How can society solve the problem of discrimination

Raise awareness Share the resources that you have found useful with your community to help them learn how they can play a role in ending racism and discrimination.

Challenge everyday discrimination and racism Racism and discrimination happen around us all the time. If you see someone being bullied or harassed, intervene if it is safe to do so. Report racist or discriminatory content online Many social media platforms want their platforms to be safe and empowering for people of all backgrounds.

Is your school or university against racism and discrimination? Extra actions for young storytellers? Share your story It is important that the stories and experiences of people who face racism and discrimination are told. Amplify the voices of people who experience discrimination and racism Rather than speaking for people, use your platforms to amplify the voices of people who experience discrimination and racism directly.

View the discussion thread. Related Stories Submit a Post. By Kyla Clarisse Martin Santuyo. By Ankita. By EFIA. Follow us. Join the discussion on social media. C Voices of Youth. This is of chief importance for girls and disadvantaged groups.

A more equal division of work and family responsibilities in the household would also permit more women to improve their work opportunities. Effective avenues are needed to permit meaningful challenges to discrimination when it occurs. ILO principles fix minimum thresholds. National laws and practices may well be broader and include more comprehensive approaches for the elimination of discrimination at work. It can go some way toward achieving this by including indicators which measure the achievement of targets by wealth quintiles, with a specific target of addressing the social and economic needs of the poorest two quintiles.

Several NGOs have suggested also including a specific target on reducing income inequalities within countries, with an emphasis on reducing the gap between the richest and poorest quintiles gap or between the top quintile and the bottom two quintiles gap. In addition to proactively addressing discrimination and inequality, governments and international institutions must ensure that their policies do not discriminate—directly or indirectly—against at-risk populations.

The post framework should recognize the risk of discrimination in development policies and actively prevent against it. Human Rights Watch has documented discrimination in the distribution of aid, disproportionate negative impacts of development policies, and failure in project design to consider at-risk groups. We have also documented how development initiatives have violated the rights of indigenous peoples rather than seeking to realize their social and economic rights while respecting their cultural rights.

There is no reference in the MDGs to people being hurt or disadvantaged by development efforts. Nor do many developing country governments, bilateral donors, or the international financial institutions use a human rights framework for understanding, mitigating, and remedying the harm that may result from development efforts. An explicit focus within the MDGs and in development strategies on human rights and associated principles of transparency, consultation, participation, and accountability could have helped to correct this.

Too often, government funds or development aid are misused for political gain rather than investing in the realization of social and economic rights. This can come in the form of outright corruption, in discrimination on the basis of political opinion in the distribution of aid, or in investing in areas where politicians will most benefit rather than investing in the areas of greatest need. Human Rights Watch has documented discrimination in development projects and policies in Ethiopia on the basis of political opinion.

Local officials denied these people access to seeds and fertilizer, agricultural land, credit, food aid, and other resources for development on the basis of their political opinion.

People have also been excluded from development programs, deliberately or inadvertently, because of their religion, ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, disability amongst other grounds. The post framework should acknowledge this risk and work to prevent it. Governments and donors should ensure that their development strategies and projects are designed to consider at-risk groups and avoid any adverse rights impacts and develop accessible, effective accountability mechanisms for those discriminated against.

The scheme is also described as a voluntary one. It is anything but. Our research shows that people are being forced to move against their will and government soldiers have beaten and abused those who have objected to the move.

Fear and intimidation are widespread amongst affected populations. Despite government pledges, the land near the new villages still needs to be cleared, while food and agricultural assistance have not been provided. As a result, some of the relocated populations have faced hunger and even starvation.

The post framework should expressly commit to the protection of indigenous peoples rights and prevent against violations of these rights in the name of development. Also in Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch has documented forced relocations of agro-pastoralist indigenous peoples linked to the creation of , hectares of state-run sugar plantations along the Omo River.

State security forces used intimidation, assaults and arbitrary arrests when people questioned the relocations or refused to move. The Ethiopian government has failed to meaningfully consult, compensate, or discuss with these communities alternative means of livelihoods. Development grounded in a human rights-based approach draws upon the principles and legal framework of human rights and requires that respect for the human rights of those affected by aid or development programs is central to planning and operationalizing that activity.

