Human rights commissions on both sides of the border banded together today to combat racism.
They have produced their first joint publication, a booklet aimed at helping community organisations and campaign groups make use of one of the main United Nations human rights treaties.
The booklet - A User's Guide to the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination- was being launched in Belfast by the Irish Human Right Commission and the Joint Committee of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
Former Fine Gael senator Mr Maurice Manning, president of the IHRC said: "Any discrimination on such grounds as race, colour, ethnic or national origin or membership of a national minority is a violation of human rights."
It was the principle underlying the International Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, a treaty to which both Ireland and the UK were bound, he said.
"The purpose of this booklet is to help community organisations, pressure groups and others to use the CERD treaty in the fight against racism in both parts of Ireland," said Mr Manning.
The publication was very timely for the Republic, he said, because the country would soon be examined by the UN on its first report under the treaty.