The Lord Mayor of Belfast has urged people in the city to stand against all forms of racism.
Mr Martin Morgan was addressing a rally at Belfast City Hall yesterday, following a spate of racial attacks in the south of the city and the publication of figures from the PSNI which indicate a significant increase in such attacks.
The march attracted trade unionists, politicians and representatives of welfare associations for people of ethnic background.
The SDLP Lord Mayor called for a united community response to the rise of racism. "All political and community leaders and people with influence have a responsibility to speak out against such attacks, whether they are racist or sectarian," he said.
"We must not be selective but should condemn all acts of violence or threatening behaviour from whatever source, without reservation, as a scourge in our society.
"Every man and woman has a leadership role to play in addressing racism."
The rally coincided with Belfast hosting the UK's Holocaust Memorial Day main event in the Waterfront Hall last night. It remembered victims of the Rwanda genocide as well as those of the Holocaust.
During the 65-minute memorial ceremony, more than 1,000 people heard from survivors of the Holocaust and Rwanda.
In recognition that 2004 marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide in which up to one million people were slaughtered in 100 days in Rwanda, the theme of the commemoration was "From the Holocaust to Rwanda: lessons learned, lessons still to be learned".
The Earl of Wessex joined survivors, politicians, dignitaries and members of the public for the commemoration.
Ms Gena Turgel, who survived the Holocaust, read an extract from her book, I Light A Candle, while Seamus Heaney read a Bertolt Brecht poem.
On behalf of the British government, Baroness Amos, leader of the House of Lords, said of the Holocaust: "Those of us who did not live through it find it hard to think of such unspeakable atrocity.
"But happen it did. And only 10 years ago - in our lifetime - the Rwandan genocide took place."
She added: "There was not something particular about the Germans or the Rwandanese that led them to genocide. We are all capable of these evils."