Message: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – March 21
March 21 is recognized as a day to redouble strategies and commitments with an honest pledge to end all forms of racial discrimination around us. This day has been set aside in commemoration of 69 peaceful demonstrators who were killed by police in Sharpeville, South Africa demonstration of 1960. This demonstration was against the apartheid pass law which was to restrict the movement of Black South Africans, a system implemented for racial segregation and economic control. Their main focus was to enjoy the simple and basic right to be free and to access services and opportunities similar to other races.
Under this system families were often separated and jobs were limited, and there was a system of racial hierarchy and oppressive practices and tactics meted out to Black Africans, just because of their ethnicity.
As we recognize this day in remembrance of this atrocity, the call to combat racism is a cry to respect humanity and the human rights of all, regardless of ethnicity, social and economic backgrounds as well as political affiliation.
Despite the repealing of the ‘apartheid pass law’ in 1986, racial discrimination continues, and is present in employment practices, economic distribution and political systems.
On this occasion the Guyana Public Service Union, in accordance with its Race Relations Committee’s policy reiterates the call for an end to racial discrimination and its corresponding practices of segregation, inequalities and economic injustices. The Committee calls for social cohesion and reconciliation, which are essential to building trust, unity and sustainable peace for all ethnic groups. There must be respect and tolerance for each other, irrespective of race, social, economic and political affiliation. All humans are born equal and therefore all have to be involved in dismantling structural inequalities and in the promotion of racial justice and human rights of everyone.
March 21, 2026.