March 21 has been established by the United Nations General Assembly as the World Day against Racism and Racial Discrimination. It is a day that should remind each and every one of us that the struggle to eliminate racism and racial discrimination must be a daily struggle at all levels of society and the state. The aim is the protection of human rights and the reform and modernization of the legislative framework regarding the elimination of discrimination and its strict monitoring.
Particularly in matters of condemnation and criminalization of unacceptable racist behaviour, the relatively recent decision of the Supreme Court in criminal appeals No. 4/2021 Police no. A.A. and No. 5/2021 Police no. L.A., is a milestone in the fight against racism, hate speech, the utterance of racist speech with public incitement to violence or hatred, and xenophobic speech in general. It demonstrates the seriousness with which such behaviour is now and will be dealt with in the near future. Furthermore, the Office of the Commissioner for Legislation, as the competent monitoring and coordination agency for the submission of the national periodic report of the Republic of Cyprus under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and its presentation before the competent United Nations Committee, urges government departments and agencies to implement the recommendations of the competent Committee. At the same time, it welcomes the steps and measures taken by them and the progress achieved to date.
(AF/SX)
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