Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
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."