In some countries that have laws on racial equality, affirmative action is rendered illegal because it does not treat all races equally. This approach of equal treatment is sometimes described as being "
color blind", in hopes that it is effective against discrimination without engaging in
reverse discrimination. In such countries, the focus tends to be on ensuring equal opportunity and, for example, targeted advertising campaigns to encourage ethnic minority candidates to join the police force. This is sometimes called
positive action.
Africa South Africa Between 1948 and 1974, the
apartheid government introduced statutes which enshrined racial discrimination in all areas of life. Individuals were classified in a racial hierarchy which placed whites at the top, followed by "
Coloureds", then Asians or Indians, with black Africans at the bottom. Benefits were afforded based on this hierarchy, and favoured white-owned, especially
Afrikaner-owned companies, which marginalised and excluded black people and limited their employment opportunities. Legislation meant that skilled and highly paid jobs were reserved for
white people, and black people were largely used as cheap, unskilled labour, creating and extending the "colour bar" in South African labour. The variation in skills and productivity between groups of people ultimately caused disparities in employment, occupation, and income within labour markets. Following the end of apartheid, affirmative action legislation aimed to address these disparities. The
African National Congress-led government chose to implement affirmative action legislation to correct previous imbalances (a policy known as employment equity), and fulfil the obligations of the Republic as a member of the International Labour Organisation. As a result of the
Employment Equity Act and the
Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, companies were required to employ previously disenfranchised groups (blacks,
Indians, and Coloureds), as well as women and disabled people. Many have embraced these acts; others have criticised them. Proponents have said that South African affirmative action legislation aims to promote economic growth rather than to redistribute wealth, address
vast racial inequalities in wealth and income, and to restore equal access to the benefits of society. The
Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa ruled that while blacks may be favoured in principle, in practice this should not lead to unfair discrimination against others. The bill aims to increase the number of women in politics, with a target of 30% by 2026, 35% by 2028 and 50% by 2030. The
2024 Ghanaian general election in December was the first with affirmative action legislation in place. In the election campaign, both the ruling
New Patriotic Party and the main opposition party
NDC voiced their commitment to the targets, in an effort to appeal to women voters. After the election, the number of women remained the same as after the 2020 election (15%). In his inaugural speech on 7 January 2025, the newly elected President
John Mahama said the NDC was committed to "breaking the glass ceiling" for women in politics.
Asia China There is affirmative action in education for minority nationalities in China, this may equate to lowering minimum requirements for the
National University Entrance Examination, which is mandatory for all students to enter university.
Liangshaoyikuan refers a policy in China on affirmative action in
criminal justice.
Israel A class-based affirmative action policy was incorporated into the admission practices of the four most selective universities in
Israel during the early to mid-2000s. In evaluating the eligibility of applicants, neither their financial status nor their national or ethnic origins are considered; the emphasis is on structural disadvantages, especially neighborhood socioeconomic status and high school rigor, although several individual hardships are also weighed. This policy made the four institutions, especially the echelons at the most selective departments, more diverse than they otherwise would have been. Proponents of this model have said that rising geographic, economic and demographic diversity of the student population suggests the focus on structural determinants of disadvantage yields broad diversity dividends. In civil service employment, Israeli citizens who are women, Arabs, Blacks or people with disabilities are supported by affirmative action policies. Israeli citizens who are Arabs, Blacks or people with disabilities are also entitled to full university scholarships from the state.
India Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well-being of
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST), and
Other Backward Classes (OBC), defined primarily by their caste. Members of these categories comprise about two-thirds of the population of India. According to the
Constitution of India, up to 50% of all government-run higher education admissions and government job vacancies may be reserved for members of the SC/ST/OBC-NCL categories, and 10% for those in
Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), with the remaining unreserved. In 2014, the
Indian National Sample Survey found that 12% of surveyed Indian households had received academic scholarships, with 94% being on account of SC/ST/OBC membership, 2% based on financial weakness and 0.7% based on merit.
Indonesia Indonesia has offered affirmative action for
native Papuans in education, government civil worker selection, and police & army selection. After the
2019 Papua protests, many Papuan students chose to abandon their scholarship and return to their respective provinces. The program has been subject to criticism, with complaints made towards a lack of sufficient quotas and alleged corruption.
Prabowo Subianto, Indonesian
defense minister, has expressed that he will direct more effort towards recruiting Papuans to the
Indonesian National Armed Forces. Education scholarship by
Ministry of Education and Culture, called ADik to the native Papuans and students from perhipery regions close to Indonesian border.
Malaysia The
Malaysian New Economic Policy (NEP) is a form of ethnicity-based affirmative action aimed at addressing socioeconomic disadvantages among those who are deemed "Bumiputera", which includes the Malay population,
Orang Asli, and the indigenous people of
Sabah and
Sarawak, who together form a majority of the population. Within Malaysia, the Malays (representing 58% of the population) have lower incomes than
Chinese Malaysians (22% of the population) and
Indian Malaysians (6% of the population), who have traditionally been involved in businesses and industries, and who were also general migrant workers. The mean income for Malays, Chinese and Indians in 1957/58 were 134, 288 and 228 respectively. In 1967/68 it was 154, 329 and 245, and in 1970 it was 170, 390 and 300. Mean income disparity ratio for Chinese/Malays rose from 2.1 in 1957/58 to 2.3 in 1970, whereas for Indians/Malays the disparity ratio also rose from 1.7 to 1.8 in the same period. To address these inequalities, following the sectarian violence of the
13 May incident in 1969, the NEP was introduced as a time-limited policy, which was supposed to expire after 20 years but remains policy to this day. Although the NEP has succeeded in creating a significant urban Malay and
Native Bornean middle class, it has been less effective in eradicating poverty among rural communities. Critics say it has widened disparities between the wealthy and middle classes, and those who are poorest. It has also been described as racially discriminatory.
Taiwan A 2004 legislation requires that, for a firm with 100 employees or more wishing to compete for government contracts, at least 1 percent of its employees must be
Taiwanese aborigines. Ministry of Education and
Council of Aboriginal Affairs announced in 2002 that Taiwanese Aboriginal students would have their high-school or undergraduate entrance exams boosted by 33% for demonstrating some knowledge of their tribal language and culture. The percentage of boost have been revised several times, and the latest percentage is 35% in 2013.
Europe Denmark Greenlanders have special advantages when applying for university, college or vocation university degrees in Denmark. With these specific rules, Greenlanders can get into degrees without the required grade averages by fulfilling certain criteria. They need to have a grade average of over 6,0 and have lived a certain number of years in Greenland. These rules have been in force since 1 January 2014.
Finland In certain university education programs, including legal and medical education, there are quotas for persons who reach a certain standard of skills in the
Swedish language; for students admitted in these quotas, the education is partially arranged in Swedish. The purpose of the quotas is to guarantee that a sufficient number of professionals with skills in Swedish are educated for nationwide needs. Since the 1980s, a French version of affirmative action based on neighborhood is in place for primary and secondary education. Some schools, in neighborhoods labeled "Priority Education Zones", are granted more funds than the others. Students from these schools also benefit from special policies in certain institutions (such as
Sciences Po). The French Ministry of Defence tried in 1990 to make it easier for young French soldiers of North-African descent to be promoted in rank and obtain driving licenses. After a strong protest by a young French lieutenant in the Ministry of Defence newspaper (''Armées d'aujourd'hui''), the driving license and rank plan was cancelled. After the Sarkozy election, a new attempt in favour of Arab-French students was made, but Sarkozy did not gain enough political support to change the French constitution. After 27 January 2014, following the Norwegian example, women had to represent at least 20% of board members in all stock-exchange-listed or state-owned companies. After 27 January 2017, the proportion increased to 40%. All appointments of men as directors were deemed invalid as long as the quotas were not met, and monetary penalties may apply for other directors.
Germany Article 3 of the
German Basic Law provides for equal rights of all people regardless of sex, race or social background. There are programs stating that if men and women have equal qualifications, women should be favored for the position and that disabled should be favored over non-disabled people. This is typical for all positions in state and university service , typically using the phrase "We try to increase diversity in this line of work". In recent years, there has been a long public debate about whether to issue programs that would grant women a privileged access to jobs in order to fight discrimination. Germany's
Left Party brought up the discussion about affirmative action in
Germany's school system. According to Stefan Zillich, quotas should be "a possibility" to help working class children who did not do well in school gain access to a
Gymnasium (University-preparatory school). Headmasters of
Gymnasien have objected, saying that this type of policy would "be a disservice" to poor children.
Norway The boards of all
public stock companies (ASA) in Norway should have at least 40% of either gender. This affects roughly 400 companies of over 300,000 in total. In their study of the effects of affirmative action on presence, prominence, and social capital of women directors in Norway, researchers Seierstad & Opsahl found that, when the affirmative action policy was first implemented, only 7 prominent directors were women and 84 were men. By August 2009, this had risen to 107 women compared to 117 men. The proportion of boards led by a woman remained low overall, but increased from 3.4% to 4.3%. By applying more restrictive definitions of prominence, the proportion of directors who were women generally increased. If only considering directors with at least three directorships, 61.4% of them were women. When considering directors with seven or more directorships, all of them were women. A 2016 study found no effect of the ASA representation requirement on either valuation or profits of the affected companies, and also no correlation between the requirement and the restructuring of companies away from ASA.
Romania Romani people are allocated quotas for access to public schools and state universities.
Soviet Union and Russia Soon after the 1918 revolution,
Inessa Armand,
Lenin's secretary and lover, was instrumental in creating
Zhenotdel, which functioned until the 1930s as part of the international egalitarian and affirmative action movements. Quota systems existed in the
USSR for various social groups including
ethnic minorities, women and factory workers. Before 1934 ethnic minorities were described as
culturally backward, but in 1934 this term was found inappropriate. In 1920s and early 1930s
Korenizatsiia applied affirmative action to ethnic minorities. Quotas for access to university education, offices in the Soviet system and the Communist Party existed: for example, the position of First Secretary of a Soviet Republic's (or Autonomous Republic's) Party Committee was always filled by a representative of this republic's "
titular ethnicity". Russia retains this system partially. Quotas are abolished, but preferences for some ethnic minorities and inhabitants of certain territories remain.
Serbia The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from 2006 established the principles of equality and the prohibition of discrimination on any grounds. It also allows affirmative action as "special measures" for certain marginalized groups, such as national minorities, by specifically excluding it from the legal definition of discrimination. The Roma national minority is enabled to enroll in public schools under more favorable conditions.
Slovakia The
Constitutional Court declared in October 2005 that affirmative action—i.e., "providing advantages for people of an ethnic or racial minority group"—was against its
Constitution.
United Kingdom In the
United Kingdom, hiring someone simply because of their
protected-group status, without regard to their performance, is illegal. By default, so is any other form of discrimination, quota or favouritism based on such "protected characteristics" in education, in employment, during commercial transactions, at private clubs or associations, and while using public services. The
Equality Act 2010 does allow for membership in a protected and disadvantaged group to be considered in hiring and promotion when the group is under-represented in a given area and if the candidates are of equal merit (in which case membership in a disadvantaged group can become a "tie-breaker"). Under Section 159 of the Equality Act 2010, an employer must "reasonably think that people with the protected characteristic suffer a disadvantage or are under-represented in that particular activity" and any
positive action must be "a proportionate means of enabling or encouraging people to overcome the disadvantage or to take part in the activity". • The
Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 allowed the use of
all-women shortlists to select more women as election candidates. In a 2019, an
employment tribunal, found that "while positive action can be used to boost diversity, it should only be applied to distinguish between candidates who were all equally well qualified for a role".
