Unit 8: To be born a girl
United Nations, Human Rights and Women

To discriminate is to treat people unequally (that is, unfairly) because of some reason which they cannot help, or which is not relevant to the matter in hand. For instance, to pay two people differently for doing the same job simply because one is a woman, or black, or a Muslim, or speaks with a different accent. Discrimination because of race or skin colour or where ancestry originates from is called racism

Discrimination because you are male or female (your gender) is called sexism. There are other sorts of unfair discrimination - because of your religion, because you are handicapped, because of your age (ageism), because you speak a different language, because of your political opinion.

Discrimination often happens because people make decisions about other people which are not based on genuine reasons, ie they are prejudiced. Usually they think the other person is automatically inferior because of their race, religion or gender etc. Or they may have met one red-haired person, say, who was quick-tempered and therefore they think that all red-haired people are. This is called stereotyping.

The aim of the United Nations is to help all people, individually and as groups, to be valued equally and treated fairly. The UN has produced many declarations and conventions which set people's rights (and hence duties to other people). All of the countries which are UN members must let their citizens know these rights and how to obtain them. Knowing your rights is one step towards overcoming discrimination.

Activity:
Read the passage on Prejudice and discrimination carefully. Write a definition for each of the words in bold print.