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Remarks at Human Rights Day Panel on Race, Poverty and Power
Ki-moon Ban
Secretary-General
UNHQ
 Distinguished panel members,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure on Human Rights Day to introduce this important panel discussion on race, poverty and power.
The annual observance of Human Rights Day is an opportunity to reflect on our progress, but most of all on the great distance we still have to travel to reach our goal of universal human rights for all.
This year, the theme of Human Rights Day is non-discrimination. We may think we live by this principle, or even that we embody it. In our multi-cultural, multi-ethnic world, diversity is routinely celebrated.
But the figures speak for themselves.
Around the world, in every country, discrimination remains widespread.
We see it against women, against migrants and minorities, against those with disabilities.
We see institutional racism, gender stereotyping and full-blown ethnic wars.
Whatever form it takes, discrimination continues to have a corrosive effect on societies, decades after it was banned under international law.
On Human Rights Day, we must challenge ourselves to fight discrimination at every level, every day, in every way possible.
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