- Cultural Calendar
Observed each year on March 21 – the tragic day in 1960 when the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on participants in a peaceful demonstration against apartheid "pass laws," killing 69 people, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination remains an important one in the calendar’s attempt to fight racism and racial discrimination.
Afterward, the General Assembly decided that a week of solidarity with the people struggling against racism and racial discrimination, beginning on March 21, would be organized annually in all States.
The apartheid system in South Africa has since been dismantled, and racist laws and practices have been abolished in many countries, as part of an international framework for fighting racism, guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Convention is finally nearing universal ratification – yet still, in all regions, too many individuals, communities and societies still continue to suffer from the injustice and stigma that racism brings.
Learn more at https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-racism-day.