Embrace Diversity on Human Rights Day to Spread Equality, Freedom and Dignity

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BYLINE: Navi Pillay

Old and new forms of discrimination and intolerance continue to divide communities all over the world. Sentiments of xenophobia are on the rise. They are often manipulated for demagogic purposes or even for sinister political agendas.

Day after day, their corrosive effects undermine the rights of countless victims. This is why today, on Human Rights Day, the United Nations is urging everyone everywhere in the world to embrace diversity and end discrimination.

Discrimination can take many forms, covert or blatant, public or private. It may appear as institutionalised racism, or ethnic strife, or manifest itself in episodes of intolerance and …