Equality
<p ><b>Equality before the law</b>, also known as <b>legal equality</b>, is the principle under which all people are subject to the same laws of justice (due process).<sup id="cite_ref-un_0-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law#cite_note-un-0" >[1]</a></sup> All are equal before the law.
Article 7 of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights" title="Universal Declaration of Human Rights" >Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> states that "<i>All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.</i>"<sup id="cite_ref-un_0-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law#cite_note-un-0" >[1]</a></sup>
According to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations" >United Nations</a>, this principle is particularly important to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group" title="Minority group" >minorities</a> and to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty" title="Poverty" >poor</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-un_0-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law#cite_note-un-0" >[1]</a></sup>
Thus, the law and the judges must treat everybody by the same laws regardless of their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender" title="Gender" >gender</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnicity" title="Ethnicity" class="mw-redirect" >ethnicity</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion" title="Religion" >religion</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-economic_status" title="Socio-economic status" class="mw-redirect" >socio-economic status</a> etc, without <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_(social_inequality)" title="Privilege (social inequality)" >privilege</a>.
Equality before the law is one of the basic principles of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism" title="Classical liberalism" >classical liberalism</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-kukathas_1-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law#cite_note-kukathas-1" >[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-evans_2-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law#cite_note-evans-2" >[3]</a></sup>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminists" title="Feminists" class="mw-redirect" >Feminists</a> call for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_equality" title="Gender equality" >equality before the law regardless of gender</a>.</p>