racism

Children play in a camp for displaced people in southern Idlib, Syria.
UNOCHA

News in Brief 21 February 2020

21 February 2020
News in Brief
  • Fleeing violence in Syria, families now forced to burn clothes to stay warm 
  • Escalating Burkina Faso violence brings wider Sahel displacement emergency into focus
  • UN chief offers sympathy to German people after racist shooting   
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2'59"
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
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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”.

E. Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on racism, xenophobia and related intolerance at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 21 February 2018.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

UN experts concerned over racial bias in Dutch child welfare system

12 November 2018
Human Rights

The Dutch authorities have been accused by UN experts of racism in the country’s welfare system, after seven children of African descent were forcibly removed from their parents.

A resident sits outside a community center and cafe Molti Volti, in the Ballaro district of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. 26 April 2017.
© UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson VII Photo

Racism against people of African descent: ‘not much room for optimism', says UN expert

1 November 2018
Interviews

Some 18 years after the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, Michal Balcerzak, the head of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent sees little room for optimism, when it comes to ending racist incidents against people of African descent.  Professor Balcerzak spoke with UN News's Conor Lennon  on the occasion of his visit to UN Headquarters in New York – where he was reporting to the General Assembly on the Group’s latest findings.

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6'46"
Fernand de Varennes, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. (screen grab)

UN rights experts voice concerns about ‘structural racism’ in United Kingdom

27 April 2018
Human Rights

United Nations human rights experts have expressed serious concerns about racism rooted in the fabric of the United Kingdom’s society, given the disproportionate number of people of African descent and of ethnic minorities dying due to excessive use of force by State security.