Combating Discrimination by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 11:03am 21st Mar, 2011   Racial and ethnic discrimination occur on a daily basis, hindering progress for millions of people around the world.    From denying individuals the basic principles of equality and non-discrimination to fuelling ethnic hatred that may lead to genocide, racism and intolerance destroy lives and communities.    The struggle against racism is a matter of priority for the international community and is at the heart of the work of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.    The United Nations has been concerned with this issue since its foundation and the prohibition of racial discrimination is enshrined in all core international human rights instruments.    It places obligations on States and tasks them with eradicating discrimination in the public and private spheres. The principle of equality also requires States to adopt special measures to eliminate conditions which cause or help to perpetuate racial discrimination.    On 18 December 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the year beginning on 1 January 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent. The Year aims at strengthening national action and regional and international cooperation for the benefit of people of African descent.    This includes their full enjoyment of economic, cultural, social, civil and political rights, their participation and integration in all political, economic, social and cultural aspects of society, and the promotion of a greater knowledge of and respect for their diverse heritage and culture.    Around 200 million people who identify themselves as being of African descent live in the Americas. Many millions more live in other parts of the world, outside of the African continent. In proclaiming this International Year, the international community is recognising that people of African descent represent a distinct group whose human rights must be promoted and protected.    The main objective of the Year is to raise awareness of the challenges facing people of African descent. It is hoped that the Year will foster discussions that will generate proposals for solutions to tackle these challenges.    The manifestations of racial discrimination which characterised the slave trade and colonisation are still felt today. Racism can manifest itself in a variety of ways, sometimes subtly, sometimes unconsciously, but often resulting in violations of the rights of people of African descent.    In order to combat such racism and racial discrimination, in 2001 the United Nations created the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent which is tasked with studying the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the diaspora and making proposals on the elimination of racial discrimination against Africans and people of African descent in all parts of the world.    The Working Group has found that some of the most important challenges that people of African descent face relate to their representation in, and treatment by, the administration of justice and to their access to quality education, employment, health services and housing, often due to structural discrimination that is embedded within societies.    In some countries, especially where people of African descent are in the minority, they receive harsher sentences than those of the predominant ethnicity and constitute a disproportionately high percentage of the prison inmate population.    Racial profiling: "The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action defines racial profiling as “the practice of police and other law enforcement officers relying, to any degree, on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin as the basis for subjecting persons to investigatory activities or for determining whether an individual is engaged in criminal activity.”- which results in the systematic targeting of persons of African descent by law enforcement officers – has perpetuated severe stigmatization and stereotyping of Afro-descendants as having a propensity to criminality.    In many countries Afro-descendants have the least access to quality education at all levels. Evidence demonstrates that when people of African descent have greater access to education they are better placed to participate in political, economic and cultural aspects of society and to defend their own interests.    Human Rights: Key to keeping the MDG promise of 2015.    “The relevance of human rights principles such as equality, participation, accountability and the rule of law are now widely accepted as instrumental for equitable and sustainable development,” said Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, when opening an event on a human rights approach to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).    Freedom, participation and all other civil and political rights bolster the wealth of societies, she explained. “In turn, social and economic rights are critical both to empower an informed polity to count and be counted, as well as to devise effective development policies.”    “States must therefore implement the international human rights framework they have willingly accepted as their own in order to uproot entrenched patterns of disempowerment, exclusion and discrimination,” said the High Commissioner.    The issue of discrimination and its impact as a barrier to achieving the MDG targets was a common thread among all the speakers at the event. As the High Commissioner explained, “a focus on global average MDG targets and indicators that does not factor in discrimination will only perpetuate the inequality and exclusion of millions of people who would then fall below the radar of policy makers.”    This was highlighted at the 2010 International Assessment that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) undertook drawing data from 50 countries.    “Women, rural inhabitants, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and other excluded groups often lag well behind national averages of progress on MDG targets,” said Helen Clark, Administrator of UNDP, “even when nations as a whole are moving towards the goals.”    As the Assessment shows, “the denial of human rights and the persistence of exclusion, discrimination and a lack of accountability are … barriers to the pursuit of human development and the MDGs,” she stated.    This was also the conclusion of Ekaterina Parrilla, Executive Director for Public Policies in the Guatemala Presidential Secretariat for Planning and Programming, who cited examples of how Guatemala was working to solve its development problems in the areas of food, primary education, health, maternal and child mortality and clean water.    Unless we promote equality and non-discrimination we would not reach the MDGs, she said, noting that Guatemala was making a special effort towards gender and ethnic equality.    The need for gender equity in order to reach the MDGs was a common concern among the speakers, especially Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), who noted that “women constitute the majority of the poor and illiterate and their human rights are violated on a massive scale.”    The right to sexual and reproductive health is central to advancing women’s empowerment and achieving all of the MDGs, she said. “The health of women is certainly an issue of equity and human rights and it is an indicator of a just society and of good governance.”    “Everyone has the right to participate in development and to receive its benefits,” said Joyce Kafanabo, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Permanent Mission of Tanzania. This has been Tanzania’s core human rights principle “from our first day of independence” in 1961. And along with the additional principle of ‘everyone is equal’, this helps explain why Tanzania is one of the most peaceful countries in the world, she said.    “The Tanzanian government is trying to adhere to these founding principles,” she continued, through “bottom up participation in the development process” which starts at the village level. She noted that for people’s views to be heard there must be an environment conducive to participation and “it is up to the government to enable people to speak up without fear of being sent to jail.”    “My government is very much committed,” she said because “without human rights we cannot achieve the MDGs and without human rights there cannot be development.” Visit the related web page
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