Human rights experts urged the UN General Assembly to declare a second International Decade for People of African Descent starting in 2025 as more action is needed to combat racism and other intolerance.
The experts made the remark in a statement they issued in connection to the International Day for People of African Descent day observed today with the objective to acknowledge and remember the historic and ongoing triumphs as well as struggles of people of African descent to realize their human rights.
They stressed in their statement that more than ever, the world urgently needs humanity to unite and collaborate in a spirit of equality and non-discrimination.
“This demands political will to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination, inequality and stratification at both the domestic and international levels,” they said in a statement.
The General Assembly proclaimed 2015 to 2024 as the International Decade for People of African Descent, with actions at the national, regional and global levels.
Objectives include promoting respect, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people of African Descent, and greater knowledge of their diverse heritage, culture and contributions to society.
“The cause of people of African descent for recognition, justice and development is a cause for humanity,” the experts stated.
They said the UN Decade, together with the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, have contributed significantly to combatting racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.
“However, there is much more work to be done and the momentum gained must be sustained,” they said.
They urged the General Assembly to consider proclaiming a second International Decade for People of African Descent from 2025 to 2034, “with a view to taking further action to address systemic discrimination and legacies of the past to bring about the full recognition, justice, and development for people of African descent worldwide.”
In his message for the Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted “the enormous impact” that both the African continent and people of African descent have had on the development, diversity and richness of world civilizations and cultures, which constitute the common heritage of humankind.
“At the same time, we acknowledge the pervasive discrimination faced by people of African descent around the world, and the many obstacles they face to realising their full human rights,” he said.
He noted that recent years have seen renewed momentum for change, based on the global anti-racism movement of 2020. Millions of people took to the streets of major cities worldwide following the police killing of George Floyd, an African American man, that May.
The Secretary-General has also made anti-racism a management priority at the UN, where he has appointed a Special Adviser and team charged with overseeing implementation of a Strategic Action Plan on Addressing Racism and Promoting Dignity for All.
The UN chief urged countries to take concrete steps, with the full participation of people of African descent and their communities, to tackle old and new forms of racial discrimination; and to dismantle entrenched structural and institutional racism.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency