EVENTS: On August 31th at United Nations Headquarters; As we mark the International Day for People of African Descent 2024, we also mark the final year of the International Decade for People of African Descent, an initiative launched by the United Nations General Assembly to recognize people in the Americas who are of African descent as a distinct group whose human rights must be safeguarded. The United Nations General Assembly Invites all Member States, all organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, the private sector and academia, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations and individuals, to observe the day in a appropriate manner. Through the observance, the United Nations aims to promote the extraordinary contributions of the African diaspora around the world and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against people of African descent. Watch the livestream!
CALL FOR PAPER: The Significance of Black History: A Century of Observance, 1926 to 2026 - Marking a century of weeklong and monthlong Black history observances sponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and its predecessors, the Journal of African American History is planning a special issue for 2026 that explores the impact of teaching, commemorating, and defending Black history.
Statement by the United Nations Secretary-General on the International Day for People of African Descent 2024; August 31st.
On the International Day for People of African Descent, we honour the immense and diverse contributions of people of African descent to the vast spectrum of human achievements, and their tireless efforts to create a better world.
The leadership, courage, and activism of people of African descent have helped overcome profound injustices, saved lives, improved societies, and brought crucial issues to the world’s attention. Yet the intolerable legacies of enslavement and colonialism endure. Systemic racism is rife and continues to mutate into new forms – including in new technologies, where algorithms can amplify discrimination.
We must build on the work of people of African descent with global action to eradicate the scourge of racism and racial discrimination.
At the United Nations, this is a priority, and we have established a new Anti-Racism Office. This will drive implementation of our strategic plan to address racism in the workplace. We also need governments to take the lead – by advancing and implementing policies and laws to tackle systemic racism and ensure inclusion. We need the private sector to step up – including rooting out bias in technology and other dimensions of working life. And we need reparatory justice to address the crimes of enslavement.
Building on the success of the last decade, I hope States will proclaim a second International Decade for People of African Descent, to help to accelerate global efforts for true change.
Together, let’s do our part to vanquish racism and discrimination, and build a world of equality, opportunity, and justice for all.
OTHER STATEMENTS:
Joint Statement by the UN Human Rights experts on the occasion of the International Day for People of African Descent 2024.
“On this day, we are reminded that millions of people of African descent around the world continue to be victims of systemic and structural racism and racial discrimination, in breach of the prohibition of racial discrimination as enshrined in the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and other international instruments. We condemn these human rights violations which defeat the aspirations of Ubuntu, or humanity, to which we all aspire.
With the Summit for the Future taking place in September, we are also reminded of the multipronged ecological crises facing humanity and the lack of global sustainable development, which especially affect Africans and people of African descent.
While some progress was made during the International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024 to promote racial equality, we are far from ensuring respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms of people of African descent, including eradication of all forms of discrimination against them. It is essential that the continuing global consequences of chattel enslavement, colonialism, apartheid and genocide be fully acknowledged and that efforts towards recognition, justice, and development for people of African descent be pursued vigorously beyond 2024. We have therefore called for a second International Decade 2025-2034.
We encourage States to contribute to collective efforts to advance the elaboration of the United Nations draft declaration on the promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of people of African descent, and ensure that it includes recognition and addresses systemic and structural racism, reparatory justice, environmental justice and digital equity.
The next International Decade requires an enhanced approach to the three pillars of the current International Decade: recognition, justice and development. This includes ensuring a greater recognition of systemic and structural racism and racial discrimination within and among countries, the pursuit of reparatory justice and greater efforts for the inclusion of people of African descent, and racial equality in all development frameworks, including the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.
During the next International Decade, States must also tackle emerging challenges pertaining to environmental justice and artificial intelligence for people of African descent. They must listen to, respect, and secure the perspectives of those impacted by compounding forms of discrimination, marginalisation and violence, including women, youth, LGBTQI+ persons, persons with disabilities, displaced persons, migrants and refugees. Member States should develop and effectively implement human rights instruments, strategies, indicators, and monitoring mechanisms to ensure comprehensive recognition and address systemic and structural racism within and among countries, and the effective promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of people of African descent. This must be embedded in the implementation of the next International Decade at the national, regional, and international levels as well as in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the formulation of a post-2030 Agenda.
The time for decisive action is now. In the coming months, States will have the opportunity through the Summit of the Future and the COP16 meetings to consider issues that are also of critical importance to people of African descent. Let us seize these opportunities that can result in meaningful change for people of African descent and the whole of humanity.”
*The experts: Mr. Michał Balcerzak, Chairperson, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; Mr. José Antonio Aguilar Contreras, Chairperson, Group of Independent Eminent Experts on the Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action; Ms. Ashwini K.P., Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; Ms. Akua Kuenyehia, Chairperson, International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the context of Law Enforcement; Ms. Barbara Reynolds, Chairperson, Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, and Ms. June Soomer, Chairperson, Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
Statement from the WHO/PAHO Director on the occasIon of the International Day for People of African Descent 2024.
In commemoration of the International Day of People of African Descent, which takes place on August 31, the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, calls on countries of the Americas to promote, protect, and respect the rights of people of African descent, including their right to health.
Approximately 210 million people of African descent live in the Americas, representing 20% of the population. However, the health needs of these groups are often neglected, leading to significant inequities.
A PAHO study published in 2021 on Afro-descendant populations in 18 Latin American countries showed that these groups live in extremely unequal social and economic conditions that affect their health. For example, people of African descent are 2.5 times more likely to live in poverty and often face limited access to health services and higher maternal and infant mortality rates.