North America Canada The equality section of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly permits affirmative action legislation, although the Charter does not
require legislation that gives preferential treatment. Subsection 2 of
Section 15 states that the equality provisions do "not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability". The Canadian
Employment Equity Act requires employers in federally-regulated industries to give preferential treatment to four designated groups: women, persons with disabilities, aboriginal peoples, and
visible minorities. Less than one-third of Canadian Universities offer alternative admission requirements for students of aboriginal descent. Some provinces and territories also have affirmative action policies. For example, in the
Northwest Territories in the Canadian north, aboriginal people are given preference for jobs and education and are considered to have P1 status. Non-aboriginal people who were born in the NWT or have resided half of their life there are considered a P2, as well as women and people with disabilities.
United States The United States' policy of affirmative action dates to the
Reconstruction Era in the United States. Current policy was introduced in the early 1960s in the United States, as a way to combat
racial discrimination in the hiring process, with the concept later expanded to address gender discrimination. During this time, the legal and
constitutional legitimacy of affirmative action has been the subject of several court cases. Affirmative action was first created from
Executive Order 10925, which was signed by President
John F. Kennedy on 6 March 1961 and required that government employers "not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin" and "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin" but did not require or permit group preferences. On 24 September 1965, President
Lyndon B. Johnson signed
Executive Order 11246, thereby replacing
Executive Order 10925, but continued to use the same terminology that did not require or permit group preferences. Affirmative action was extended to sex by
Executive Order 11375 which amended Executive Order 11246 on 13 October 1967, by adding "sex" to the list of protected categories. In the U.S., affirmative action's original purpose was to pressure institutions into compliance with the nondiscrimination mandate of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Acts do not cover discrimination based on veteran status, disabilities, or age that is 40 years and older. These groups may be protected from discrimination under different laws. Some colleges use financial criteria to attract racial groups that have typically been under-represented and typically have lower living conditions. Some states such as California (
California Civil Rights Initiative), Michigan (
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative), and Washington (
Initiative 200) have passed constitutional amendments banning public institutions, including public schools, from practicing affirmative action within their respective states. Since the 1990s, conservative groups have increasingly suggested that college quotas have been used to illegally discriminate against people on the basis of race and have launched numerous lawsuits to stop them. In 2003, a Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action in higher education (
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 US 244 – Supreme Court 2003) permitted educational institutions to consider race as a factor when admitting students. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court held that "States may choose to prohibit the consideration of racial preferences in governmental decisions". By that time, eight states (Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Michigan, Florida, Washington, and California) had already banned affirmative action.
Oceania New Zealand Individuals of
Māori or other
Polynesian descent are often afforded improved access to university courses, or have scholarships earmarked specifically for them. Such access to university courses have in the past faced criticism, particularly at the University of Auckland due to a phenomenon known as mismatch theory. Accusations have been made of setting children up to fail due to a lack of transparency as to the preferred groups graduation rates and the university informing the students of such historical statistics dating back to the 1970s. Affirmative action is provided for under section 73 of the
Human Rights Act 1993 and section 19(2) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Affirmative action in New Zealand is most often carried out indirectly by encouraging those in groups favored by affirmative action to get jobs in sectors they are underrepresented in. Diversity Awards NZ is an organization in New Zealand whose goal is to " celebrate excellence in workplace diversity, equity and inclusion." Under section 73 of the Human Rights Act 1993, affirmative action would be permissible if: The
Democrats party, accusing the board of directors of the
University of Brasília for "resurrecting Nazist ideals", appealed to the
Supreme Federal Court against the
constitutionality of the quotas the university reserves for minorities. The Supreme Court unanimously approved their constitutionality on 26 April 2012. == International organizations ==