Looking Beyond Durban: The Significance of Racial Discrimination on the International Human Rights Agenda
By Louise Arbour
Resistance to discrimination goes back to the origin of the human rights concept. It was the rejection of differentiation of people on the basis of national, ethnic or social origin, religion and gender, as well as resistance against slavery, that marked the history of human rights.
The Long Road to Durban: The United Nations Role in Fighting Racism and Racial Discrimination
By Mathieu Faupin, Mathieu Faupin
From its inception in 1945, the United Nations has led an unrelenting fight against racism and racial discrimination. The framework for the Organization’s work in that area was the declaration in the preamble to its Charter on the question of human rights: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and … to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.”
The Struggle against Apartheid: Lessons for Today’s World
By Enuga S. Reddy
The United Nations has been concerned with the issue of racial discrimination since its inception. The UN General Assembly adopted on 19 November 1946 during its first session a resolution declaring that “it is in the higher interests of humanity to put an immediate end to religious and so-called racial persecution and discrimination”, and calling on “Governments and responsible authorities to conform both to the letter and to the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations, and to take the most prompt and energetic steps to that end”.
Eliminating Racial Discrimination: The Challenges of Prevention and Enforcement of Prohibition
By Alex Otieno
“States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law”, according to the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, notably in the enjoyment of political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights.
The Ideology of Racism: Misusing Science to Justify Racial Discrimination
By William H. Tucker
In his exceptionally insightful book, Racism: A Short History, Stanford University historian George M. Fredrickson notes the paradox that notions of human equality were the necessary precondition to the emergence of racism.
Asylum Today: Tougher Policies, Tumbling Numbers, Intolerance in Between
By Charlotte Maitre
Industrialized countries in recent years have complained about being swamped by asylum-seekers and have adopted increasingly stricter policies designed to stem the tide of refugees and ensure border protection.
In the Wake of Xenophobia: The New Racism in Europe
By Glyn Ford
Europe was torn apart by fascism in the 1930s, and when the Second World War ended in 1945, remnants of extreme right parties re-emerged on the margins of politics. By the 1980s, when the forgetting had started, some began to pick up protest votes as immigrants became an issue, driven by tabloid journalists looking for a cheap story.
Combating Racism and Racial Discrimination in Europe
By Isil Gachet
In today’s world, contemporary forms of racism and racial discrimination are complex and disturbing. In Europe, these issues increasingly lie at the heart of political and social concerns. Faced with persistent expressions of racism and xenophobia, the Council of Europe Member States1 have, for several years now, been taking firm and sustained action to combat these trends.
State-led Efforts in Eliminating Racial Discrimination: The Experience in Spain
By Fernando Fernández-Arias
There is no denying the existence of racism in Europe. We pride ourselves on having advanced democratic systems, a legal framework that protects and guarantees the rights of the individual and a welfare State that supplies basic services to all citizens, equally.
Between Past Failure and Future Promise: Racial Discrimination and the Education System
By Richard Race
The focus of this article is to examine the theme of racial discrimination within the context of education policymaking. It will draw on an ongoing conceptual debate that analyses contemporary education and social policy evidence within an integrationist/multicultural framework, but also analyse the “extreme” concepts of assimilation and anti-racist education policy.
Looking Forward To The Future: Europe’s Societies Are Undergoing Change
By Beate Winkler
At the end of my nine years as Director of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia—now the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights—I would like to share my experience in addressing racial discrimination.
Equal Opportunity In Education: Eliminating Discrimination Against Roma
By Rumyan Russinov
n 2002, on my way to the United States Congress where a hearing on the education of Roma was being held, I was asked by the taxi driver where I come from and what was the purpose of my trip. I told him I was going to testify before the Congress about the problems faced by Roma in education.
Poverty And Human Rights: Reflections On Racism and Discrimination
By Roberto Cuéllar
Currently, in both the international system and the inter-American system for the protection of human rights, there are instruments which emphasize the obligation of States to guarantee the observance of the rights of all human beings, without distinction as to race, gender, religion or political stance.
Race and Poverty in Latin America: Addressing the Development Needs of African Descendants
By Judith Morrison
Latin America has made solid economic strides over the past two decades in terms of sustained economic growth, increasing average income levels and decreasing average infant mortality rates.
Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples: The Latin American Context
By José Francisco Calí Tzay
In discussing the issue of discrimination against indigenous peoples, it is tempting to paraphrase a preambular paragraph of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and say that at all periods of history, discrimination, in its many forms, has inflicted great losses on humanity.1
Discrimination of Aboriginals on Native Lands in Canada
By Melissa Gorelick
With inflated proportions of their neighbours in prison, on parole or at risk, the world’s native communities have another urgent problem to contend with. Statistics show that the percentage of indigenous people in conflict with the justice system is extreme and in many places those numbers may be on the rise.
The New Untouchables Crime: Punishment and Race in America
By Glenn C. Loury
The current American prison system is a leviathan unmatched in human history. Never before has a supposedly free country denied basic liberty to so many of its citizens. In December 2006, some 2.25 million people were being held in the nearly 5,000 prisons and jails scattered across America’s urban and rural landscapes.
