Summary:
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The topic for its 75th anniversary in 2023 emphasises how critical it is to fight racism and racial discrimination.
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More: The Durban Declaration was adopted in South Africa about 25 years ago to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, mistrust, intolerance, and hate globally.
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The principal victimsThe International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination includes the following communities among the biggest victims of horrific racism, discrimination and hatred: African-Descent PeopleThe descendants of the victims of the transatlantic slave trade or, more recently, migrants frequently encounter racial discrimination and prejudice.
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Poverty is a result of and a cause of human rights abuses.
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In fact, being the entire half of the world population, women and girls are often among the most vulnerable elements of society and are in greater danger of economic hardship, marginalisation and violence; prejudice against them is often compounded.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which emphasised that all people are created with the same dignity and rights, was ratified by all nations three-quarters of a century ago. The topic for its 75th anniversary in 2023 emphasises how critical it is to fight racism and racial discrimination.
More: The Durban Declaration was adopted in South Africa about 25 years ago to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, mistrust, intolerance, and hate globally.
Since then, these “contagious murderers” have persisted unabatedly and become more pervasive than ever in all cultures, especially in countries where “white supremacy” has taken hold.
Decades of enslavement and colonialism
Such a “Pernicious Evil,” as António Guterres, the head of the UN, rightly put, manifests itself in many different ways and affects all facets of existence. He warned two years ago that much of today’s prejudice is “deeply ingrained in centuries of colonialism and enslavement.
The UN chief then described “pervasive discrimination and exclusion” experienced by people of African descent, as well as injustices and oppression suffered by indigenous peoples, antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred, and the most recent horrifying act of violence against people of Asian descent who are unfairly targeted for COVID-19.
White racists’ “repugnant” opinions
“We also see it in the biases baked into the programmes for facial recognition and artificial intelligence” and the “repugnant ideas of white supremacists and other extremist groups”, continued the top UN Official.
In actuality, racism harms society as a whole and the lives of people who experience it. The United Nations cautions that it erodes social cohesion and deepens mistrust by casting suspicion on all parties.
According to the world body, effects could include the capacity to obtain a job, gean education, equal access to healthcare, housing, food, and water, or fair treatment in a court of law.
On the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2023, it was declared that “We all lose in a society marked by discrimination, division, distrust, intolerance, and hate” (21 March).
Virulent killers
“Like COVID-19, racism and xenophobia are contagious killers,” the UN emphasises.
The International Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, adopted the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA) in 2001. She served as the UN’s global strategy for battling racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and associated intolerance.
Implementing the Durban Declaration should be a significant priority on the global agenda, together with the International Decade for Persons of African Descent 2015–2024. Though is it?
The pervasive propagation of hatred isn’t. Reality demonstrates that stories of secessionism, prejudice, division, and fear and hatred of the other continue to be pervasive in public spaces such as streets, workplaces, schools, and public transportation, as well as in the voting booth, on social media, at home, and on sports fields.
Also, the scope and impact of hate speech have grown due to modern communications technologies.
The principal victims
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination includes the following communities among the biggest victims of horrific racism, discrimination and hatred:
African-Descent People
The descendants of the victims of the transatlantic slave trade or, more recently, migrants frequently encounter racial discrimination and prejudice.
People of African origin are among the poorest and most marginalised groups in society due to discriminatory structures and institutions, the evils of slavery, and colonialism. They also experience “alarmingly high rates of police violence and racial profiling.”
Racism adversely affects the lives of numerous other communities and groups in addition to those of African descent and those who are descended from enslaved peoples who were transported across the Atlantic, such as:
Aboriginal Peoples
Approximately 476 million indigenous people reside in 90 countries around the world, making up 6.2% of the world’s population. They are routinely discriminated against and deprived of their fundamental rights, lands, and customs.
There are more than 5.000 different groups among them. An overwhelming majority of the estimated 7.000 languages spoken worldwide are spoken by indigenous people.
“Nevertheless, they are nearly three times as likely to live in extreme poverty than their non-indigenous counterparts.”
Migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, Internally Displaced Persons
At the end of 2020, there were 82.4 million individuals who had been forcefully relocated due to persecution, conflict, violence, abuses of their human rights, or other situations that gravely disturbed public order.
Millions of people also lack a nationality and are denied access to fundamental freedoms like education, healthcare, employment, and mobility.
Among the 82.4 million people who have been forcibly relocated, 26.4 million are refugees, with around half being under 18; 20.7 million are within the purview of UNHCR, and 5.7 million are Palestinian refugees under UNRWA.
There were also 48 million internally displaced persons, 4.1 million asylum seekers, and 3.9 million Venezuelans relocated abroad (UNHCR).Very Poor individuals
Being poor involves more than just not having enough money or other resources to support a sustainable way of life. Some symptoms include hunger and malnutrition, restricted access to essential services like education, social marginalisation, and a lack of participation in decision-making.
Poverty is a result of and a cause of human rights abuses.
Many persons who experience great poverty frequently become the targets of racial prejudice.
The 2001 Durban International Conference against Racism strongly emphasised the connections between racism and poverty, underdevelopment, marginalisation, social exclusion, and economic inequities. These connections help explain why racism and poverty coexist so closely.
A downward spiral
The UN frequently refers to poverty as a “vicious loo, “comprising numerous interconnected and difficult-to-overcome issues. Everyone finds it impossible to fulfil their most fundamental requirements or exercise their human rights when deprived of resources, abilities, and opportunities.
Women
Not every victim group member experiences racial prejudice in the same manner.
In fact, being the entire half of the world population, women and girls are often among the most vulnerable elements of society and are in greater danger of economic hardship, marginalisation and violence; prejudice against them is often compounded.
The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action focused attention on the issue of multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination, which are experienced mainly by female members of groups that are subject to discrimination but are also shared by people with disabilities, people who are HIV/AIDS positive, children, and the elderly, among others.
They are often among the most vulnerable elements of society and are in greater danger of economic hardship, exclusion and violence; discrimination against them is often compounded.
Members of these religious communities are exposed to prejudice and violent movements founded on racism and discriminatory attitudes because of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Several more groups and millions of others are victims of racism, prejudice, hatred, and the consequences of appalling disparities that claim one life every four seconds,s every day, every minute.
