racism

UNICEF health worker uses a pen to mark the thumb of Ajeda Mallam, 6 months, who has just been vaccinated against polio at a camp for internally displaced persons outside Maiduguri northeast Nigeria.
UNICEF/Andrew Esiebo

News in Brief 23 December 2019

23 December 2019
News in Brief
  • Quality immunization, surveillance help stop polio in three African countries: WHO
  • UN concerned for over three million in Idleb
  • Much work needed to target racism in Ecuador: UN experts
Audio -
3'18"
A child stands in front of his house in Cayapas, Ecuador. In this area community schools have been set up by UNICEF in partnership with the local Catholic church, to provide basic quality education to children living in this remote area, where the vast majority of the population is Afro-descendant.
© UNICEF/Donata Lodi

Much work needed to ‘target unacceptable levels’ of racism in Ecuador: UN experts

23 December 2019
Human Rights

Ecuador must implement and enforce laws and policies to protect the rights of Afro-Ecuadorians, the UN Working Group on People of African Descent said on Monday, calling for an end to the “discrimination, exclusion and extreme poverty they suffer.”

The “Non-Violence” (or “Knotted Gun”) sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd on display at the UN Visitors’ Plaza.
UN Photo

Bigotry makes politicians ‘complicit in the violence that follows’ : UN independent experts

7 August 2019
Peace and Security

Responding to the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio on Saturday, a group of independent UN experts has called out the “increased use of divisive language”, as well as attempts to marginalise racial, ethnic and religious minorities”, by some politicians and leaders.

A group of people advocate against hate and discrimination based on ethnicity and religion in the Central African Republic. (2017)
OCHA/Yaye Nabo Sène

All States have ‘primary responsibility’ to protect against hate attacks

6 August 2019
Human Rights

The UN’s top rights official has added her voice to condemnation of the weekend mass-shootings in the cities of El Paso and Dayton, insisting on Tuesday that “not just the US, but all States” should do more to stop discrimination.

Students watch a performance by their peers at Barros Barreto School, in Salvador, Brazil. The performance tackled social issues such as racism and gender discrimination.. Photo: UNICEF/Claudio Versiani
UNICEF/Claudio Versiani

Marking international day, UN experts call for urgent action to end racial discrimination, in wake of New Zealand anti-Muslim attack

21 March 2019
Human Rights

States must take urgent action, to “stem the tide of hate and discrimination” and ramping up of “ethno-nationalist populism”, which helped fuel the deadly shootings in two New Zealand mosques last Friday by a self-declared white supremacist, several top UN officials and human rights experts have stressed, marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Boys reach through bars at a jail for juveniles in the Delmas neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 2005
© UNICEF/Roger LeMoyne

Drug laws must be amended to ‘combat racial discrimination’, UN experts say

14 March 2019
Human Rights

At every stage of the criminal justice system, people of African descent around the world are discriminated against, including death sentencing for drugs-related crimes, United Nations human rights experts said on Thursday, calling on Member States to do more to “combat racial discrimination”.