International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually.
Recognition, justice and development: The midterm review of the International Decade for People of African Descent
This year, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is focused on the midterm review of the International Decade for People of African Descent undertaken by the Human Rights Council in Geneva as part of its 43rd session. As the Decade approaches its half-way mark in 2020, a review will take stock of the progress made and decide on further necessary actions.
2020 Events
Commemorative meeting on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at the General Assembly's Seventy-fourth session (23 March 2020): Currently cancelled due to COVID-19
Commemoration at Human Rights Council 43rd session
Statements
Statement by Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2020, March 21
A Resolution proclaiming 21 March as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (A/RES/2142 (XXI)) have been established. In 1979, the General Assembly adopted a programme of activities to be undertaken during the second half of the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. On that occasion, the General Assembly decided that a week of solidarity with the peoples struggling against racism and racial discrimination, beginning on 21 March, would be organized annually in all States. Since then, the apartheid system in South Africa has been dismantled. Racist laws and practices have been abolished in many countries, and we have built an international framework for fighting racism, guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Convention is now nearing universal ratification, yet still, in all regions, too many individuals, communities and societies suffer from the injustice and stigma that racism brings.