Ending complacency key to fighting discrimination, UN Rights Chief says

(December 09, 2009) The United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday called on individuals everywhere to consider how they can fight discrimination beginning in their own homes and workplaces, stressing the need to overcome complacency which only contributes to the scourge. “You cannot defeat discrimination by shutting your eyes to it and hoping that it will go away. Complacency is discrimination’s best friend,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told a news conference in Geneva, ahead of this year’s Human Rights Day on Thursday. The theme of this year’s Day, observed annually on 10 December, is “Embrace Diversity: End Discrimination.” Pillay hoped people will begin making an extra effort to think about how they as individuals can take action in their own homes, in the workplace and in society at large to first of all identify discrimination, and then tackle it, wherever it raises its ugly head,” said the High Commissioner. Human Rights Day commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly in 1948.