Since its inception, anti-discrimination law has been based on a so-called single-axis approach. Crenshaw Kimberle was the first to point out the inadequacy of this approach in the 1990s. An individual can be discriminated against on the basis of multiple personal characteristics which are inseparable and interact with each other at the same time. This particular form of discrimination, which poses a number of legal challenges in international, European and national law, is today referred to as intersectional discrimination. Ambiguities arise from the use of terminology, as the term is still often confused with the term multiple discrimination in the professional literature, even though there are significant differences between the two. At the level of international human rights law, independent expert committees have pointed out in their acts the importance of recognizing and including an explicit prohibition of intersectional discrimination in national legislation. As this prohibition is not mentioned either in the European Convention on Human Rights or in the European Union’s anti-discrimination directives, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union have been reluctant to apply the concept of intersectional discrimination in their judgements. There are divergent views among legal experts as to whether the legislative framework of the European Union is sufficient for the European Court of Justice to finally and adequately address cases of intersectional discrimination. While the prohibition of intersectional discrimination is included in Slovenian legislation, the term itself has not yet been used by the Slovenian courts. Despite the efforts of legal experts, a one-dimensional mentality still prevails before the courts when dealing with discrimination cases, which seems difficult to overcome.
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