International
Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination
Article 2
- States
Parties condemn racial discrimination and undertake to
pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a
policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its
forms and promoting understanding among all races, and,
to this end:
- Each
State Party undertakes to engage in no act or practice
of racial discrimination against persons, groups of
persons or institutions and to ensure that all public
authorities and public institutions, national and
local, shall act in conformity with this
obligation;
- Each
State Party undertakes not to sponsor, defend or
support racial discrimination by any persons or
organizations;
- Each
State Party shall take effective measures to review
governmental, national and local policies, and to
amend, rescind or nullify any laws and regulations
which have the effect of creating or perpetuating
racial discrimination wherever it exists;
- Each
State Party shall prohibit and bring to an end, by all
appropriate means, including legislation as required
by circumstances, racial discrimination by any
persons, group or organization;
- Each
State Party undertakes to encourage, where
appropriate, integrationist multi-racial organizations
and movements and other means of eliminating barriers
between races, and to discourage anything which tends
to strengthen racial division.
- States
Parties shall, when the circumstances so warrant, take,
in the social, economic, cultural and other fields,
special and concrete measures to ensure the adequate
development and protection of certain racial groups or
individuals belonging to them, for the purpose of
guaranteeing them the full and equal enjoyment of human
rights and fundamental freedoms. These measures shall in
no case entail as a consequence the maintenance of
unequal or separate rights for different racial groups
after the objectives for which they were taken have been
achieved.
Article 5
In compliance
with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of
this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to
eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to
guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to
race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality
before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following
rights:
- The
right to equal treatment before the tribunals and all
other organs administering justice;
- The right
to security of person and protection by the State against
violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government
officials or by any individual, group or
institution;
- Political
rights, in particular the rights to participate in
elections--to vote and to stand for election--on the
basis of universal and equal suffrage, to take part in
the Government as well as in the conduct of public
affairs at any level and to have equal access to public
service;
- Other
civil rights, in particular:
- The
right to freedom of movement and residence within the
border of the State;
- The
right to leave any country, including one's own, and
to return to one's country;
- The
right to nationality;
- The
right to marriage and choice of spouse;
- The
right to own property alone as well as in association
with others;
- The
right to inherit;
- The
right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion;
- The
right to freedom of opinion and
expression;
- The
right to freedom of peaceful assembly and
association;
- Economic,
social and cultural rights, in particular:
- The
rights to work, to free choice of employment, to just
and favourable conditions of work, to protection
against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to
just and favourable remuneration;
- The
right to form and join trade unions;
- The
right to housing;
- The
right to public health, medical care, social security
and social services;
- The
right to education and training;
- The
right to equal participation in cultural
activities;
- The right
of access to any place or service intended for use by the
general public, such as transport, hotels, restaurants,
cafes, theatres and parks.
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