People are discriminated in different ways and basis too. Some factors may be high levels of intelligence to avoid defeat, racial factors, ethical backgrounds, political backgrounds, social environments and many more.

Tutorial One

Different scholars have tried to bring out the meaning of discrimination whereby each individual come up with a definition according to their own levels of understanding. Generally, to discriminate refers to the act of making an unjust peculiar distinction against or in favor of a person based on the group, category or class where the person belongs to. This gives a better meaning since people tend to base their ideas on discrimination on the act of being against only not putting in mind if you favor someone, you are discriminating too.

Some people base their acts of discrimination on different aspects. Firstly, religious affiliation has overtaken the minds of many when it comes to discrimination. Globally, religion this has become a threat to many rather than the believes and culture of worship. People are being tortured, attacked and molested in the name of belonging to a certain religion. This is evident almost in every corner of the world where Islamic states have raised their military power to oppress other religions like Christians. They believe that they are their enemies just because they don’t agree with their way of worship. Wars and hatred have engulfed these states which have led to political instabilities affecting all its citizen regardless of their religion. In most cases, majority of them are driven by unrealistic, disparaging beliefs about other religions and its members to maintain a sense of religious superiority in their religion.

Furthermore, economic forces have instigated high levels of discrimination too. Different groups of people start a rivalry and discriminating against each other so as to dominate a certain market for either their goods or services. Rather than conceptualizing competition as a factor to upgrade their products and improve them in order to gain superiority, they take it negatively with a lot of negative emotions towards the other group. This can be related to the looming rivalry between the USA and China based on their economic strengths. China has slightly overtaken the market of US products which is creating discrimination between the two countries.

In the same context, pride among a group of individuals may instigate discrimination just to oppress and indulge aversion to a weaker group because it has inferior strength compared to the mighty proud group. Other factors that lead to discrimination are the difference in age, gender, disability, pregnancy, race beliefs and also orientation.

Sometimes it may be difficult to determine the attributes which are proscribed grounds under anti-discrimination law. This is because of lack of awareness or knowledge of the anti-discrimination law hence making people or group discriminate others without their consent or willingness. People are advised to re-visit the laws on discrimination to enlighten them on the various attributes which are termed as proscribed grounds. For instance, the Australian anti-discrimination law has a framework which identifies and determines whether an incident of discrimination is unlawful. This helps the citizens of Australia determine whether an act of discrimination is a proscribed ground. The law suggests clearly that any action based on the set attributes of legislation such as race or disability fall within employment, education or the provision of goods and services resulting to harm or unfavorable treatment whether by direct or indirect discrimination is not to fall on the exemption of defense.

The dilemma of difference is basically a term that is used to describe the challenges that the young generation with disabilities and they are in the need of special education and their families go through when undergoing the schooling process. The ‘difference’, which is because they are incapable of doing somethings the people without disabilities do, is made to make them feel equal to the others in the society.  Some people in the ableist society have come with a notion of a paradigm that sees the SEND people be pitied or stigmatized which makes them feel uncomfortable unequal. Their ‘difference’ should act as a way of showing compassion and love to make them feel as normal as other human beings.

Minnow in her book of “Sources of Difference” has comprehensively unstated the five assumptions that helps us to understand the nature of discrimination and the difficulties of addressing it. They suggest that differences are natural and essential and they don’t relate or deserve discrimination. Moreover, an observer can see without a perspective and decide not to understand it differently. Besides some of the perspectives are irrelevant since they don’t deserve any explanation. Norms sometimes need not be stated because their meanings are known to everyone. Pursuing this further, people need to identify miscommunication details which relate to discrimination so that they don’t interfere with the good faith and validity claims since the status quo is natural, uncoerced and good.

