Country Foundations

Equality before the law

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 7. In the US Constitution: 14th Amendment (Equal Protection).

Constitutions declaring it
155 / 158
US declares it
100%
US practices it
75%

Does declaring it change anything?

Distribution of practiced scores, split by whether the constitution declares the right. If the two distributions look alike, the words on the page are not doing much work on their own.

Constitutions that declare it (155)
0100
Constitutions that are silent (3)
0100

Mean practiced score: 66% where declared, versus 82% where silent.

What the text actually says

Passages tagged with this topic, from the Constitute Project.

United States
Section 1

Section 1 All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

South Africa

We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;

Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.

Country by country

CountryDeclaredPracticed
Afghanistan100%9%
Albania100%78%
Algeria100%60%
Angola100%60%
Argentina100%84%
Armenia100%82%
Australia100%87%
Azerbaijan100%55%
Bahrain100%39%
Bangladesh100%48%
Barbados100%78%
Belarus100%53%
Belgium100%93%
Benin100%84%
Bhutan100%77%
Bolivia100%76%
Bosnia and Herzegovina100%72%
Botswana100%72%
Brazil100%76%
Bulgaria100%82%
Burma/Myanmar100%30%
Cambodia100%42%
Cameroon100%64%
Canada100%72%
Cape Verde100%82%
Central African Republic100%40%
Chad100%36%
Chile100%76%
China100%34%
Colombia100%65%
Comoros100%57%
Costa Rica100%93%
Croatia100%80%
Cuba100%54%
Cyprus100%83%
Democratic Republic of the Congo100%50%
Denmark100%92%
Djibouti100%46%
Dominican Republic100%60%
Ecuador100%68%
Egypt100%52%
El Salvador100%38%
Equatorial Guinea100%33%
Eritrea100%31%
Estonia100%89%
Eswatini100%43%
Ethiopia100%48%
Fiji100%66%
Finland100%93%
France100%85%
Gabon100%79%
Georgia100%80%
Ghana100%86%
Greece100%84%
Guatemala100%48%
Guinea100%43%
Guinea-Bissau100%68%
Guyana100%70%
Haiti100%41%
Honduras100%68%