Measures targeted at a particular group and intended to eliminate and prevent discrimination or to offset disadvantages arising from existing attitudes, behaviours and structures.
By affirmative or positive action, we mean action aimed at favouring access by members of certain categories of people, in this particular case, women, to rights which they are guaranteed, to the same extent as members of other categories, in this particular case, men”.
“In some cases, the reason that discrimination is found to occur is due to the fact that the same rule is applied to everyone without consideration for relevant differences. In order to remedy and prevent this kind of situation, governments, employers and service providers must ensure that they take steps to adjust their rules and practices to take such differences into consideration – that is, they must do something to adjust current policies and measures. In the UN context, these are labelled ‘special measures’, while the EU law context refers to ‘specific measures’ or ‘positive action’. By taking special measures, governments are able to ensure ‘substantive equality’, that is, equal enjoyment of opportunities to access benefits available in society, rather than mere ‘formal equality’.