The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed on 21 March.  It commemorates the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa in 1960, where police opened fire on a crowd of Black protestors, killed 69 people, and injured over 180 others at a peaceful demonstration against the pass laws, which discriminated against Black people.

Theme

The 2024 theme of the International Day is “A Decade of Recognition, Justice, and Development: Implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent”.

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.