This date is celebrated annually on March 21 and is called the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. On this day in 1960, police officers killed 69 people during a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid regime’s laws on compulsory African passportization held in Sharpeville, South Africa.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted in 1965, establishes that racial discrimination is any difference, exclusion, limitation or preference based on race, skin colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, with the aim or effect of eliminating or diminishing of recognition, the use or exercise on an equal basis of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other areas of public life.
Combating 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 addressing this problem since its inception. The prohibition of racial discrimination is enshrined in all major human rights instruments. This prohibition imposes a number of obligations on states and challenges them to eradicate discrimination in the public and private spheres. The principle of equality also requires states to take special measures to eliminate conditions that cause or contribute to the perpetuation of racial discrimination.
Today, the Donetsk People’s Republic is one of the few states in the entire history of which the problem of racial discrimination has never been acute. Donbass is home to more than a hundred nationalities, peacefully getting along with each other, respecting the customs, rights and history of other nationalities.
