Today, one in every 50 human beings is a migrant worker, a refugee or asylum seeker, or an immigrant living in a ‘foreign’ country. Increasing ethnic and racial diversity of societies is the inevitable consequence of migration. Increasing migration means that a growing number of countries have become or are becoming more multi-ethnic, and are confronted with the challenge of accommodating peoples of different cultures, races, religions and language. Addressing the reality of increased diversity means finding political, legal, social and economic mechanisms to ensure mutual respect and to mediate relations across differences. But xenophobia and racism have become manifest in some societies to a great extent.

 

Racism and xenophobia are distinct phenomena, although they often overlap. While racism generally implies distinction based on difference in physical characteristics, such as skin coloration, hair type, facial features, etc.; xenophobia denotes behaviour specifically based on the perception that the other is foreign to or originates from outside the community or nation.

 

There is a major interest in building successful coexistence among ethnically diverse members of the same community. Yet, in many situations authorities have set obstacles to such goals. One of the most famous examples of this issue is the French legislation that bans the use of the hijab in public schools, which is justified by the country’s policy of prohibition of religious symbols in public buildings. Even though it is expected to encounter natural social hindrance in the construction of harmonious coexistence, the implementation of governmental policies that are clearly counterproductive to that purpose is gravely worrying. Today, laws and public policies reflecting racism and xenophobia are in force mostly in Europe, North America and Muslim-majority countries.

 

The United Nations Human Rights Council calls upon delegates to identify situations such as the aforementioned, to debate about specific cases as well as, and to better discuss the problematic of xenophobia and racism inside nations’ legislations as a whole and its relations to important matters of independence and self-determination and even, in some cases, internal security.