Fair Treatment — Definition

Definition

Fair treatment means using relevant, defensible criteria while respecting people's equal standing and providing a genuine opportunity to be heard. It requires consistency between comparable cases, but it does not demand identical arrangements where relevant barriers or needs differ.

Accessible assistance can support equal opportunity; a private favour based on friendship cannot be justified on that basis. Fairness also concerns procedure, including understandable reasons and a route to correct errors.

In public administration, the governing law and the service's purpose constrain the criteria. Personal sympathy alone does not authorise an official to create eligibility or disregard a valid requirement.