A/76/434 xenophobia and related forms of intolerance require the full implementation of the document. II. Historical significance of the third world conference against racism 14. The international human rights framework has progressively evolved to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. At its first session, the General Assembly produced two resolutions against racism: one in which it called for an end to religious and so-called racial persecution and discrimination (Assembly resolution 103 (I)) and another in which it specifically highlighted the treatment of Indian nationals in South Africa (Assembly resolution 44 (I)). 15. In 1949, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) began a campaign to challenge pseudo-intellectual ideologies of racial superiority. 9 In the ensuing decades, UNESCO was a prominent early advocate for anti-racist discourse and programmes, most notably through its Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice and its scientific and standard-setting projects, as well as the groundbreaking special programme against apartheid and the Slave Route Project. 10 16. The early momentum of the international community ’s struggle against racism culminated in the creation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1965 and became effective in 1969. In fact, the Convention was the first major international human rights treaty, preceding even the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in 1966, with entry into force in 1979. Newly decolonized States were among the chief proponents of the Convention and offered the impetus behind its adoption. 17. While the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is the most prominent instrument of the United Nations anti-racism architecture, other treaties have also served to enshrine equality and non-discrimination principles in international human rights law. For example, the non-discrimination principle is explicitly enshrined in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (art. 2 (1)) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 2 (2)). The United Nations system also includes other anti-racist instruments, such as the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. 18. Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance are also the products of unequal transnational power relations. They are the mechanisms through which certain nations and peoples dominate other nations and peoples. The United Nations system has acknowledged this phenomenon, especially through resolutions of the General Assembly. 19. At the same time the United Nations was fighting racial discrimination and apartheid through international human rights law, the General Assembly was also the site of momentous decolonial efforts to ensure an equitable international order. Such efforts included declarations in support of new international economic arrangements to remedy the history of exploitation, which had been enabled in part through __________________ 9 10 21-15325 Poul Duedahl, “Anti-racism: UNESCO’s early mental engineering”, UNESCO Courier (n.d.). The Slave Route Project was “designed to raise awareness about the transatlantic slave trade” and has helped to “bring about greater understanding of the tragedy of the slave trade and the ideological foundations of racism”. See UNESCO, “Development of an integrated strategy to combat racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”, document 32 C/13, par a. 9. 7/26