Human Rights Definitions

These definitions can help you complete a Student Human Rights Incident Report:

Hate activities: Hate activities that can happen in a school community can include intimidation, harassment, physical threats or force, using slurs, vandalism, display of hate symbols, or messages telling people to hate certain groups

Human Rights Grounds:

Age: The Code protects you from discrimination based on how old you are. You need to be 18 or older (or in some cases 16 or older) for this to apply.

Citizenship: Citizenship means the country or nation you belong to. The Code protects you from discrimination based on your citizenship.

Creed: Creed means your religion or faith, or the rules you follow for your life. 

Disability or perceived disability: The Code protects you from discrimination and harassment based on a disability you have, used to have, or that someone thinks you have (perceived disability). There are many different types of disabilities covered under the Code.

Ethnic origin: The Code protects you from discrimination based on where your ancestors have come from.

Failure to accommodate: Accommodation is a means to prevent and remove barriers that may prevent you from participating fully in your school or school-related activities because of any of the protected grounds. A failure to accommodate occurs when these barriers have not been removed.

Family status: Family status means having children, or caring for children that are not yours the same way a parent would. 

Gender expression: Gender expression is how a person shows their gender. This can include dress, hair, make-up, body language and voice. A person’s chosen name and pronouns are also common ways of expressing gender.

Gender identity: Gender identity is a person’s feeling of being a girl, a boy, both, neither, or anywhere in between. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex. Gender identity is different from a person’s sexual orientation.

Marital status: Marital status” is the status of being married, single, widowed, divorced or separated, or in a common law relationship, including both same-sex and opposite sex relationships
Place of origin: Place of origin means the country or region your family comes from.

Race or race-related grounds: Race or race-related grounds includes where your ancestors came from, your skin colour, the country or region you and your family come from, the culture you belong to, your citizenship, or your religion or faith.

Reprisal: Reprisal means being punished or treated badly because you made a complaint

Sex: Sex means a person’s biological sex.

Sexual orientation: Sexual orientation means our attraction to other people. We can feel romantic, physical and emotional attraction to someone of the same gender, or a different gender. The Code makes it against the law to discriminate against someone or to harass them because of their sexual orientation.

For more information on human rights, please visit the Ontario Human Rights Commission.