Different norms of international law guarantee protection against discrimination on the grounds of disability. This is for example the case with the UN standards, with the Council of Europe standards and in the case law of other States.

Similar to Germany, chronic diseases are implicitly recognized under the term "disability" in various laws and prohibitions of discrimination in some countries such as Switzerland, France and Great Britain. Furthermore, the discrimination dimension "chronic illness" is expressly recognized in certain decrees in Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal, or specific diseases are explicitly mentioned. Another solution can be found with the introduction of the dimension of „health condition " or " health " in decrees in France, Hungary and Slovakia.