The international day on Thursday highlights that theme, as well as the importance of recognition, justice and development opportunities for those of African descent, said Secretary-General António Guterres.
He said the results of entrenched racism continue to be devasting: “opportunities stolen; dignity denied; rights violated; lives taken and lives destroyed.”
The African diaspora faces a unique history of systemic and institutionalized racism, and profound challenges, he continued.
“We must respond to that reality – learning from, and building on, the tireless advocacy of people of African descent. That includes governments advancing policies and other measures to eliminate racism against people of African descent.”
Racist algorithms
He also singled out the recent controversy involving some artificial intelligence tools which have reportedly been unable to eliminate racist tropes and stereotypes from even highly advanced algorithms, calling on tech firms to “urgently” address racial bias in AI.
In a joint statement a group of independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts said the international day was a time to take stock of “persistent gaps” in the effort to protect hundreds of millions whose human rights continue to be violated due to racial discrimination.
“It is also an opportunity to recommit to our promise to fight all forms of racism everywhere.”
They noted that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance continue to be a cause of conflict worldwide.
“We are witnessing a dangerous regression in the fight against racism and racial discrimination in many spaces”, the experts said.
“Minorities, people of African descent, people of Asian descent, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, are particularly vulnerable as they often face discrimination in all aspects of their lives based on their racial, ethnic or national origin, skin colour or descent.”
States must implement international rights obligations, conventions, and declarations to which they are a party, they added. Special Rapporteurs and other rights experts are independent of the UN or any government, and receive no salary for their work.
Tackle methane emissions now, to slow global warming
Tackling emissions of methane now, is essential to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050, according to a new report issued by the UN-backed Global Methane Forum on Wednesday.
The Forum is meeting in Geneva, hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the UN Environment Programme-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition and other partners.
Political momentum is building towards methane mitigation and new technology is allowing more accurate measurement, revealing the urgent need to turn commitment into real cuts, the Forum said in a press release.
Nearly 500 participants from across the world have been sharing success stories to catalyze methane emission reductions in line with the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce emissions by at least 30 per cent from 2020 levels up to end of this decade. It now has 157 countries and the European Union on board.
The gas is responsible for around 30% of total warming since the Industrial Revolution and is the second largest contributor to global warming after CO2.
Turning pledges into action
UNECE Executive Secretary Tatiana Molcean opened the plenary session on Tuesday by making a global call to mobilize more ambitious action: “Hand in hand with decarbonization of energy systems, methane emissions need to be addressed in governments’ plans for stronger climate action.”
Meeting the Global Methane Pledge goals could reduce global warming by at least 0.2° C by 2050.
“In view of the devastation and suffering caused by extreme weather events, in particular in the most vulnerable countries, the world can simply not afford to miss this opportunity”, she added.
Mpox deaths falling everywhere but Africa, says expert panel
Cases of Mpox are falling everywhere except in Africa, a UN health agency expert panel has said, warning that the virus is causing “high mortality” in children under 15 years old.
The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization meeting in Geneva to advise the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that the African Mpox strain appears to have a different genetic blueprint to other outbreaks reported around the world.
Experts on the panel highlighted the need to monitor and find the source of an ongoing outbreak of Mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which has been linked to 265 deaths.
WHO’s Dr Kate O’Brien said the agency was encouraging countries to be proactive, “in particular the Democratic Republic of Congo, to have access to the vaccine, to use the vaccine and to do evaluations of the vaccine performance, which we expect to be very high.”
Vaccines should be used in at-risk communities and in non-high risk populations, the panel said.
But experts highlighted the problems caused by poor vaccine access in parts of Africa and urged greater investment in vaccine research on M-pox.
The WHO announced that Mpox was no longer a public health emergency last May.
Demand for peacebuilding outstrips supply
Amidst an intensification and multiplication of crises, the demand for support to UN peacebuilding continues to outstrip supply, the Secretary-General said in a new report published on Wednesday.
