The often told story is that the West gave the world human rights and is its sole guardian. It may therefore come as a surprise to some that the international legal framework for prohibiting racial discrimination owes its existence largely to the efforts of countries in the Global South.
In 1963, during a wave of decolonization, a group of nine newly independent African countries submitted a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) calling for the drafting of an international treaty on the elimination of racial discrimination. The representative of Senegal said: “Racism remains dominant in the African colonies and South Africa, and is unknown in other parts of the world…The time has come to bring all nations into the struggle.”
Two years later, the landmark International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) was unanimously adopted by the UNGA. The Convention rejected any theory of superiority based on racial discrimination as “scientifically false, morally reprehensible, and socially unjust.”
Sixty years after its introduction, millions of people around the world continue to face racial discrimination, including in policing, immigration policies, and exploitative working conditions.
In Brazil, Amnesty International has documented how a deadly police operation in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas in October led to the massacre of more than 100 people by security forces, most of them Afro-Brazilian and living in poverty.
In Tunisia, we have seen over the past three years how authorities have used immigration policy to racially target arrests, detentions, and mass expulsions of black refugees and asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, Kenyan female domestic workers face racial discrimination and exploitation from their employers, and endure harsh and abusive working conditions.
In the United States, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives aimed at tackling systemic racism have been discontinued across federal agencies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting immigrants and refugees are a horrific feature of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation and detention program, which is rooted in white supremacist rhetoric.
Migrants held in detention centers are subjected to a pattern of torture and deliberate neglect designed to dehumanize and punish them.
Amnesty International has documented how new digital technologies automate and perpetuate racism, while social media poorly moderates forums for racist and xenophobic content. For example, our research into the Southport Racist Riots in the UK found that X’s design and policy choices created fertile ground for incendiary racist narratives, resulting in the violent targeting of Muslims and immigrants.
Even human rights defenders from the Global South face racism when they have to apply for visas to countries in the Global North to attend conferences where important human rights decisions are made.
All of these instances of systemic racism have their roots in the legacy of European colonialism and the racist ideologies that underpin it. Spanning nearly four centuries and spanning six continents, this era saw some of the atrocities that shaped history, from the annihilation of indigenous peoples to the transatlantic slave trade.
The resurgence of global anti-right-wing movements has led to a resurgence of racist and xenophobic rhetoric, the scapegoating of immigrants and refugees, and the rollback of anti-discrimination measures and protections.
At the same time, Western countries are all too willing to dismantle international law and institutions in order to justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and shield Israeli authorities from justice and accountability.
Just as the creation of ICERD was led by African countries 60 years ago, countries of the Global South continue to be at the forefront of the fight against racial oppression, injustice and inequality. South Africa specifically took Israel to the International Court of Justice and co-founded the Hague Group, a coalition of eight nations from the Global South that organizes to hold Israel accountable for genocide.
Caribbean and African countries, along with indigenous peoples, Africans and people of African descent, are leading the way in the pursuit of justice in reparations issues. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is increasing pressure on European governments to reflect on their colonial past, including during the CARICOM Reparations Commission’s recent visit to the UK.
After the African Union last month announced a Decade of Reparations for 2026-36, African leaders gathered in Algiers for an international conference on the crimes of colonialism and outlined demands for colonialism to be codified as a crime under international law.
But this alone is not enough. Nations still need to confront racism as a structural and systemic problem and stop acting as if slavery and colonialism are a thing of the past with no impact on the present.
People around the world are resisting. Last month, hundreds of thousands of Afro-Brazilian women led the Black Women’s March for Reparations and Welfare in Brazil, protesting historical racism and gender-based violence. People in the United States have fought back against a wave of federal immigration raids this year, with thousands taking to the streets in Los Angeles and residents in Chicago rallying to protect immigrant communities and businesses from ICE raids.
Governments need to listen to the voices of their citizens and fulfill their obligations under the ICERD and domestic law to protect marginalized and oppressed people from discrimination.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