Tutorial Two

The experiences of discrimination are extremely painful to the targeted individuals since they feel that they are being segregated from the rest because of their inferiority. This brings a sense of low self-esteem to the affected due to the difficulty in copping up with such situations. Discriminations bring a lot of trauma in individuals who feel rejected in a certain society. They feel unfit in such environment building anger in them. Such people experience a lot of chronic stress which can lead to intense physical and mental health problems due to depression and anxiety. Senses of disrespect not only for personal levels but also for the law is much experienced in a society full of discrimination. Discriminated individuals feel lack of support from the environment they strongly believed will accept them due to the embarrassment and negative thoughts they pass through their traumatic experiences.

Some factors influence the understanding of discriminations and the aims that antidiscrimination law has to every citizen. The failure of effecting the laws against discrimination helps us to understand the experiences of discrimination since it will engulf many places without it being regarded as a crime. Besides, the lack of protection against discrimination greatly influences how we perceive discrimination to be like. Moreover, the development of institutional structure in legislation helps a majority of the people understand the aims of antidiscrimination law because it is able to outline the incidences that we tend to see as normal and describe them as acts of discrimination.

Gaze has highlighted some factors that limit the effectiveness of discrimination law in his book. These factors should be done away with in order to pave way for the efficiently acting of the discrimination law. Some of these factors include the reduction of complaint rates by the courts hence risking more cases of discrimination. The potential complaints feel that the ability of the system to defend discrimination is weak and inferior. Also, the laws are very weak in protecting the discriminated individuals in the society because they allow self-representation and litigation without discipline. Moreover, confrontation of sexual and racial harassment limits the effectiveness of these laws since they are compromised. Additionally, the build-up social pressure after the adoption of anti-discrimination laws from outside the state affects the implementation of these laws yet they are of much significance in the race of fighting discrimination.

According to Ms. Schou’s case, neutrality had been compromised by denying to implement her agreement on different perspectives. This was accompanied by indirect problems which included limiting access of employee of chances of getting a promotion, the denial of occupational training to the employee and consequences of not complying with the agreement. In addition, the circumstances of finance of the person being subjected to a certain practice. These are some of the detailed problems which are related to neutrality, reasonableness, and perspective.

Tutorial three

According to my own thinking, I think that delays and lack of enforceability were some of the impediments that were available even before complainants took their cases to the court.  Several barriers were witnessed in the whole scenario of the proceedings. Firstly, was the abrupt change of the system providing short-time limits which could not even give time for proper and precise decisions let alone to find advice whether to proceed with the cases or not. Additionally, complainants from non-Anglo backgrounds or the ones with disabilities had the problem of accessing justice due to the discrimination legislation. Moreover, the court was characterized by high personal cost hence inability to afford legal representation.

I don’t think that the complainants received any support from anyone and if any the assistance was inferior and costly and it didn’t have an effect on the cases of the complainants. The ADR didn’t settle the complaints of the complainants because he had been paid to do so and could not go against that deal. Pursuing this further, there were no advantages of having the matters litigated.

Tutorial Four

Consequently, sex discrimination is evident in this context and only Mary is the only victim. The company should not be bias on sex since both of the two applicants, Mary and Bill, have the professional skills they had acquired in their school. None of them has superior advantages since both of them acquired the same skills and have similarities in legal experience. Mary has ended up becoming a victim of unlawful sex discrimination due to the fact that she is a lady and she’s entitled to have children as years go by which is something unacceptable by the company. The company’s decision is unreasonable and has no basis since Bill can also decide to marry, have children and family responsibilities too. Their requirement of bringing of bringing more clients to the company is an obligation which can be exercised by any employee regardless of sex and knowledge of high-end business people. It seems that the company is gender bias because even on the interview panel that was interviewing both Bill and Mary comprised of three men and not only one woman was included. Mary should not have been subjected to discrimination because of where she had gone to high school too.

Direct discrimination is exercised whereby an individual or a group of people is treated less favorably because of their background. This is the same case that happened to Joe when he was acquiring a rental residential house. The real estate agent took the advantage of Joe’s background, Aboriginal Australian, and manipulated it on the maximum number of people he could accommodate in his house. This was a challenge to Joe because he wanted to invite his parents on holiday but the contact of his residence could not let him. The act was unlawful because it was based on race and he could not enjoy his privileges of residing in ABC Real Estate homes.

