584. Personal characteristics and status.

The protection from discrimination afforded by Article 14¹ is not limited to the categories of protected grounds specified therein², as the use of the phrases 'such as' and 'other status' in the text of the Article makes clear³. The European Court of Human Rights has held that discrimination simply has to be based on a 'personal characteristic' or 'status' in order to engage Article 14⁴, and that 'personal characteristic' applies not only to personal qualities but also to social categorisations and factual circumstances⁵. Any identifiable distinguishing characteristic can in principle amount to a 'status' even if it is chosen