In just 100 days, up to a million people were slaughtered in one country, largely because of racism. The place was Rwanda. The year was 1994. The vast majority of the victims were Tutsi, killed by Hutus who for generations had lived side-by-side with Tutsis in relative harmony.

The genocide in Rwanda showed just how quickly racism - in the form of ethnic hatred - can erupt into bloodshed and despair, particularly when it is fuelled by those in power or those seeking power. It also showed the devastating consequences when the state and the international community fail to act to stop racism. Rwanda should serve as a stark reminder to us all that racism, in whatever form it takes, must be combated whenever it raises its ugly head, as it inevitably leads to violations of human rights.

Nazi Germany is perhaps the best-known example of a State which took racism to what is arguably its logical conclusion. The ruling Party had a core philosophy based on the concept of a hierarchy of races, with rights, including ultimately the right to live, being determined by the Nazis assessment of an individual's racial characteristics

Racism is an attack on the very notion of human rights. It systematically denies certain people their full human rights just because of their race, colour, descent, ethnicity, caste or national origin. It is an assault on the fundamental principle underlying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - that human rights are everyone's birthright and apply to all without distinction.

 The right not to suffer racial discrimination is one of the most fundamental principles of international human rights law. The principle appears in virtually every major human rights instrument as well as in the UN Charter. Indeed, one of the main purposes of the UN is to achieve international co-operation...in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion (UN Charter, Article 1, para 3).

“The right not to be racially abused is a fundamental human right.”

And yet racial discrimination persists in every society. Around the world, people continue to suffer human rights violations simply because of their racial identity. Some have been victims of genocidal onslaughts. Some have suffered "ethnic cleansing". Some have had their land stolen and been thrown into destitution.

Race-based human rights abuses can be seen in Europe, in the torture and ill-treatment of asylum seekers and immigrants; in Africa, in the genocide in Rwanda or the mass violations in Sudan; in the Americas, in discriminatory application of the death-penalty and ill-treatment of minorities in USA, and massacres of Indigenous people in Central and South America; in Asia, in the killing and torture of ethnic minorities in Pakistan, China, Indonesia and in the Middle East, and the persecution of minorities and ill-treatment of women migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

There are many steps that can be taken. First, laws should clearly prohibit all forms of discrimination, and such laws should be rigorously enforced. Secondly, all governments should send a clear message that racism will not be tolerated - in society in general and in all agencies of the state. All crimes with a racist nature should be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. Here it is important to ensure that racism does not taint, or inhibit, the administration of justice, since a fair and impartial judicial system is one of the main means by which civilized societies ensure that human rights are enjoyed equally by all members of that society.

Institutional racism, discriminatory patterns of recruitment into the agencies that administer justice, and disparities in sentencing practices between different racial groups, all are examples of the issues that must be addressed. Mechanisms must be put in place to uncover patterns of racism in the administration of justice - and to institute remedies that tackle the causes of the discrimination. Among such remedies would be race-awareness training for those working in the justice system, whether they are law enforcement or custodial agents, lawyers or judges, or asylum determination officials; recruitment drives among ethnic minorities; and reviews of laws and practices that have a disparate impact on particular communities.

At a broader level, human rights education, as called for in the Plan of Action for the UN Decade for Human Rights Education, is essential if a universal culture of human rights, which includes the eradication of racism, is to be built. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination seeks to encourage, by all means possible, the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, and to make the twenty-first century ‘an era of genuine fulfillment and peace’.

How does Racism impact on Australia?

Australia prides itself on giving all its citizens ‘a fair go’ and on rejecting racism. Although Australia generally has a reputation of being a successful example of an integrated and tolerant multicultural society, racism still lives in our society in both conscious and unconscious ways. Many in Australia find themselves the victims of racism or xenophobia, but it is undoubtedly Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who face racism or misunderstanding far more often than other Australians.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples occupy a unique place in Australian society as the first peoples of this land. Unfortunately their unique status and identity have not always been recognized adequately nor their rights fully respected. Despite the dispossession and disadvantage suffered by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, they have continued to nurture and care for the land, and to make an important, and increasingly widely appreciated, contribution to the life of Australia, especially in the cultural and spiritual spheres.

