![]() ![]() ![]() For example, the Convention’s definition of “child” refers presumptively to the chronological age of eighteen years (article 1), and refers both to age and maturity as criteria for the increasing weight that should be given to a child’s views (article 12). The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has some distinctions based on chronological age built into its text, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the treaty body that monitors compliance has adopted others by interpretation. Some differential treatment by age may be required by human rights law. Or it may not mention age at all, but may be written broadly – for example, by referring to “status” discrimination – and interpreted as including age without limitation. Instead, an age-discrimination norm may be written generally and interpreted literally. Limitations of this kind presume a particular pattern of systematic discrimination, either within a sector or in society generally, and aim to prevent it, rather than aiming to prevent “age discrimination” in the abstract. The statutes may also provide asymmetric protection for individuals, only against discrimination that favors persons younger than them, or (if the protected group is young) only against discrimination that favors persons older than them. states, do not define a restricted range, but are interpreted as if they did. Age Discrimination in Employment Act, protect only individuals within a specified range of ages, such as those over forty years old. ![]() Some of these expansions have been inadvertent or unconsidered.Ĭonsistent with their origin, some “age discrimination” statutes, like the U.S. Some of these expansions have been incomplete, leaving sectors, ages, or types of discrimination uncovered, for good or bad reasons. While genetic engineering or technological hybridization may lead to different generalizations at some future date, for now we live in the present.Īge discrimination law apparently originates in employment law, primarily for the protection of middle-age and older workers, before expanding unevenly in three dimensions: from employment to other fields of private and public action, from older workers to age in general, and from direct to indirect discrimination (roughly speaking, from intentional discrimination to actions with discriminatory effect). Individuals age differently, but ages correlate with certain statistically likely generalizations, either worldwide or within particular populations. Human beings are born, grow and develop, and they eventually die, sometimes abruptly and often with a preceding decline. Chronological age is a social construct that reflects physical and biological regularities as well as interactions with social structures. The essay does not attempt to analyze any of the hypothetical situations proposed for discussion at the workshop, in order to facilitate the contributions of the other participants. Finally, it turns to the consideration of claims that differential effects according to chronological age amount to wrongful indirect discrimination. It then deals with some factors relevant to evaluating claims that differential treatment on the basis of chronological age amounts to wrongful direct discrimination. It first describes some of the positive law of age discrimination, including differential treatment of older persons, differential treatment of young persons, and differential treatment of persons in between. This essay addresses legal regulation of discrimination on the basis of chronological age, or “age discrimination” for short, from the perspective of human rights law as a complex system of positive law serving normative ends. Interrogating “Discrimination” on the Basis of Chronological Age Gerald L. ![]()
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