Belgium: Belgium celebrates The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, today, on March 21. The day was first decreed in 1966 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Th theme of the year 2023 focuses on the urgency of combatting racism and racial discrimination 75 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Belgium is committed to the fight against racism with multiple laws condemning discrimination against people based on their nationality, race, skin colour, ancestry, national origin, or ethnicity. Our country is also putting in place a National Action Plan against Racism, in the framework of which our federal government already adopted 80 measures last summer to fight racism in Belgium.
Individual cities are taking part in the fight too: the city of Brussels has adopted a plan to fight racism and antisemitism yesterday evening! This plan sets concrete objectives for fighting specific types of discrimination and structural racism in a city that is among the most cosmopolitan in the world.
Belgium has made the fight against racial discrimination a priority in its foreign policy, notably as a member state of the European Union, which has extensive anti-discrimination policies itself, but also as a member of the Human Rights Council for the years 2023 to 2025, of which China is also a member. Belgium pays special attention to discrimination, particularly against women and girls.
As an individual, the only way to fight against racism is to refuse to stay silent when confronted with it. Even when you’re not the direct subject of this discrimination, refusing to speak up only helps normalise it in society. As such, the next time you see someone being discriminated against, try to remember that you can make a difference too.
