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2015 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Declaration

STOP RACISM!

We have come together today to mark the 2015 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

56 years ago today, on the 21st of March 1960, a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration in South Africa came under police fire, killing 69 people in what would become known as the Sharpeville Massacre. Following this tragic incident, the United Nations in 1966 declared this day the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in recognition of continuous popular struggles against entrenched racism and discrimination.

The apartheid regime may have disappeared, but the scourge of racial discrimination continues without decline throughout the world. It is therefore more important than ever to raise our voices in opposition to these practices, wherever they may be.

South Korea is no exception to the ongoing trend of race-based discrimination. Be it in the workplace, at the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s Employment Centers or at the Immigration Office, migrants in S. Korea are being systematically discriminated against. Migrant workers are being denied back wages and compensation for workplace accidents, and indeed often cracked down on simply for not having a visa. Young children are no exception, as they are round up and placed in foreigner detention centers. The S. Korean government is now seeking to further justify its lawless crackdowns on migrant workers through a revision of immigration law.

In broader society, the government and media have used disparate instances of crime committed by foreigners to create an atmosphere of fear and threat, where everyone deemed an outsider has become a potential criminal. Furthermore by opening their publications to anti-immigrant hate speech and shock advertisements by anti-immigrant entities, the mainstream media stands guilty of legitimizing racial discrimination.

We believe that the true threat to society comes not from the very presence of foreign workers in S. Korea, but from the ever-radicalizing threat to democracy and multiculturalism in the form of discrimination against these workers. The focus of all this hate and discrimination on migrant workers, married immigrant women and refugees shows only that the lash of intolerance strikes without exception the weakest and the poorest.

Migrant workers are not "stealing" Korean jobs, but on the contrary gratefully contributing to S. Korea’s economic growth; they are not placing sticks in the spokes of social unity, but rather adding their value to an ever-more diverse and dynamic society.

We have therefore come together today to strengthen our common resolve to stand against all forms of discrimination against our neighbors, the immigrants living in S. Korea.
Beyond S. Korea’s borders, we extend our hand in solidarity with those in Greece, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and all peoples calling for an end to racial discrimination.

We vow to lift our voices ever higher and to work ever harder toward this cause. We call for the following:
· Stop all forms of racial discrimination against immigrants!
· Stop treating all immigrants as criminals!
· Basic equality is a human right for all!

Seoul(S.Korea), March 21st, 2015.
Participants of the 2015 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination