In March 2013, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published a report on inequalities and multiple discrimination in access to and quality of healthcare. The report identifies the specific barriers and experiences of unequal treatment in accessing healthcare that people may face because of a combination of their traits (e.g. ethnic origin, gender, age and disability).
The report finds that in such cases, people and their legal advisors often have difficulties in bringing a complaint of discrimination on ‘multiple’ grounds to court. This is either because of a poor understanding of ‘multiple’ discrimination, or because legally it is simply easier to deal with a complaint on only one particular ground.
A Roma woman sterilised without her informed consent, for example, has suffered discrimination not just because of her sex, as all women do not face this treatment, nor just because she is Roma, as Roma men may not face this treatment. The discriminatory treatment is based specifically on the intersection of her sex and ethnic origin.
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Click here for annex (supplementary data)