Tutorial Five

Indirect discrimination is an unlawful act which is used in many of the institutions in the world to create a barrier for job applicants to prevent them from accessing the job. It basically occurs when an unreasonable policy or rule is enacted abruptly and appears to treat everyone equally, but it is practically intended to treat others less favorably. Sally is a victim of indirect discrimination because her skills and qualifications almost merge the requirements at the Acme Personnel Pty Ltd. The human resource rejected her application just because of an increment in height and addition of some kilograms although she had extraordinary added skills in karate and she had served at a gymnasium meaning that she was strong and could qualify as a private bodyguard.

I would have advised sally to follow the required legal channel and sue the company since she was just victimized by indirect discrimination. The jurisdiction should thereafter crosscheck the requirements of the company and compare them with sally’s qualifications so as to assert the claim. She lost the job just because she had not attained the required height something which is so infinite compared to what she could give to the company. Moreover, she almost qualified the physical requirements and she had passed the intelligence test that was given to her.

Tutorial Six

The regulatory approach used in the education standard is inclusive and not subjected to any kind of discrimination hence non-discriminatory. It states that it is unlawful to discriminate any person because of their disability hence elaborating legal obligations in relation to education. Moreover, it specifies how education and training can be made possible for students living with disabilities to eliminate harassment and victimization. Public transport standard regulation in Australia has a lot of benefits which include the provision of equal public transport policy without favoring any citizen. Besides, having some challenges it has including the rights of people with disabilities such as the provision of ramps and other transport aids. In the same context, the education standards regulation in Australia has pros like inclusivity where the students living with disabilities are taken care of and given skills to tackle their lives. Moreover, it provides the necessary personnel and support required by these students. Although it has some shortcomings like a slow response from the government sometimes.

I don’t think that the changes in education and public transport would have occurred if the setup standards where no in place. This is because the people with disabilities would have continued to be oppressed and never could they have the benefits they are enjoying right now because of the standards. Innovation and flexibility can be incorporated into the system by providing more intense ideas and knowledge to the government to enhance and upgrade every sector to be friendly with all her citizen in their day to day activities. The employment sector should come up with reforms whereby they give several chances in their job application slots to people with disabilities so that they can feel accepted and motivated to do any job in the society.

The field of genetics is sometimes associated with discrimination since it is linked to some defects such as albinism and other genetic-oriented defects. This concept is related educational organs such as research institutes, and also legal organs which formulate laws for the gene mutated individuals. The fact indifference relies on the different objective each organ has on genetics while the similarity occurs in the concept of gene mutation. In ten to twenty years to come, the experience of genetic discrimination will get worse provided that the anti-discrimination laws change for good to cater for the individual with the gene mutation. These laws will need to change to adapt scientific and medical developments so that they can protect such individual from discrimination.

Tutorial seven

If an individual has had a depression complication for a duration and he or she controls it using medication, I don’t think that it would be unlawful to deny him the chances of being a police officer. This is because he has a complication which could be risking the lives of others if the individual is sent to the field. It may cause harm to innocent people which are prohibited by Australian Human Rights Commission. For instance, if a teacher suffers from a sudden and substantial hearing loss he or she is not subjected to termination of his or her employment since it was not something intended of. However, if the teacher is convicted of a crime, neglect of duty, fraud or misinterpretation, incompetence or immoral conduct is subjected to be terminated from his or her job.

Attitudes towards ageism lag behind legal regulation since many employers assume mature-age people as outdated and are hard to train. Moreover, they are assumed as technologically illiterate and unwilling to adapt to new technology. Since they are termed as inflexible they are discriminated most of the times because of their age. This means that operations of anti-discrimination on age are widely abused and disregarded. People with disabilities and mature-aged people face the same challenges in education and employment sectors. They are segregated and stigmatized because they are perceived to have nothing to offer but only depend on others in order to gain. This can be abolished by creating awareness to the public so as to eliminate the stereotypes and assumptions. In addition, these two groups of people need to be given proper skills so as to cope with the society.