While the process of reconciliation has helped many non-Indigenous Australians to be more aware of the experiences and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, much remains to be done. As the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has pointed out in March 2000, institutional factors such as some processes, laws and administrative practices still operate to the systematic disadvantage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today.

The economic disadvantage of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today cannot be understood in isolation from the history of dispossession of lands and the disruption of kinship, culture, language and ceremony.

Many immigrants to Australia have also experienced racial discrimination. Our migration policy has only relatively recently, and perhaps not completely, shaken off the anti-Asian sentiments of the nineteenth century, which led to the White Australia policy. Even today, there are those in Australian society who disparage and abuse those who have immigrated here or have fled their homeland seeking protection from persecution.

 In Australia, as elsewhere, racism and sexism can combine to affect women in particular ways. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, as well as asylum seeker, refugee and immigrant women are most affected by this.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s experience of racism can be different from that of men in their communities, and their experience of sexism is often different from that of non-Indigenous women. For example, Aboriginal women have often been excluded from negotiations concerning land, even though they may be the relevant traditional owners. Another example is the impact of the policy, which ended only in relatively recent times, of separating children of mixed descent from their Indigenous families, usually from their Aboriginal mothers.

Asylum seeker, immigrant and refugee women, too, experience multiple forms of discrimination based on racism, xenophobia and sexism, albeit from a different historical basis. For example, migrant women workers are vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace as they may find it difficult to effectively address issues such as sexual harassment or below award pay and conditions due to poor English language skills and/or low socio-economic status. Women asylum seekers are often vulnerable to sexual or physical abuse during flight, and sometimes even in Australian immigration detention centres.

How does Racism impact on our region?

Within the South-east Asian and Pacific region, many would argue that there are several examples of racism in action. In Myanmar (Burma), for example, the military dictatorship not only refuses to recognize the results of the last democratic election, held in May 1990, but it is also engaged in armed conflict with armed opposition groups in which it has reportedly targeted ethnic minority civilians within the country, simply on grounds of their race. Thus such groups as the Shan, Mon, Karen and Karenni are subjected to torture and ill-treatment, forced relocation from their traditional lands, extra-judicial killings, forced labour and forced portering, simply because of their ethnic origins.

In India, human rights groups argue that the politicization of what is termed ‘communal [or religious] interests’ has compromised India’s traditionally secular state, enabling human rights abuses to proliferate. In particular, the issue of caste is one of great concern, with the untouchables (dalits) living with little hope of ever improving their lot economically and socially, and also facing violence committed - often with impunity - by the dominant castes. Similarly, women in India constitute another socially and economically at-risk section of society, facing everything from torture and ill-treatment at the hands of police and security services through to the practice of suttee (the immolation of a wife at the funeral of her husband). The lower status of women and girls is also reflected in such things as female infanticide, bride burnings and in the dowry system, which casts women as property. Low caste women face a double jeopardy.

In Fiji some would see the risk of racism being institutionalised into the politics of the country, already complicated by the impact of colonialism on indigenous Fijians. The coup of May 1999 ended only after key concessions on human rights had been made by the Fijian military. Since then, some Fijian politicians and community leaders have attempted to overturn the 1997 Constitution, which guaranteed racial equality to all Fijians. Since the coup, Indo-Fijians have faced everything from physical attacks and torture including rape, to looting and destruction of their property, to the denial of their democratic rights, while the police and army have acted slowly to prevent abuses or bring the guilty to justice.

Click below to move to the following pages of the kit:

1. Racism
2. Why is Racism a Human Rights Issue? (top of this page)
3. Why is the World Conference so important?
4. Action Kit

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This kit is supported by the following organisations (in alphabetical order) in April 2001: Amnesty International Australia, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, Coalition Against Racism WA, Human Rights Council of Australia Inc., Quaker Service Australia, The Religious Society of Friends in Australia (Quakers),Western Australians for Racial Equality, WA Social Justice Commission - Uniting Church in Australia.