Main legislation

Other international instruments have been signed by the Luxembourg Government, but have no direct effect and thus cannot be invoked in court, other than together with a more precise national provision. These instruments include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Convention No.111 of the International Labour Organisation, concerning discrimination in employment and occupation, was ratified in 2000 in Luxembourg and is directly applicable in internal law.

On a national level, the principle of equal treatment can be found in the general legal principle found in Article 10 bis of the Constitution, according to which “all Luxembourgers are equal before the Law”. However this principle applies only stricto sensu to Luxembourg nationals and not to foreign citizens. Although it is understood to be a general principle of law, implying equality for all inhabitants, it clearly is not sufficient to guarantee in all situations and in all court cases that any breach of the principle of equality will be punished. This is also true for Article 111 of the Constitution, which grants protection to foreigners and to their property, unless the law provides for an exception.

One can find penal provisions against discrimination, including religion, race and ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation and age in the Penal Code, in Articles 454 to 457. Individual and collective discrimination are thus prohibited and can lead to a fine or imprisonment of up to two years.

A new law was adopted and published on 16 December 2008 on reception and integration of foreigners in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The law contains general provisions aimed at combating discrimination against foreigners. A special agency called ‘Office luxembourgeois de l’accueil et de l’intégration’, has taken over the responsibility of offering equal chances and fight against discrimination, integration being seen as accompanying the process of welcoming foreigners in the country.

The two laws of 28 November 2006 (general law) and 29 November 2006 (public service) have strengthened the existing legislation against direct discrimination and have introduced new tools in civil law to fight discrimination, like indirect discrimination, harassment or instructions to discriminate. Also new labour law protection mechanisms against victimisation have been introduced in the Labour Code.

The legislator has gone further than the strict requirements of the directives, by including forbidden discrimination based on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation, as well as race and ethnic origin for all area included in the scope of both directives, thus forbidding all discrimination in all relations between persons.

The Centre for Equality of Treatment has taken a long time to be set up but has reached that stage in 2008. It is now fully operational.

No case-law has still made it possible to assess the impact of the antidiscrimination laws.