The St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009

Protection from discrimination

203.—(1) Subject to subsection (4), no law shall make any provision which is discriminatory either of itself or in its effect.

(2) Subject to subsections (4) and (6), no person shall be treated in a discriminatory manner by any organ or officer of the executive or judicial branches of government or any person acting in the performance of the functions of the Tristan da Cunha Public Service or any public authority.

(3) In this section, the expression “discriminatory” means affording different treatment to different persons on any ground such as sex, sexual orientation, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, age, disability, birth or other status.

(4) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to breach this section to the extent that it has an objective and reasonable justification and there is a reasonable proportion between the provision of law in question or, as the case may be, the thing done under it and the aim which that provision or the thing done under it seeks to realise.

(5) No person shall be treated in a discriminatory manner in respect of access to any of the following places to which the general public have access, namely, shops, hotels, restaurants, eating-houses, licensed premises, places of entertainment or places of resort; but the proprietor of such a place has a duty to provide amenities and equipment facilitating the access of disabled persons only to the extent provided by a law.

(6) For the purposes of subsection (2), the exercise, in relation to a person, of any discretion to institute, conduct or discontinue criminal or civil proceedings in any court shall not in itself be held to breach this section.