RACISM
RACISM
RACISM
RACISM
RACISM
RACISM
European
Coalition of Cities
Against Racism
www.unesco.org/shs/citiesagainstracism
United Nations
Educational,
Scientific and
Cultural Organization
Conception : Atelier Takavoir – Paris
European Coalition
of Cities Against Racism
The European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR) was launched
on 10 December 2004 at the occasion of the Fourth European Conference
of Cities for Human Rights that took place in Nuremberg, Germany.
A few definitions
• Racial discrimination is defined by the International Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination as “any
distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race,
colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose
or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental
freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other
field of public life”. As such, racial discrimination is banned by
the international community as a serious human rights violation.
Racism plays a major role in the social processes that give rise to
and entrench such racial discrimination.
• As a doctrine, racism derives from theories and beliefs that
establish a hierarchy of races or ethnic groups or base attributions
of value on racial difference. Theories of racial difference are
“scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and
dangerous, and that there is no justification for racial
discrimination, in theory or in practice, anywhere” (Preamble
of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Racial Discrimination, 1965). Such theories are incompatible not
just with the moral and ethical principles of humanity but also
with international law, which recognises all human beings as
members of one species, born equal in dignity and rights.
• In its practical manifestations, racism includes “racist ideologies,
prejudiced attitudes, discriminatory behaviour, str