International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is celebrated annually on 21 March. On this day in 1960, police killed 69 people during a peaceful protest against the laws of the apartheid regime on the mandatory certification of Africans in Sharpeville (South Africa).
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted in 1965, defines the concept of racial discrimination as follows: “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”
The fight against racism is a priority for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UN has been trying to find an effective approach to solving this problem since its inception. The prohibition of racial discrimination is enshrined in all basic human rights instruments. This prohibition imposes a row of obligations on states and sets them the task of eradicating discrimination in the public and private spheres. The principle of equality also requires States to take special measures to eliminate the conditions that cause or contribute to the rooting of racial discrimination.
Today, the Donetsk People’s Republic is one of the few states the history of which has never been darkened by racial discrimination. Donbass is a home for more than a hundred nationalities that coexist peacefully, respect the customs, rights and history of other nationalities.
