Recently in Discrimination Category

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the French Government was entitled to prevent a gay woman from adopting the child of her partner.

The ruling came in the case of Gas and Dubois v France (2012). It states that the French Government did not breach the women's right to respect for private and family life (under article 8) and their right not to be discriminated against in their enjoyment of a Convention right (under article 14).

The case concerns Ms Valerie Gas and her partner Ms Nathalie Duboise, who are both in their 50s and who have lived together under the French equivalent of a civil partnership since 2002.

A cross-party group of Christian MPs has reported that the law must reasonably accommodate those with religious beliefs.

The group wants to see provision included in the Equality Act 2010 extended to cover religious groups in the same way as those with disabilities.

The group, called 'Clearing the Ground', have called for the change in the law which would then allow cases of discrimination to be viewed on a case-by-case basis.

The education secretary, Conservative MP Michael Gove has been plunged into the middle of a row about equality in the school curriculum.

The education secretary has said that the Equality Act does not apply to the school curriculum, which it is claimed will give faith schools the green light to teach homophobic material in class.

Equality laws in the UK prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. However, Mr Gove has claimed that these legal provisions do not apply to the school curriculum. The Trade Union Congress, a conglomerate of several unions, has now accused Mr Gove of failing in his legal duties.

A controversial judgment made in the Court of Appeal could now pave the way for airlines to introduce a 'fat tax' penalising overweight passengers who wish to fly abroad.

The ruling could effectively prevent an overweight passenger from claiming compensation if they receive unsatisfactory or inconsistent service from an airline during a flight.

The Court of Appeal case concerned the application of the UK's advanced disability and discrimination laws which would normally see compensation awarded in cases where passengers could prove that they had suffered poor service due to a disability.

A man from New York, USA, who filed an age discrimination lawsuit against a youth orchestra, has complained that the judge presiding over his case is too old.

Martin Stoner, 60, wanted to play violin in a competition run by not-for-profit company Young Concert Artists aimed at young musicians aged between 19 to 26.

Mr Stoner recently lost his job with the New York City Ballet Orchestra and decided to enter the competition, which offered £46,000 worth of career support as a prize.

During the riots that took place in August this year, BBC2's Newsnight filmed a panel of guests discussing the nature of the civil disorder, including historian David Starkey.

Dr Starkey angered many viewers with his comment: "What has happened is that the substantial section of the 'chavs' ... have become black. The whites have become black."

Hundreds of complaints from the public were received by the media regulating body Ofcom. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, described the comment as "racist" and "outrageous".

Patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 have won the right to bring a test case to seek judicial review against their hospital's smoking ban.

Chadwick Lodge Hospital, Milton Keynes, does not allow its patients to smoke inside the hospital in accordance with the Health Act 2006. However, it also bans patients from smoking outside in the hospital's grounds.

The patients are arguing that the hospital's policy is a breach of their common law right to smoke. They accept that the right to smoke inside has been curbed by the Health Act but argue that by banning their right to smoke outside, the hospital has breached the Equality Act 2010 and unlawfully breached common law.

Apple has removed a controversial 'gay conversion' app from their App Store after thousands of people signed a petition calling for its removal. The app, which was available to download for free, claimed to be able to "cure" homosexuality.

The app was developed and named by Exodus International, a religious organisation based in Florida, which teaches homosexuality can be reversed through "prayer and practicing conversion therapy."

Apple, which supposedly vets all the apps available to download to its devices, only blocked the app after 150,000 people signed a petition at Change.org.