“The wars grabbing the headlines today only underscore the need to invest now in sustainable peace for tomorrow”, said António Guterres.
Covering the period from 1 January to 31 December, the report highlights that in 2023 the Peacebuilding Fund approved over $200 million for projects in 36 countries and territories, including for women’s and youth empowerment.
Redouble peacebuilding efforts
While the decision of the General Assembly to provide assessed contributions to the Fund starting in 2025 marked a milestone, the Fund reached its lowest liquidity level since its inception due to a decline in contributions last year.
“This is a time to redouble, not diminish, peacebuilding efforts”, said Assistant-Secretary General for Peacebuilding Support Elizabeth Spehar.
“This year’s report shows again that peacebuilding works: stronger institutions and inclusive dialogues help break and prevent cycles of violence.”
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
21 March 2024
GENEVA (20 March 2023) – Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a group of UN experts issued the following joint statement:
“The commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is a moment to take stock of the persistent gaps in the implementation of our shared commitment to protect hundreds of millions of people whose human rights continue to be violated due to racial discrimination. It is also an opportunity to recommit to our promise to fight all forms of racism everywhere.
Through our work, we see clearly that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance continue to be a cause of conflict around the world. We are witnessing a dangerous regression in the fight against racism and racial discrimination in many spaces. Minorities, people of African descent, people of Asian descent, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, are particularly vulnerable as they often face discrimination in all aspects of their lives based on their racial, ethnic or national origin, skin colour or descent. In this regard, it is crucial that States implement their international human rights obligations and commitments under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.
Initiatives aimed at revitalising multilateralism, including the Summit of the Future, provide an important opportunity to firmly establish the collective responsibility of States in ensuring concrete progress to address structural and systemic racial discrimination and its root causes.
The proclamation of an International Decade for people of African Descent in 2014 marked a significant milestone in the global effort to combating systemic racism and racial discrimination faced by people of African descent worldwide.
As the International Decade comes to an end, it is time to confront and rectify the pervasive obstacles and barriers hampering recognition, justice, and development for people of African descent. We call on States to respond to growing calls for reparatory justice and economic empowerment for people of African descent. We also call on States to leave no person of African descent behind in their efforts to realise the Sustainable Development Goals.
Today we join our voices again to urge all States to push forward in the fight against racial discrimination. We also call on States to proclaim a second International Decade for People of African Descent, to ensure greater recognition, justice, and development for people of African descent, including by engaging meaningfully in reparatory justice processes for past injustices.”
Commemorative Plenary Meeting
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
By Ms. E. Tendayi Achiume,
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
New York, United Nations Headquarters, 25 March 2019
Excellencies,
It is a privilege to address you in my capacity as Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, but I address you with a heavy heart.
This is my third address to the General Assembly. At my first address, also on the International Day Against Racism, I joined the many who mourned the death but celebrated the life of Afro-Brazilian anti-racism activist Mariella Franco, shortly after her gruesome assassination. My second address was for the purposes of presenting my thematic report, which mapped the many different ways resurgent ethno-nationalist populism today undermines racial equality globally1. I presented that report in October 2018, a few days after the horrendous anti-Semitic shooting of Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. And as we commemorate the International Day Against Racism this year, we do so in the shadow of the recent Islamophobic shooting of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand.
In declaring the first International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the General Assembly called upon the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. More than fifty years later, the United Nations and its Member States remain far from achieving this goal. The resurgence of ethno-nationalist populism and extreme supremacist ideologies, and the dead bodies that lie in the wake of this resurgence, make clear that greater urgency is required within the United Nations, and among Member States to tackle racial discrimination, racism, xenophobia and related intolerance.
What are the dangers of ethno-nationalist populism and ideologies of racial or ethnic supremacy?
As I mentioned, I submitted a report on this very topic to the General Assembly in 2018, and it is my sincere hope that Member States will draw on this report and the many other reports and recommendations from within the UN human rights system on what is required to achieve racial equality and combat discrimination and intolerance, including in the face of extremist supremacist ideologies.
Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reminds us that racism kills2. It kills in the direct forms I have mentioned above—mass killings motivated by supremacist ideologies. But racism and xenophobia also kill, maim, degrade and marginalize through institutions and structures, and this broader context similarly warrants attention. The very date chosen for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination—March 21—recalls the horror of racial violence embedded in formal legal and policy structures. This date marks the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, a date marred by brutal police violence and murder of individuals protesting Apartheid “pass laws.”
Today, ethno-nationalist populism’s demonization of “foreign” populations has emboldened many States to carry out racially discriminatory practices including: discriminatory revocation or denial of citizenship; arbitrary detention or expulsion of immigrant communities; and wanton violation of principles of non-refoulement. And where political victories have accompanied populist demonization of racial, religious, indigenous or ethnic groups, these groups are now the renewed targets of brazen hate crimes and hate speech.
Ethno-nationalist populist politics do more than sustain violence and hate speech. In my report, I document how these politics also sustain structural exclusion through: voter suppression aimed at racial, ethnic and other minorities; constitutional and legislative amendments to exclude certain groups from political life on racial, ethnic, religious or other grounds; and undemocratic restrictions of civic space. Ethno-nationalist populist politics also typically operate to undermine the rights of women, LGBTQ persons, and persons with disabilities.
The International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination entered into force in 1969, fifty years ago. As you—the Member States of the United Nations—wrestle with the state of the world, a world over which you have ultimate control, this convention remains a powerful resource for you, providing a legal and institutional framework for the difficult work that is your responsibility. That convention makes clear that the elimination of racial discrimination requires more than merely treating the symptoms of racial discrimination. Rather, it requires you to address the underlying, embedded, systemic causes of this discrimination.
Yet many States seem to have taken the opposite approach, some denying that racial discrimination exists within their country, others going so far as to remove the word “race” from domestic antidiscrimination law while structures of racial subordination remain undisturbed.
The truth is, you, the Member States of the United Nations, are not doing enough to take seriously the breadth and depth of global systems of racial and ethnic discrimination and intolerance.
To take seriously the obligation to eliminate racial discrimination: States must take action against supremacist ideologies; States must account for historical and ongoing projects of slavery, colonialism, and apartheid, all of which are rooted in supremacist ideologies; and States must show commitment to ending subjugation on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion or any other related categories. Political leaders should foreground substantive equality of all individuals in their politics and rhetoric, and educational systems should uphold obligations to combat prejudice and promote understanding among all peoples. As Prime Minister Arden of New Zealand is demonstrating in response to the attack in her country, it is possible to respond to terror and hatred by seeking strength in solidarity and unity, rather than in divisive discourses at odds with human rights. Member States must confront the truth that expedient politics of exclusion are incompatible with a just domestic order, and furthermore such politics can destroy the very foundations of domestic order.
Celebrations such as the International Day Against Racism are meaningless unless they are accompanied with the urgent, systemic and sustained action truly required to ensure that race, ethnicity, national origin or any related social category is no longer the reason why some people die, while others live. The world needs talk and serious action.
For those on the front line of racial violence, racial terror, structural discrimination and structural exclusion, every day has to be a day against racism if they are to survive. This struggle is not a struggle shared by all. There are many in the world and in this room who have the privilege—on account of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or class—of only thinking or worrying about discrimination and intolerance when they see it covered in the news or reported by others. Yet defeating racial discrimination and intolerance cannot and should not be a fight waged exclusively or even primarily by those subject to discrimination, intolerance and inclusion. Every single person—especially those who enjoy racial, ethnic, religious, gender or class privilege on a daily basis—must play their part to put an end to the racism, xenophobia and related intolerance that prevails today.
I thank you for your kind attention.
#World #News #Dignity #justice #key #evil #racial #discrimination #methane #emissions #update #Mpox #latest #peacebuilding #boost
