A/76/434 monumental milestone in the trajectory of global mobilization for substantive equality. III. Legacy: a comprehensive, intersectional and concrete plan of action for eradicating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance 25. In this section, the Special Rapporteur highlights the transformative contributions made by the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Although the document is not, on its own, a legally binding instrument, it is unique in that it provides a concrete action plan for achieving the legally binding commitments that States have undertaken regarding equality and non-discrimination, across a range of treaties and as a matter of customary international law. The Declaration “represents the commitments arising from the complex global dialogue ” that took place, whereas the Programme of Action “is a road map illustrating how the international community will follow up on” those commitments. 17 As a comprehensive nexus of anti-racism commitments, the document as a whole is a resource that allows Sta tes to implement racial equality measures and monitor that implementation in a standardized manner. A. Recognition of the roots, victims and manifestations of racism 26. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action provides the first global consensus that slavery and the slave trade are crimes against humanity and “should always have been so”. 18 In it, Member States recognized that those histories posed significant sources of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, with impacts on Africans and people of African descent, Asians and people of Asian descent and indigenous peoples. 19 They also identified colonialism, apartheid, migration and inequality as root causes of racism. 20 27. In the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, Member States condemned systems of colonialism and neocolonialism for their persisting effects on the international system, which included “contributing to lasting social and economic inequalities in many parts of the world today”. 21 It contains unique calls for legal reforms 22 and for economic and financial redistribution that would advance substantive racial equality. 23 If a human rights legacy of the twentieth century was the divergence of the rights codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into two separate legal regimes, 24 namely, civil and political rights versus economic, social and cultural rights, then the document should be recognized for relaunching the human rights agenda of the twenty-first century by building on the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and reconverging those sets of rights into a comprehensive and concrete document for combating racism and xenophobia. __________________ 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 21-15325 Mary Robinson, “Foreword by the High Commissioner for Human Rights”, in World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance: Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (United Nations publication, 2002). Declaration, para. 13. Ibid. Declaration, paras. 14–16 and 18. Declaration, para. 14. See, for example, Programme of Action, para. 108. Ibid., para. 158. Albie Sachs, “Social and economic rights: can they be made justiciable?”, SMU Law Review, vol. 53, No. 4 (2000), pp. 1383–1384. 9/26