The crowd gathered outside Sharpeville police station on 21 March 1960 “came armed not with weapons, but with conviction – not to divide society, but to claim their dignity within it,” General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock recalled in her opening remarks.

But the annual commemoration is about much more than one notorious incident, she said, as racism clearly persists in every corner of the world.

Sinister and damaging

“Sometimes it is explicit and vulgar – an obscenity hurled at another, or graffiti scrawled across a wall. Sometimes it is quiet and discreet – masked in bureaucracy and hidden within the ordinary,” said Ms. Baerbock, speaking in the General Assembly Hall.

“But whether loud or silent, it is sinister, it is damaging, and its consequences extend far beyond individuals.”

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated in his remarks, racism harms everyone.

Governments falter on policies

“It persists in the damaging consequences of enslavement, colonialism, and oppression,” he said.

Racism also “feeds many of the problems we face today,” including economic, social and political inequalities, as well as discriminatory policies and practices, and conflicts.

Moreover, “many of the solutions to confront it are being weakened as some governments dismantle anti-racist policies and practices and leaders try to rewrite history.”

The UN chief was particularly troubled by how racism and xenophobia are being mainstreamed on digital platforms and in political discourse.

“What might begin with dog whistles – coded messages meant to embolden other bigots – can quickly turn into full-throated hate speech,” he said.

“We know where this road leads: to further injustice, violence, and even worse.”

The solution is solidarity, he said, calling for governments, institutions, businesses and communities to work together to protect the dignity, justice, equality, and rights of every person.

Keep moving forward

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk highlighted how history has shown that movements for greater equality cannot be held back.

He cited the example of Sharpeville but also Ruby Bridges, the African American girl who desegrated schools in the United States; activist Ana Paula Gomes de Oliveira who is seeking justice for Afro-Brazilian mothers who lost their children to police violence, and US civil rights champion Reverend Jesse Jackson who passed away last month.

“These and countless other acts of resistance have changed the face of our world. Today, we owe them nothing less than an all-out effort to safeguard and advance this progress,” he said.

Justice, human rights and courage

Mr. Türk stressed the critical need for political will, including to fight discrimination through laws that are robustly enforced and strengthen accountability for all forms of racial discrimination and hatred.

“Being anti-racist does not mean standing with one group against another. It means standing on the side of human rights and justice – for all,” he said.

US law professor Justin Hansford – a founding Member of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent – spoke of how he has marched in the streets for racial justice with “tear gas in the air, tanks in the road, names like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and George Floyd on my lips.”

He described the 69 people slaughtered in the Sharpeville massacre as martyrs to the cause of democracy and racial justice whose sacrifice echoes today.

“Their courage demonstrated that the world will always be watching until racial justice is no longer a promise deferred but a condition achieved,” he said.