Equal rights for men and women

The principle of (1) …………..(“All persons shall be equal before the (2) ………….”) laid down in the (3) …………. Law establishes for each individual person the (4) ……….. to equal (5) ………. in comparison to others against the State. The principle of equality is an extensive (6) …………… rule to treat equal (7) ………… or persons equally and unequal matters or persons unequally according to their specific nature and to apply the laws equally without distinction of person. However, this principle leaves the legislator a wide margin of discretion. The principle of equality is infringed only if there is no sensible reason that can be derived from the nature of the matter or is otherwise obvious for making the distinction, i.e. if the arrangement made is arbitrary.

The principle of equal rights for men and women (“Men and women shall have (8) ………… rights”) laid down in the Basic law and the (9) ………… of discriminatory or preferential treatment (“No-one may be prejucised or favoured because of his or her sex …”) (10) ………….. in the Basic Law (11) …………. any (12) ……… distinction between men and women. Thus, these stipulations far exceed the general principle of equality contained in the Basic Law and the principle of equal treatment in (13) …………. law. The employer’s liberty to make his own distinctions for factual reasons is excluded in so far as he intends to use the sex as (14) ……….. for making such distinctions. This means that on principle the biological and other differences of the sexes are to be disregarded unless in the very few cases where different (15) ………. require that these be taken into account.

Ex. 16. Read the following text. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from the box.