49 170. One specific manifestation of the right to equality and non-discrimination is in the courts, where this right to equal protection combines with the guarantees of due process that are crucial to a fair trial. In the words of the Human Rights Committee: The right to equality before the courts and tribunals and to a fair trial is a key element of human 188 rights protection and serves as a procedural means to safeguard the rule of law. 171. The Human Rights Committee has also expressed that The right to equality before courts and tribunals, in general terms, guarantees, in addition to the principles mentioned in the second sentence of Article 14, paragraph 1, those of equal access and equality of arms, and ensures that the parties to the proceedings in question are treated without 189 any discrimination. 172. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination addressed the right to equal 190 protection and non-discrimination in the courts in its General Recommendation No. 31, where it wrote, inter alia, that “racial discrimination or xenophobia, when racial or ethnic discrimination does exist in the administration and functioning of the system of justice, it constitutes a particularly serious violation of the rule of law, the principle of equality before the law, the principle of fair trial and the right to an independent and impartial tribunal, through its direct effect on persons belonging to groups which it is the 191 very role of justice to protect.” . 173. The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban in 2001, expressed its profound repudiation of the racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance that persist in some States in the functioning of the penal systems and in the application of the law, as well as in the actions and attitudes of institutions and individuals responsible for law enforcement, especially where this has contributed to certain groups being over-represented among persons under detention or imprisoned. 174. The right to equality and non-discrimination are among those rights most profoundly and 192 deeply affected by States’ anti-terrorist initiatives. The Commission has stressed the point that “In the campaign against terrorism, states must be particularly vigilant to ensure that state agents, including military forces, 193 conduct themselves fully in accordance with the proscription against discrimination.” Of particular relevance to the instant case is the Commission’s analysis of the risk of discrimination to which members of certain political, ideological, or religious groups are exposed in the fight against terrorism, particularly in the case of criminal proceedings: The Commission recognizes in this connection that the effective investigation of terrorist crimes may, owing to their ideological motivation and the collective means by which they are carried out, necessitate the investigation of individuals or groups who are connected with particular political, ideological or religious movements or, in the case of state-sponsored terrorism, the governments of certain states. The Commission must also emphasize, however, that anti-terrorist initiatives that 188 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 32 – Article 14: Right to equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial. Doc. UN CCPR/C/GC/32, August 23, 2007, paragraph 2. 189 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 32 – Article 14: Right to equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial. Doc. UN CCPR/C/GC/32, August 23, 2007, paragraph 8. 190 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. XXXI on the prevention of racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal justice system. 191 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. XXXI on the prevention of racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal justice system. Preamble. 192 IACHR, Report on Terrorism and Human Rights, OEA/SER.L/V/II.116, Doc. 5 rev. 1, corr., October 22, 2002, Executive Summary, paragraph 10. 193 IACHR, Report on Terrorism and Human Rights, OEA/SER.L/V/II.116, Doc. 5 rev. 1, corr., October 22, 2002, Executive Summary, paragraph 15.