Universalism or fragmentation: United Nations treaty-bodies and affirmative actions in Latin-America, the United Kingdom, South Africa, China and India

The absence of uniform terminology or criteria to decide whether specific groups should receive different treatment with the aim of achieving greater equality, hinders the attempt to frame the issue beyond the boundaries of individual States in a coherent manner, especially from a legal perspective, because their implementation becomes particularly unpopular when States enforce them by law. This chapter addresses whether the international human rights regime contributes to harmonize regulatory frameworks and principles concerning affirmative actions or, conversely, whether it merely reflects on the diversity of State practices in this area. For this purpose, this chapter explains and updates the arguments and conclusions drawn from previous research analysing the relevant activity of UN human rights monitoring mechanisms and treaty provisions in this field. It then focuses specifically on the recommendation on affirmative actions issued by the United Nations treaty-bodies to the States covered by this book. It evaluates the different engagement of committees with relevant State parties and identifies common trends and inconsistencies of the UN human rights mechanisms in their treatment of special measures.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in Affirmative action and the law - efficacy of national and international approaches on 25/09/2020, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9780367219536 or http://www.crcpress.com/9780367219536