Unia is competent for these criteria:

• the five 'racial' criteria: alleged race, skin colour, nationality, ancestry (Jewish origin) and national or ethnic origin
• disability
• philosophical or religious beliefs
• sexual orientation
• age
• wealth (in other words, financial resources)
• civil status
• political beliefs
• trade union beliefs
• state of health
• physical orgenetic characteristics
• birth
• social background
• household composition

Unia is not competent for the criterion gender. Belgium has a specific body that deals with issues of equality between women and men and gender-based discrimination (including transgender people): Institute for the Equality of Women and Men.

Unia is not competent for the criterion language, for which no public body has a specific competence in this field.

The criteria are identical in all anti-discrimination legislation (federal laws, decrees, orders), except in those cases:

• In Flanders, the text refers to ‘social position’ instead of ‘social background’, and in Wallonia, the text refers to 'social background and status'.
• The 'household composition' is also mention in the Walloon text since 2019.
• The French Community Commission doesn’t have an exhaustive list of criteria.

The Antidiscrimination Law provides for an evaluation of the Antiracism Law, Antidiscrimination Law and Gender Law. This evaluation, which also included scrutiny of the discrimination grounds, was carried out in 2016-2017. The expert committee evaluation report (Dutch and French) was submitted to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and the State Secretary for Equal Opportunities in February 2017. Unia also drew up its own evaluation report.