The Need For a Narrow-Focused Interamerican Convention Against Racial Discrimination

Manifestations of discrimination, unlike conventions designed to prevent them, are seldom static. This is evident throughout the 40-year history of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). That racism continues to be a problem on a local, regional, and global scale is a reality. That a region should seek to enact policies to correct new grey areas in international law is not the final solution; it’s a beginning. Even 40 years after its initial adoption, the definition of racial discrimination and the ideals that society is bettered only through practiced equality still hold true. But ICERD reflects the global concerns with apartheid and colonialism that were more relevant four decades ago. As such does not adequately capture all the particularities of modern racial discrimination in the Americas. The Inter-American Convention against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance (Inter-American Convention) should serve two purposes: 1) provide a document that is effective and adaptable to current and future racial discrimination issues in the Americas and 2) increase internal awareness in the OAS of how multiple forms of discrimination interact with racial discrimination.