Message from the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, on the Occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

联合国教科文组织总干事奥德蕾·阿祖莱消除种族歧视国际日致辞

Since 1966, on the initiative of the United Nations, 21 March has been dedicated to the fight against racial discrimination. The date was chosen to commemorate the victims of a peaceful protest which was bloodily repressed by the police in apartheid South Africa. That was half a century ago, and the apartheid system has since been officially demolished, but racism still causes widespread damage. From insults and humiliation to hate crimes and massacres, from difficulties gaining access to employment to institutionalized racist practices, racial discrimination takes many forms which are at times dramatically brutal and at others sly and underhand.

自1966年以来，在联合国的倡议下，3月21日被定为开展反对种族歧视斗争纪念日。之所以选择这个日子，是为了纪念在南非种族隔离时期被警察血腥镇压的和平示威受害者。这是半个世纪以前发生的事情，此后种族隔离制度已经被正式废除，但种族主义继续猖狂肆虐。从个体的侮辱和谩骂到群体的仇恨犯罪和屠杀，从就业艰难到种族主义行为体制化，种族歧视的表现多种多样，有时极其残酷，有时阴险隐蔽。

However, ultimately, they all stem from the same dangerous ignorance. This is why racist ideology can only be combated durably with the weapons of the mind. Through science, firstly, which reveals the dishonesty of racist thinking and exposes its social, ideological, political and historic mainsprings. Through education, secondly, which teaches that no person is worth less than another, and that diversity is an asset which we must respect. Through culture, finally, the only means by which we can replace deadly social hierarchy with a world shaped by awareness of belonging to a common humanity.

但是归根结底，各种形式的种族歧视利用了同样危险的懵懂无知。正因如此，除了加强司法工具和刑罚手段之外，只能依靠思想武器才能一劳永逸地战胜种族主义意识形态。首先，通过科学，去揭穿种族主义思想的骗局，挖掘出它的社会、意识形态、政治和历史根源。其次，通过教育，去传授这样的理念：作为他者的存在不是低等的存在，而多样性是应予尊重的财富。最后，惟有通过文化，才能以一种由同属人类大家庭意识塑造的世界观，去取代具有致命危害的种族等级观念。

These three pillars, these three human inventions through which humanity has raised and found itself, form the basis of UNESCO and define its mission. This year's theme for the Day, as set by the United Nations, "Promoting tolerance, inclusion, unity and respect for diversity in the context of combating racial discrimination", thus resonates perfectly with this mission.

人类赖以成长发展、赖以团结共处的这三大支柱、三项发明，奠定了教科文组织的根基，也界定了教科文组织的使命所在。联合国为今年的国际日选择的主题是：“在打击种族主义背景下，促进宽容、包容、团结和尊重多样性”，这一主题与我们的使命完全一致。

The many collaborative projects set up all over the world in the last few years, with experts and local and international politicians, with schools, museums and civil society organizations, all bear witness to our commitment to the fight against racism.

最近几年在世界各地开展的很多合作，都汇聚了当地与国际的专家学者和政界领袖，以及学校、博物馆和民间社会组织，这充分证明我们对这场反种族主义斗争的承诺。

The long-term project, "The Slave Route", launched in 1994, is still ongoing and has worked decisively towards a better understanding of the slave trade. The partnership established in 2014 with Juventus Football Club reaffirmed the urgent need to fight against all forms of discrimination in sport. Last year, it was under the patronage of our Organization that the exhibition "Us and Them – From Prejudice to Racism" was launched at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.

1994年发起并且目前仍然活跃的长期项目“奴隶之路”，对提高人们对贩卖奴隶问题的认识起到了决定性作用。2014年与都灵尤文图斯球队签署的合作协议，重申了打击体育运动中所有歧视行为的必要性和紧迫性。去年，在本组织的赞助下，在巴黎的人类博物馆举办了“我们和他人——从偏见到种族主义”展览。

We intend to pursue this fight tirelessly, particularly through the International Coalition of Inclusive and Sustainable Cities supported by UNESCO, which since its establishment in 2004 has proven to be a platform to share experiences, all over the world, so as to improve policies to combat racism, discrimination, xenophobia and exclusion.

我们将毫不松懈地继续开展这场斗争，并通过由教科文组织支持的国际 包容和可持续城市联盟，充分发挥其自2004年成立以来表现出的真正的经验交流平台的作用，在世界各地推进打击种族主义、歧视、仇外和排斥现象的政策。

It is only through these efforts that we will indeed be able to build a world where no one is regarded as inferior, and where, as fervently hoped by philosopher Achille Mbembe, "the reality of an objective common destiny can outweigh attachment to difference".

只有付出这样的一些努力，我们才能够切实地建立起一个没有人会被视为低人一等的世界，而正如哲学家阿齐莱·姆班贝所真心呼唤的那样，在那样的一个世界里，“一个客观的命运共同体的现实，将得以完胜对差异性的执迷不悟”。