"These inequities are rooted in historical exclusion, racism, and discrimination, which contribute to poor health outcomes and perpetuate the precarious living conditions of a significant portion of this population," the PAHO Director said in a video message to mark the International Day. "PAHO is committed to improving the health, health equity, and well-being of people of African descent in the Americas," he added.
PAHO's actions against racial health inequalities
To address these concerns, in 2017 PAHO Member States approved the first Policy on Ethnicity and Health, and in 2019 the Strategy and Plan of Action on Ethnicity and Health 2019-2025. Through their implementation, PAHO provides technical support to countries to reduce inequalities and eliminate barriers in access to health services for people of African descent. Recently, PAHO organized three subregional consultations on health equity with Afro-descendants and, together with the Government of Brazil, a regional event on ethnic and racial health inequalities.
The recommendations emerging from these meetings underscore the importance of generating evidence, exchanging good practices, adopting policies, empowering social participation, and recognizing ancestral knowledge to improve the health of this population group.
"On this Day, PAHO calls on its Member States to continue advancing the Strategy and Plan of Action on Ethnicity and Health," Dr. Barbosa said in his message. He reiterated the Organization's commitment "to promoting an intersectoral and intercultural approach with a human rights, gender, and social determinants of health focus to achieve equity and well-being for all peoples in the Americas."
The International Day of People of African Descent, observed on August 31, recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora worldwide, and seeks to eliminate all forms of discrimination against people of African descent and to protect their human rights, including the right to health.
Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Madame Chair, Epsy Campbell Barr,
Dr. June Soomer,
Members of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Dear young people,
I greet you in Peace – the noble purpose of the United Nations, and the fervent wish of people of African descent wherever we may reside. Peace in the home. Peace in our communities. Peace in this too-turbulent world.
As we listen… do you hear a drum? That steady drumbeat that invites you to dialogue, resonating from Africa to the Caribbean and pulsating throughout the Americas — and far beyond.
From the talking drums of Nigeria to the big drums of Benin, to the Trinidad and Tobago steel pan to the virtuoso riffs of great jazz drummers the world over – all are soundscapes of the unity of people of African descent, even in the face of adversity.
The drum. It passes our rich history from generation to generation.
During the era of enslavement, the drum was a means of distance communication used by the maroons in the highlands of Jamaica, and the quilombolos in the heartlands of Brazil. It was a keenly felt calamity when the drum was taken away as a means to divide.
However, it proved impossible to conquer the indomitable spirit of Africa’s children yearning for freedom. It is up to us to share their stories of resistance and resilience.
The United Nations did so last month, when an exhibition co-sponsored by UNFPA was unveiled at United Nations headquarters, a collection of exquisite charcoal portraits by artist Donovan Nelson. Together, the portraits tell the story of “Ibo Landing.”
In the year 1803, as the story entails, a community of some 75 Igbo people — everyone from the Chief, the priest, the healer, the farmer, women, men and children — were taken by force onto canoes and paddled out onto a big ship looming on the horizon.
The captives came from what’s now southern Nigeria. As the ship traversed the Atlantic across the notorious Middle Passage, they weathered hazards and were subjected to unimaginable suffering.
Months later, the survivors arrived on St. Simon’s island, off the coast of the present-day State of Georgia in the United States of America.
The Chief and priest stepped onto the land first, so we are told. The rest of the Igbo people followed. As the Chief and priest gazed deep into the forest, they divined the future that awaited. They turned around to face the sea.
With a motion of their hands, they indicated the way forward.
Marching back into the water, one by one, man, woman and child. And so it is said, those ancestors left Ibo Landing, step by step, walking on the water, all the way back to the motherland, to Africa.
The water brought us; the water will take us away, was their refrain.
Distinguished delegates,
As Toni Morrison said: “The function of freedom is to free someone else.”
The International Decade for People of African Descent is part of that Freedom Trail.
Launched in 2015, the UN has been engaging people of African descent and tapping into their diverse knowledge and experiences for the justice, recognition and development of Africa’s sixth region, its extensive diaspora some 200 million strong.
Abundant research and evidence shows us who among them is being left behind, helping us chart the path forward.
Discrimination in all its forms contributes to poorer health outcomes for Afro-descendant women and girls.
UNFPA research finds women of African descent in the Americas are more vulnerable to mistreatment and neglect by health-care providers. Maternal death rates are higher among Afro-descendant women, who continue to confront racial and other prejudices.
And women of African descent are much more likely to experience gender-based violence, including femicide.
We also know based on extensive research conducted by UNFPA and others that it is our Afro-descendant girls who are being shut out of the progress that their international counterparts are making globally.
In the next phase of the International Decade for People of African Descent, UNFPA is asking you to focus specifically on the full equality and leadership of women, and on lifting up young people of African descent.
Let us uphold their right to comprehensive sexuality education. Let us not hide our heads in the sand. They need the services and the life skills that will protect them from a life derailed by teen pregnancy and sexual abuse.
Let us give every Black girl on the planet the tools she needs to realize that she is precious, that she is beautiful and that her whole community is with her to support her in reaching her full potential – and all of ours.
Let us remember that when we improve the lives of Afro-descendant women and girls, the prospects of the entire community and nation will improve.
The drum beats for her wellbeing, for her acceptance as a person worthy to defend. The drum beats for all of our freedom. Let us unite and keep the drumbeat going for rights, for choices, for generations to come.
UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem;
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