https://www.ohchr.org/en/get-involved/stories/fighting-change-world-with...
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed on 21 March every year, marks a moment to reflect on the ongoing fight against systemic racism, racial discrimination and exclusion. This year, the world commemorates the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), a treaty that remains crucial in shaping laws, policies and other actions to combat racism globally.
“The fight against racism is at the heart of the work of UN Human Rights,” said Sara Hamood, Chief of the Anti-Racial Discrimination Section at UN Human Rights. “We collaborate with States, civil society and other stakeholders to push for stronger anti-racism measures that deliver transformative change.”
But while significant progress has been made over the past sixty years, racial inequalities persist, afflicting the lived experiences of many across the globe, she said.
The impact of racial discrimination
Sanela Bešić and Irma Velásquez Nimatuj were born into communities that have long faced structural and institutional racism — Bešić as a Roma woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Velásquez Nimatuj as a K’iche’ Maya woman in Guatemala.
Though Bešić and Velásquez Nimatuj’s circumstances were worlds apart, their experiences with racial discrimination followed similar patterns. From childhood, they were treated as outsiders in their own societies, and as they grew older, they realized that their personal struggles reflected a larger system of racial exclusion.
“I was the only Roma child in my elementary school. My classmates acted differently toward me, some called me names, others excluded me,” Bešić said. “My parents had to fight with the teachers to defend me. But at the time, I didn’t fully understand it.”
Thousands of kilometres away, Velásquez Nimatuj experienced a similar reality.
“I went to a private school from a young age, and this showed me that I could not fit into that world,” she said. “I felt it in every attitude, from those who ran the institution to those who were part of the student body.”
Irma Velásquez Nimatuj, a K’iche’ Maya anti-racism advocate, author and professor from Guatemala. © Irma Velásquez Nimatuj
For Bešić, a defining moment came at university. In the mid-1990s, the Open Society Foundation sought to offer a scholarship to a Roma student, but her university struggled to find a recipient because they had never considered that a Roma person might be among their students.
“They spent hours with me trying to ask indirectly if I was Roma, as if it were a shameful thing. Finally, they asked the question, and I said yes,” she said. “At that moment, I realized that my identity was something they considered problematic.”
Sanela Bešić, a Roma anti-racism advocate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Executive Director of the Kali Sarajevo Roma Information Centre. © Sanela Bešić
Velásquez Nimatuj, meanwhile, said she grew up and came face to face with the brutality of racism in Guatemala, including from State institutions.
“I will never forget how people my age were stopped and captured by the police just for wearing their traditional clothing or for not speaking Spanish,” she said.
Their experiences reflect global structural discrimination patterns.
“Recent studies in Europe have identified a worsening trend of racism against people of African descent, as well as ongoing pervasive discrimination against Roma,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. “The poverty rate for Indigenous Peoples exceeds 40 percent in multiple countries in Latin America.”
Fighting for change
Rather than accept their realities, both women turned their experiences into a lifelong fight for racial justice.
Bešić focused on Roma children's education and policy reform, working to ensure they received the same opportunities as others.
“We found that some school directors don’t want to enrol Roma children in school and have endless excuses,” she said. “There were also petitions from parents objecting to having Roma children in the same class as their children.”
For Velásquez Nimatuj, the fight against discrimination took the form of documenting Indigenous struggles, confronting stereotypes and pushing for justice. As an anthropologist and journalist, she has used research to expose structural racism.
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Racism causes a permanent structural inequality, where systems allow some to access basic resources at the expense of others.
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Irma Velásquez Nimatuj, a K’iche’ Maya anti-racism advocate from Guatemala
Both women also rejected being labelled as ‘minorities’ in their own lands.
“While we are still called ‘national minorities’ and excluded from decision-making, we will always be seen as second-class citizens,” Bešić said. “But we are also human beings, and we deserve the same rights.”
Similarly, Velásquez Nimatuj criticized the way Indigenous peoples were referred to in Guatemala’s Constitution, which positioned them as subjects in need of protection rather than equal citizens.
“In Guatemala, the category of “Peoples” is not recognized as valid. The Constitution continues to view Indigenous peoples as communities in need of protection, maintaining a paternalism that continues to marginalize us,” she said.
The UN in the fight against racism
UN Human Rights fights racism through research, advocacy and policy support. It helps States meet their international human rights obligations related to racial discrimination, including by supporting ICERD implementation. Another key area of work is supporting the UN anti-racism human rights mechanisms.