It recognizes beneficiaries of aid as rights-holders with legal entitlements and identifies governments and their partners, including international institutions, as duty bearers with correlating obligations to meet those entitlements. First set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights UDHR , [lxxii] equality and non-discrimination are foundational principles of the international human rights legal framework. All of the core human rights treaties adopted since the UDHR contain legal obligations related to equality and non-discrimination.

The human rights legal framework requires states not only to refrain from discrimination, but also obliges them to take appropriate measures to end discrimination by state and private actors and promote equality. This requires states to establish equality under the law and address policies, programs, or even stereotypes that create or perpetuate discrimination.

Development based in human rights needs to emphasize and ensure equality and non-discrimination in both process and outcomes. It requires particular attention to the needs of protected groups, the impact of programs on their respective rights, and the establishment of procedures to ensure accountability and participation in development that affects them.

It also requires that human rights standards guide all stages of programming. While the Millennium Declaration grounded poverty alleviation objectives in principles of human rights, equality, and non-discrimination, these principles were not embodied in the Millennium Development Goals. The commitment to equality and non-discrimination should extend not only directly from states, but also from donors and multilateral organizations.

In compliance with their international obligations, states should respect the enjoyment of human rights in other countries and prevent third parties, through political or legal means, from interfering with the enjoyment of rights.

Further, while non-governmental organizations, when operating as non-state actors, do not bear the same international obligations under human rights law as governments do, they do not function in a human rights void and should operate in a manner that promotes human rights.

Thus, all actors engaged in development should adopt a rights-based approach to their work, which requires a specific action to ensure equality and non-discrimination in process and outcome. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. See, Satterthwaite, Margaret. Decisions around data collection must be considered within the human rights context of any country. For instance, in countries where there are discriminatory laws against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, or where people are routinely targeted for their sexual orientation or gender identity, any system of data collection disaggregated on these grounds must not put people at risk.

Born equal: How reducing inequality could give our children a better future. Institute of Development Studies, The New Face of Poverty? Institute for Development Studies, It can be argued that UN efforts at improving response strategies for tackling racial discrimination markedly improved following the paradigm shift towards a more inclusive and proactive one, "taking into account that systematic discrimination, disregard or exclusion are often among the root causes of conflict".

In the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, CERD noted the importance of decision-making in strengthening the capacity of the Committee "to detect and prevent at the earliest possible stage developments in racial discrimination that may lead to violent conflict and genocide".

Thus, the Convention seeks to frame prevention as a critical component of efforts to address racial discrimination and genocide. Although national actions for tackling racial discrimination and exclusion may exist, there is often an inadequate capacity to prevent cases of discrimination within the jurisdiction of the States with the worst track records.

However, education and human rights as the main strategies by civil society organizations, which mobilize action and raise concerns regarding discrimination, can have an impact on both prevention and enforcement. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the "best practices" of institutional processes and models of race that are transformative and do not further marginalize racial minorities. This is best done by treating their experiences in ways that do not consider the role they must play in reporting instances of violation of their dignity.

The international community must now take heed of the complexity of the politics of race and how it fuels human rights abuses, including genocidal acts and crimes against humanity, such as those witnessed in Darfur and the slavery in Mauritania.

What is clear is that, although there is ample evidence of the consequences of racial discrimination in opportunity structures, including political and cultural products, health outcomes, well-being and dignity, concrete actions to address "hidden abuses" remain inadequate. It will take effective leadership within the various UN specialized agencies to prevent racial discrimination and bring to account groups and individuals responsible for human rights violations.

Previous criticisms of the handling of situations that resulted in colossal rights abuses,8 such as those in Rwanda in , should serve to motivate key individuals to recognize the need for prompt action. As The New York Times in March has noted regarding Darfur, "international leaders need to demonstrate that they can act as well as talk", in order to save lives and bolster confidence in the international system.

Notes 1 E.