Celebrating the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Alaa Babiker
Today is the day to celebrate many important occasions. From difficult to easy, from plain to colored, from complex to simple, and from discrimination to poetry. The 21st of March is an international day that combines many ideas and thoughts together, and contains various of important aspects of different levels that have active effects on the people of Sudan and nations outside Sudan.
Today we shed light on the most important event, that is the Racial Discrimination. As the 21st of March is calendared as an International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
(Background: The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on the day the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid “pass laws” in 1960.
In 1979, the General Assembly adopted a programme of activities to be undertaken during the second half of the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. On that occasion, the General Assembly decided that a week of solidarity with the peoples struggling against racism and racial discrimination, beginning on 21 March, would be organized annually in all States.
Since then, the apartheid system in South Africa has been dismantled. Racist laws and practices have been abolished in many countries, and we have built an international framework for fighting racism, guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Convention is now nearing universal ratification, yet still, in all regions, too many individuals, communities and societies suffer from the injustice and stigma that racism brings) – UN.
In Sudan today, we remember the 21st of March to be the Mother’s Day, which is an important and vital celebration that all mothers deserve. In addition, we need to focus on how to respect our diversity of different races. We have plenty of ethnicities, races, and even languages. We need to also celebrate The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The 21st of March also happens to be an international day for other occasions including; World Down Syndrome Day (Background: The estimated incidence of Down syndrome is between 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 1,100 live births worldwide. Each year, approximately 3,000 to 5,000 children are born with this chromosome disorder.
The quality of life of people with Down syndrome can be improved by meeting their health care needs, including regular check-ups with health professionals to monitor mental and physical condition and to provide timely intervention be it physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, counselling or special education. Individuals with Down syndrome can achieve optimal quality of life through parental care and support, medical guidance, and community-based support systems such as inclusive education at all levels. This facilitates their participation in mainstream society and the fulfillment of their personal potential.
And it is also an International Day of Forests; (Background: The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests in 2012 to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests. Countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns.
The organizers are the United Nations Forum on Forests and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with Governments, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests and other relevant organizations in the field) – UN.
The 21st of March is also celebrated by the UNESCO as the World Poetry Day. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. Almost 300 cities around the world which currently make up this network work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.