In cases under Article 14 of the ECHR, in conjunction with Article 1/1, J.D. and A v UK, concerned with benefit reductions, the Strasbourg Court, on 24 October 2019, stated general principles, including the following:-
“80. … in the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention, Article 14 affords protection against different treatment, without an objective and reasonable justification, of persons in relevantly similar situations….
81. … the provisions of the Convention do not prevent … general policy schemes … whereby a certain category or group of individuals is treated differently from others, provided that the interference with the rights of the statutory category or group as a whole can be justified under the Convention … Indeed, measures of economic and social policy often involve the introduction and application of criteria which are based on making distinctions between categories or groups of individuals.
82. Furthermore, not every difference in treatment between persons in relevantly similar situations will entail a violation of Article 14. Only differences in treatment based on the grounds enumerated in that Article are capable of resulting in discrimination within the meaning of Article 14 …
83. For the purposes of Article 14, a difference of treatment based on a prohibited ground is discriminatory if it “has no objective and reasonable justification”, that is, if it does not pursue a “legitimate aim” or if there is no “reasonable relationship of proportionality between the means employed and the aim sought to be realised”. …
84. … subjecting persons or groups to different treatment where, under the above principles, such treatment would qualify as discriminatory … is not the only facet of the prohibition of discrimination in Article 14. The right not to be discriminated against in the enjoyment of the rights guaranteed under the Convention is also violated when States, without an objective and reasonable justification, fail to treat differently persons whose situations are significantly different … The prohibition deriving from Article 14 will therefore also give rise to positive obligations … to make necessary distinctions between persons or groups whose circumstances are relevantly and significantly different.
85. The Court has also held that a policy or measure that has disproportionately prejudicial effects on a particular group may be considered discriminatory, regardless of whether the policy or measure is specifically aimed at that group. Thus, indirect discrimination prohibited under Article 14 may arise under circumstances where a policy or measure produces a particularly prejudicial impact on certain persons as a result of a protected ground, such as gender or disability, attaching to their situation. In line with the general principles relating to the prohibition of discrimination, this is only the case, however, if such policy or measure has no “objective and reasonable” justification …
86. Furthermore, Article 14 does not preclude States from treating groups differently even on otherwise prohibited grounds in order to correct “factual inequalities” between them. Moreover, in certain circumstances a failure to attempt to correct inequality through different treatment may in itself give rise to a breach of the Article …
87. In the context of Article 1 of Protocol 1 alone, the Court has often held that in matters concerning, for example, general measures of economic or social strategy, the States usually enjoy a wide margin of appreciation under the Convention …
88. However, as the Court has stressed in the context of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 1 Protocol 1, although the margin of appreciation in the context of general measures of economic or social policy is, in principle, wide, such measures must nevertheless be implemented in a manner that does not violate the prohibition of discrimination as set out in the Convention and complies with the requirement of proportionality … Thus, even a wide margin in the sphere of economic or social policy does not justify the adoption of laws or practices that would violate the prohibition of discrimination. Hence, in that context the Court has limited its acceptance to respect the legislature’s policy choice as not “manifestly without reasonable foundation” to circumstances where an alleged difference in treatment resulted from a transitional measure forming part of a scheme carried out in order to correct an inequality …
89. Outside the context of transitional measures designed to correct historic inequalities, the Court has held that given the need to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities and foster their full participation and integration in society, the margin of appreciation the States enjoy in establishing different legal treatment for people with disabilities is considerably reduced …, and that because of the particular vulnerability of persons with disabilities such treatment would require very weighty reasons to be justified … The Court has also considered that as the advancement of gender equality is today a major goal in the member States of the Council of Europe, very weighty reasons would have to be put forward before such a difference of treatment could be regarded as compatible with the Convention … .”