21/3/2017
Declaration by the High Representative Federica Mogherini on behalf of the European Union on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
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The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination forces us to remind that all over the world men, women and children continue to suffer from racial discrimination on account of their colour, race, descent, caste, religion, and ethnic or national origin. They are denied their most basic fundamental rights and they are disproportionately affected by poverty and inequality.
Far from being eradicated, hate speech and other manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, are on the rise. This affects equality, freedom, solidarity and justice all over the world.
The EU is continuing in its commitment to fight all forms of racial discrimination, inside and outside our borders. We work with Member States, civil society and international partners on actions that can make a difference: we agreed with major IT companies to take action against hate speech on the internet. We created platforms, such as the EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance. We foster exchange of best practices. We work to improve the understanding between communities and we address the concerns of affected groups, including the Jewish and the Muslim communities. We are seeking better integration of migrants, and fostering quality education. Both within the EU, as well as with our partner countries, we are working towards preventing and countering racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia.
In our global engagement, we also continue to be a steadfast supporter of the UN Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. We work continuously for the global implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action of the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Through our commitments to the Decade for Peoples of African Descent we also assure attention is being paid to the discrimination suffered by afro-descent communities anywhere in the world.
The elimination of racial discrimination is a global challenge and has to be tackled together by the whole international community, by international organizations and by the civil society. We are all responsible to protect, preserve and promote human rights, our own rights. Nobody will be respected if we won't all be respected as human beings, in our cultural richness, in our diversity.
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