Discrimination
Overview of the anti-discrimination laws
Discrimination is when you’re treated unfairly for things like your gender or sex, your religion, where you’re from, or your sexual orientation. But not all discrimination is against the law. This chapter explains when racist, homophobic, or other bigoted behaviour is illegal, and what you can do about it if it is.
Unfair treatment can be illegal if:
- it’s done because of certain reasons covered by the Human Rights Act – like your race or country of origin, or your gender identity or sexual orientation, and
- it happens in an area of public life covered by human rights laws – like when you’re applying for a job, renting a flat, buying things from shops, or dealing with government departments.
If you believe you’ve been discriminated against, you can complain to the Human Rights Commission. If you can’t resolve the problem with their help, you can refer your complaint to the Human Rights Review Tribunal. This Tribunal is like a court, and it can make various orders against the other person to put right what happened to you. In some cases, the Tribunal can tell them to pay you money (“damages”).
As well as making discrimination illegal in many cases, the anti-discrimination laws in the Human Rights Act specifically ban sexual and racial harassment, and they also ban people from “inciting racial disharmony”.
How to work out whether how you were treated was illegal
If you think you’ve been treated unfairly, you need to answer several key questions to work out whether what the other person did was against the law:
- Why did they do it? – Did they do it because of a reason (a “ground”) covered by the anti-discrimination laws, like your country of origin? These grounds are explained in: “The illegal grounds of discrimination”.
- When and where did they do it? – Did it happen in one of the areas of public life covered by the anti-discrimination laws, like applying for a flat? These are explained in: “Areas of life where discrimination is illegal”.
- What was the result? – You have to show that you were disadvantaged by the way you were treated. For example, were you turned down for a flat or were you not able to use a service?
- Are they allowed to do it because of a special exception? – Is there an exception in the anti-discrimination laws that makes the discrimination legal when it would otherwise have been illegal? For example, you can be refused a flat on certain grounds if the landlord would also have been living in the flat.
If the unfair treatment was because of an illegal ground, and it happened in one of those areas of public life, and you were disadvantaged, and there’s not an exception in your case, then the discrimination was illegal. You can then take action, starting by complaining to the Human Rights Commission (see: “Taking action: What you can do if you’re discriminated against”).
Does it make a difference if the discrimination was by a government organisation?
No, usually it doesn’t make any difference. Discrimination is against the law whether it’s done by private businesses, organisations, or individuals (covered by the Human Rights Act 1993), or by government departments and officials, or other public bodies like schools (covered by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990). There are some special rules and exceptions that apply to discrimination by government bodies. For example, the government and public sector can put “reasonable limits” on human rights, but only if those limits are justified in a free and democratic society (see: “Government bodies, public services, and schools”).
Indirect discrimination is also illegal
Discrimination can be direct or indirect, and both kinds are illegal. Direct discrimination would be where, for example, your employer pays you less because you’re a woman. Indirect discrimination, on the other hand, is where what happened doesn’t seem to breach the anti-discrimination laws on a first look but in practice it has the effect of discriminating in a way that’s illegal, and there is no good reason for it. For example, if you use a wheelchair and some of your university lectures are on the fifth floor in a building without a lift, then this is indirect discrimination against you on the illegal ground of disability.
Another example of indirect discrimination could be if you’re unemployed and a power company refuses to accept you as a customer because you’re on a low income and can’t get a credit card. That could be indirect discrimination against an unemployed person.
