The issue of racism is not limited to a single country, and every nation must take a definitive stance against it, said General Assembly President Csaba Kõrösi on Monday while addressing a United Nations’ platform that aims to improve the safety and quality of life of people of African descent globally. Speaking at the second session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, Kõrösi called racism and xenophobia scars that ruin communities like cancers. To overcome these injustices requires an understanding of our collective humanity, he said, making reference to the unacknowledged legacies of slavery and segregation that persist today through oppressive and racially violent prison systems, inequalities in access to healthcare, and exclusion from the workforce. The establishment of the Permanent Forum is in line with the International Decade for People of African Descent, which runs through 2024, and will contribute to advancing a UN declaration on the promotion and full respect of the rights of people of African descent.
In pursuit of racial equality and justice for people of African descent around the world, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking in a video message to the gathering, called for the recognition and repair of injustices stemming from centuries of slavery and colonialism. He further urged us to act with greater urgency towards ridding our societies of the scourge of racism, and ensuring the full political, economic, and social inclusion of people of African descent as equal citizens without discrimination.
Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also highlighted the issue of racism, specifically the constant abuse hurled at Brazilian footballer Vinícius Júnior, who plays for the Spanish club Real Madrid. In a video message, he urged that Vini Jr, a 22-year-old, is capable of standing up to hostile crowds, and therefore, we can and must do more to interrupt this dehumanizing circuit of violence. He called for renewed focus on memory, reparations, and justice towards the International Decade for People of African Descent, a call reinforced by Brazil’s Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, who stressed that repairing centuries of systemic racism, characterized by dehumanization, subjugation, trauma, the erasure of an entire culture, and psychological violence, was key to promoting peace, democracy, international security, fighting inequalities, and upholding human rights.
More than a thousand people are taking part in the forum, which is set to conclude on Friday. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, paid tribute to the significant number of activists and civil society representatives in their ranks, saying that they were critical to the continuing efforts of global anti-racism movements, including the protests in 2020 that led to the establishment of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. Türk emphasized that for far too long, racial discrimination has been approached as a social issue, rather than the significant human rights violation that it is. He called for the holding of individuals accountable for acts of such discrimination and racism, and the consideration of systemic structures and systems of discrimination and oppression that replicate and promote racial hierarchies.
