Diversity is our strength?

Affirmative action is embraced by many countries in the world including:

South Africa, The Employment Equity Act and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act
China, There is affirmative action in education for minority nationalities.
Israel, A class-based affirmative action policy was incorporated into the admission practices of the four most selective universities in Israel during the early to mid-2000s.
India, Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well-being of backward and under-represented communities defined primarily by their caste.
Malaysia, The Malaysian New Economic Policy or NEP serves as a form of affirmative action.
Sri Lanka, In 1981 the Standardization policy of Sri Lankan universities was introduced as an affirmative action program for students from areas which had lower rates of education than other areas due to missionary activity in the north and east, which essentially were the Tamil areas.
Taiwan, A 2004 legislation requires that, for a firm with 100 employees or more wishing to compete for government contracts, at least 1 per cent of its employees must be Taiwanese aborigines.[49]
Finland, In certain university education programs, including legal and medical education, there are quotas for persons who reach a certain standard of skills in the Swedish language; for students admitted in these quotas, the education is partially arranged in Swedish.[52][53]
France, Since the 1980s, a French version of affirmative action based on neighborhood is in place for primary and secondary education. Additionally, following the Norwegian example, after 27 January 2014, women must represent at least 20% of board members in all stock exchange listed or state owned companies. After 27 January 2017, the proportion will increase to 40%.
Germany, There are programs stating that if men and women have equal qualifications, women have to be preferred for a job; moreover, the disabled should be preferred to non-disabled people.
Norway, In all public stock companies (ASA) boards, either gender should be represented by at least 40%.[61]
Romania, Romani people are allocated quotas for access to public schools and state universities.[64]
Russia, Quota systems existed in the USSR for various social groups including ethnic minorities (as a compensation of their "cultural backwardness"), women and factory workers. Modern Russia retains this system partially. Quotas are abolished, however, preferences for some ethnic minorities and inhabitants of certain territories[66] remain.
Slovakia, The Constitutional Court declared in October 2005 that affirmative action i.e. "providing advantages for people of an ethnic or racial minority group" as being against its Constitution.[67]
Canada, The equality section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly permits affirmative action type legislation,...The Canadian Employment Equity Act requires employers in federally-regulated industries to give preferential treatment to four designated groups: Women, persons with disabilities, aboriginal peoples, and visible minorities.
New Zealand, Individuals of Māori or other Polynesian descent are often afforded improved access to university courses, or have scholarships earmarked specifically for them.[6] Affirmative action is provided for under section 73 of the Human Rights Act 1993[78] and section 19(2) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.[79]
Brazil, Some Brazilian universities (state and federal) have created systems of preferred admissions (quotas) for racial minorities (blacks and Amerindians), the poor and people with disabilities. There are also quotas of up to 20% of vacancies reserved for people with disabilities in the civil public services.[80]

United Nations, The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination stipulates (in Article 2.2) that affirmative action programs may be required of countries that ratified the convention, in order to rectify systematic discrimination.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee states that "the principle of equality sometimes requires States parties to take affirmative action in order to diminish or eliminate conditions which cause or help to perpetuate discrimination prohibited by the Covenant. For example, in a State where the general conditions of a certain part of the population prevent or impair their enjoyment of human rights, the State should take specific action to correct those conditions. Such action may involve granting for a time to the part of the population concerned certain preferential treatment in specific matters as compared with the rest of the population. However, as long as such action is needed to correct discrimination, in fact, it is a case of legitimate differentiation under the Covenant."[83]