A/HRC/27/29 race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, and which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms”.34 43. Effective participation in public and political life is limited or prevented by formal and substantive discrimination on any of the above-mentioned grounds. The category of “other status” is non-exhaustive and has been interpreted by human rights mechanisms as including discrimination on the grounds of age, gender identity, disability, nationality and sexual orientation.35 For example, human rights mechanisms have noted that criminal law sanctions that target lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, as well as discriminatory restrictions on their freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression result in severe limitations on their participation in political and public life (A/HRC/26/29). 44. Intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination have an especially devastating effect on the free exercise of participatory rights. International human rights mechanisms have noted cases of discrimination against Roma women who have been denied access to political and public participation rights on the grounds of their minority status, citizenship and gender.36 The situation of indigenous people with disabilities provides another example of the negative impact of intersectional discrimination on political and public participation rights (E/C.19/2013/6). It has been noted that “[t]hese groups should not be viewed as monolithic or discrete … to understand the impact of discrimination on marginalized groups, it is important to recognize the different life experiences of the groups and individuals within the groups” (A/HRC/26/29, para. 13). 45. The obligation to prohibit and redress discrimination applies to formal and substantive, direct and indirect forms of discrimination in the public and private spheres. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights notes that “[e]liminating discrimination in practice requires paying sufficient attention to groups of individuals which suffer historical or persistent prejudice instead of merely comparing the formal treatment of individuals in similar situations”.37 This means that, where necessary, States are obliged to adopt temporary special measures to attenuate or suppress the conditions that perpetuate substantive inequalities.38 These temporary special measures could include the creation of quotas to enable underrepresented groups such as women, indigenous peoples, minorities or people with disabilities to exercise their rights to equal political and public participation within legislative and other public decision-making bodies.39 46. Violence that is directed against people on any prohibited grounds has also been characterized by the international human rights mechanisms as a form of discrimination that involves the violation of multiple human rights, including the rights to participate in 34 35 36 37 38 39 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 18 (1989), para. 7. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 20 (2009). See ibid., para. 17; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. 25; and A/60/38, para. 332. Indeed, even when Roma women hold citizenship, there are cases in which they have been denied political rights due to their gender and minority status. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 20, para. 8. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has held that “[t]o treat in an equal manner persons or groups whose situations are objectively different will constitute discrimination in effect, as will the unequal treatment of persons whose situations are objectively the same”, General Recommendation No. 32 (2009), para. 8. See the decision of the Human Rights Committee in Communication No. 943/2000 (2004). See A/HRC/23/50; A/HRC/13/25, para. 10; and Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No. 1. 11