Racism in Football – Football against Racism: The FARE Experience
By Kurt Wachter
Anti-racism campaigners have been busy over the last couple of months. Concerns over racism, xenophobia and far-right activity in and around football stadiums have reached fever pitch. Even though the new football season, 2007-2008, has barely started in Europe, we have already witnessed a progression of serious incidences.
The Decade of Roma Inclusion: Addressing Racial Discrimination Through Development
By Iskra Kirova
The Decade of Roma Inclusion is an unprecedented pan-European initiative that channels the efforts of Governments, as well as inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, to eradicate racial discrimination and bring about tangible improvement to the plight of the world’s most populous marginalized community.
Racial Discrimination and Miscegenation: The Experience in Brazil
By Edward Telles
In 1888, Brazil, with a mostly black and mixed race or mulatto population, was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. During more than 300 years of slavery in the Americas, it was the largest importer of African slaves, bringing in seven times as many African slaves to the country, compared to the United States.
Racial Discrimination and the Legal System: The Recent Lessons of Louisiana
By Bill Quigley
Racial discrimination is widespread in the legal system of the United States. A recent example from Louisiana will help underscore the statistics that follow.
Double Standards of Justice: The Case of Gernarlow Wilson
By Pureterrah Witcher
Four years ago, in Douglasville, Georgia, a 17-year-old high school senior made a fateful mistake, one that would cost a surprising price. During a New Year's Eve celebration, Gernarlow Wilson participated in consensual sexual act with a 15-year-old girl.
Confronting The Legacy Of Slavery And The Slave Trade: Brown University Investigates Its Painful Past
By James T. Campbell
In April I had the privilege of participating in a scholarly panel at the United Nations, one in a series of events sponsored by the CARICOM Secretariat to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade by the legislatures of the United States and Great Britain.
A New Way of Dealing With the Past: The Young Generation in Germany Sheds Its Anxiety of Xenophobia
By Rosa-Maria Ndolo
Students in present-day Germany learn early on: there is no denying their past. History teachers tell them that what their grandparents might have been a part of during the Second World War does not apply to them directly.
Bridging The Racial Divide: Model United Nations South Africa
By Sudeshan Reddy
One of the most enduring legacies of apartheid is that an entire generation of black South Africans was deprived of a decent education by a system designed to entrench racial oppression and subjugation.
About this Issue
UN Chronicle, Volume XLIV, Issue 3, 2007
Racism and racial discrimination are a clear affront to the fundamental truth that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. Yet, six decades after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and four decades after the entry into force of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969), the principles of equality and non-discrimination are still far from a universal reality. In 2001, the third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance adopted the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, providing a common agenda for eradicating racial discrimination. However, the comprehensive normative framework, as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour notes in her essay for our magazine, has created “expectations that can only be met by determined and cooperative action”, especially because of the “cultural depth of racism” and the “major historical causes of racial discrimination”. The United Nations has called for a Durban Review Conference, to be held in 2009, to appraise the progress made thus far.
Some of the most vicious forms of racial discrimination in history are slavery, as well as colonialism, which caused immeasurable suffering to the indigenous peoples worldwide, including those of African descent, who were forcibly subjected to servitude as a result of the trans-atlantic slave trade. These past practices are among the leading factors contributing to the lasting forms of social exclusion and structures of economic inequality in many parts of the world today. In Latin America and the Caribbean, for instance, whole communities, particularly indigenous and Afro-descendant populations, are stigmatized because they are perceived as different from the dominant national identity and live in a state of marginalization and extreme poverty.
Unfortunately, the multiple dimensions of racial discrimination frequently extend to related forms of intolerance based on gender, language or religion, reinforcing patterns of exclusion, disadvantage and abuse, preventing victims from enjoying adequate access to social services, education, health care, housing and justice. Studies show that incarcerated aboriginal women make up a staggering 30 per cent of female prisoners in Canada, and in the United States, the extent of racial disparity in imprisonment rates is greater than in any other area of social life. These disparities illustrate the pervasiveness of racial discrimination even in democratic countries. Racial intolerance, if left unchecked, fuels large-scale human rights abuses, including genocidal acts and crimes against humanity, as in Darfur.
Racism represents a systematic denial of human rights to specific ethnic groups; often, attempts are made to justify the racist ideology on scientific grounds. The success of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and the role of the United Nations in spearheading the sanctions campaign against the racist regime, provide valuable lessons for combating contemporary forms of racism, newly virulent in the guise of xenophobia. In Europe, for instance, traditionally fascist parties have been appealing to a broad political spectrum of alienated voters through a “diluted” racist language of cultural difference, rather than racial superiority. This “new racism”, often spread through the Internet, has been leaking into the mainstream and has already had an impact on immigration policies and asylum procedures.
In response to these disturbing trends, the Council of Europe has set up the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance to monitor racist incidents and to build awareness against xenophobia. In Spain, the recent creation of the Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia demonstrates how States can lead efforts in eliminating racial discrimination. Human rights education, along with anti-discrimination legislation, offers the best weapon in eliminating racism and xenophobia. As these different examples show, education is ultimately the most powerful tool to bridge the racial divide and advance the solidarity of peoples.
Cover Information: The murals known as The Solidarity of Peoples were painted by José Maria Sert (1876-1945) in 1934/35 and given by Spain to the League of Nations. Located in the Council Chamber of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, the ceiling fresco depicts five men emerging from the walls who join their extended hands in the mural centre. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré