diff --git a/bob/bio/base/config/algorithm/distance_hamming.py b/bob/bio/base/config/algorithm/distance_hamming.py
index bf6631b3074701a61b0b5c1c1bc51755bc32ef40..a163dd4a94a96b7a013dce41eca9e6e927346e8e 100644
--- a/bob/bio/base/config/algorithm/distance_hamming.py
+++ b/bob/bio/base/config/algorithm/distance_hamming.py
@@ -5,5 +5,5 @@ import scipy.spatial.distance
 
 algorithm = bob.bio.base.algorithm.Distance(
     distance_function = scipy.spatial.distance.hamming,
-    is_distance_function = False  # setting this to False ensures that Hamming distances are returned as positive values rather than negative
+    is_distance_function = True
 )
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ca69ef786d52d4959fa331a1a0b83a735202c9a0..5b500cbd01d0d2edd86879c1c8633bb6418149ad 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ setup(
         'dummy             = bob.bio.base.test.dummy.algorithm:algorithm', # for test purposes only
         'distance-euclidean = bob.bio.base.config.algorithm.distance_euclidean:algorithm',
         'distance-cosine   = bob.bio.base.config.algorithm.distance_cosine:algorithm',
+        'distance-hamming   = bob.bio.base.config.algorithm.distance_hamming:algorithm',
         'pca               = bob.bio.base.config.algorithm.pca:algorithm',
         'lda               = bob.bio.base.config.algorithm.lda:algorithm',
         'pca+lda           = bob.bio.base.config.algorithm.pca_lda:algorithm',