The New Zealand High Court upheld the minimum voting age at 18 years as a justified limit on the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of age. As the Court found the age to be within a range of reasonable alternatives, this decision deferred the question of whether the voting age should be lowered to Parliament to decide.
Read MoreIn a unanimous decision, the United Kingdom Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal that found a bakery's refusal to supply a cake with the message "support gay marriage" to a gay man amounted to direct discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. The United Kingdom Supreme Court found that the bakery's refusal was centred on promoting the message and the bakers would have come to the same decision regardless of who requested it. In the Court's opinion it did not amount to discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, or religious beliefs or political opinion.
Read MoreJustice Beale of the Victorian Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to an earlier order prohibiting the wearing of a nikab by a spectator during the trial of three men accused of plotting a Christmas bombing of Federation Square in Melbourne's CBD. Ms Aisha Al Qattan, the wife of one of the accused, submitted that a prohibition against wearing the nikab while in the public gallery of the court breached Ms Al Qattan's right of religious freedom and right to participate in public life. Both rights are enshrined in the Victorian Charter of Human Rights (Charter).
Read MoreA landmark decision of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal has found that the Director of Immigration acted unlawfully by administering an immigration policy in a manner that discriminated against same-sex couples. The policy had prevented dependant visas from being granted to the same-sex spouse of a person resident in Hong Kong on an employment visa.
Read MoreIn two recent decisions, the Supreme Court of Canada (“Court”) held that the law societies of British Columbia and Ontario were entitled to deny accreditation to a law school which required its students, on religious grounds, to adhere to a covenant allowing sexual intimacy only between a married man and woman.
Read MoreIn two recent decisions, the Supreme Court of Canada considered the whether several provisions of Quebec province’s gender pay equity legislation, the Pay Equity Act 1996, were contrary to section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (addressing systemic wage discrimination against women).
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