In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a program of activities to be undertaken during the second half of the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.

On this occasion, the General Assembly decided that a week of solidarity with the peoples struggling against racism and racial discrimination, beginning on 21 March, would be organized annually. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 21, commemorates the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 and falls at the beginning of this week of solidarity. On that day in South Africa, peaceful demonstrators against apartheid were killed. In 1966, the United Nations declared that each year on March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should be observed as a symbol of the worldwide need to end racism.

Links:
Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling against Racism and Racial Discrimination

Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 21 March