The Convention defines what racial discrimination is, so that every country in the treaty can agree on how to define discrimination. In Article 1 (the first agreement in the treaty) that racial discrimination is: "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying ["getting rid of"] or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."