...at the denial or refusal of equal rights and their protection, is the denial of the principle of equality and an affront to human dignity. Depending on the reasons for this treatment e speak about discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. It is crucial to kno that not every distinction can automatically be defined as discrimination in the sense of a human rights abuse. As long as the distinction is based on reasonable and objective criteria, it may be justifiable. In general e can identify three elements, hich are common to all forms of discrimination actions that are qualified as discriminatory such as distinction, exclusion, restriction and preference. causes of discrimination, personal characteristics such as race, colour, descent, nationalethnic origin, gender, age, physical integrity etc. purposes andor consequences of discrimination, hich have the aim, or effect of preventing victims from exercising andor enjoying their human rights and fundamental freedoms. Subsequently a distinction has to be made beteen direct discrimination, describing the purpose, here the actor intends to discriminate against a persongroup and indirect discrimination, related to consequences, here an apparently neutral provision or measure de facto favours one persongroup compared to others. EXAMPLE of indirect discrimination Shops or businesses hich do not hire people ith long skirts or covered heads these neutral clothing provisions may in practice disproportionately disadvantage members of certain groups. Racism It is interesting, that a generally accepted definition of racism does not exstist, because many different vies on its exact meaning and scope conflict ith each other. Racism can be seen as a conscious or unconscious belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another or as an attitude and a system of practices that proposes to establish a racial order, a permanent group hierarchy that is believed to reflect the las of God. This definition of racism lies beteen the vie of it as a modern concept that gre out of scientific theories of race and an understanding of it as a manifestation of ancient tribalism. In any case the term racism causes a lot of discussion, because the term itself presupposes the existence of different races, hich has been shon to be scientifically. Today race is seen as a social construct and more emphasis is put on cultural differences rather than on biological characteristics, so that one could speak of a nely evolved cultural racism, hich probably is the better description for most of the actual attitudes of todays racist people. Racism as a ay of thinking may be harmful, but ithout manifestation it cannot be sanctioned. This means that racist ideas can not be characterized as human rights violations, because freedom of opinion and belief itself constitute an important human right. Only if these prejudices and thoughts lead to discriminatory policies, social customs or the cultural separation of groups, e can talk of sanctionable discriminatory actions or racial discrimination. These actions can either be carried out by a predominant race creating a hierarchical order or by individuals exercising control over others. K A R R I K A T U R Mr. Differently The former Apartheid system of South Africa is a vivid example of an institutionalized form of racism and racial discrimination, here the Apartheid las structurally segregated blacks from hites. Racial violence is a particularly grave example of the impact of racism, constituting specific acts of violence or harassment carried out against an individual or group on the basis of race, colour, descent or national ethnic origin. The construction of a group as a threat is an essential part of the social and political environment in hich acts of violence based on hate occur. Racism and racially motivated violence have figured prominently in a lot of nes stories all over the orld e. g. O. J. Simpson trial. During the last decades of fighting racism and racial discrimination a broader understanding of the term racism as developed, including the realization that all societies in the orld are affected and hindered by it. The international community has undertaken to determine the basic causes of racism and to call for the reforms necessary to prevent the eruption of conflicts rooted in racism or racial discrimination. Unfortunately, in spite of all attempts to abolish policies and practices based on those phenomena, these theories and practices are still in existence or are even gaining ground or taking ne forms, such as the so-called cruel and criminal policy of ethnic-cleansing. Prejudice The classic definition is that given by the famous Harvard psychologist, Gordon Allport, ho states that prejudice is an antipathy based on faulty and inflexible generalization it may be felt or expressed it may be directed toard a group or an individual of that group. Both terms can easily be a motivation for any kind of discriminatory actions. Generally speaking intolerance and prejudice are often seen as the foundation and starting point for other more specified behaviours such as racism or xenophobia. K A R R I K A T U R Racist Policeman The notion of ethnic prejudice has only recently been developed, describing antipathy based on an allegation of the cultural supremacy of a particular group in relation to another one. In the European context, for example, it is exemplified by anti-Turkish, anti-Polish or anti-Russian prejudices. As it typically attacks the culturalreligious traits real or imagined of a particular group, some similarities to the recent understanding of racism as cultural racism can be seen. Usually these to phenomena, prejudice and intolerance, are the hardest to address or fight against. 3. TRENDS Relation beteen Poverty and Racism Xenophobia In many parts of the orld poverty is a matter of ethnicity. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, African- American and Hispanic households face food insecurity and hunger rates up to three times higher than hite households. Visible minority immigrants are confronted ith neediness orld-ide. Quite often racism seems to be a cause for these circumstances e. g. barriers to equal participation in the job market. A very controversial issue is the debate on greater racist tendencies in poorer classes of society. Some experts believe that loer education is more prevalent ithin the poorer population. They then conclude that even though racism certainly exists in upper classes ith higher education as ell, poverty linked ith less education may lead to a higher probability of racist attitudes. This kind of racism, hoever, is seen as an excluding behaviour in hich the struggle for their on survival seems to be the main motivation, rather than a racist ideology. Anti-Islamism The Aftermath of 11 September 2001 F O L I E !!! In the eek folloing the 11 September 2001 attacks there ere 540 reported...
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