U.N. forum will define international obligations to people of African descent
The weeklong convening of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) brought 900 people to the United Nations’ New York headquarters. They arrived eager to add proposals about what needs to be done to enhance the lives of Black people in various parts of the world.
The week did not start out easy though: many Black activists had traveled from across the continent—and some from locations as far away as Australia, Ireland, and countries in Latin America––yet they say they were aggravated by the fact that they had to wait for hours to enter the U.N. There was a three-hour long line for U.N. entrance passes, which could have possibly have been arranged prior to the start of the conference.
Once inside, however, activists joined non-profit and governmental representatives to talk about the concept and possibility of reparations for African enslavement; the ideals of Pan-Africanism and its suggestions for how to deal with past injustices and what to push forward for in the future; the racism and other difficulties people of African descent are facing as they migrate from war torn or failing nations; the methods of collecting and distributing high-quality and timely employment, economic, age, geographic, and economic statistics on Black populations; and the practices communities can use to promote health and well-being, while dealing with intergenerational trauma.
Epsy Campbell Barr, the former vice president of Costa Rica, chairs the PFPAD. She confessed to a press roundtable that “There’s a lot of expectation from civil society around the world, but mostly from here, from this hemisphere––from Latin America, North America, and Canada” regarding the Permanent Forum. Indices for Black human rights remain low, political participation is on the wane, and systemic racism remains an everyday reality throughout the hemisphere.
Campbell Barr said that the calls for the extension of the International Decade for People of African Descent, which was originally declared for the years 2015 through the end of 2024, are because the U.N. was not able to get full commitments about promoting wider recognition and the social and economic development of Black communities from most countries. The COVID-19 pandemic also put a damper on programs meant to aid Black people.
One of the decade’s main achievements, though, was the establishment of the Permanent Forum. “We feel that in a second decade, because there is a larger demand from different organizations, we are going to have the political power to push our governments to do something for our communities,” said Campbell Barr. She added that the fact that the new Decade for People of African Descent would start five years before the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda in 2030 will serve as an extra push to get governments to truly work for Black communities.
“The Permanent Forum of People of African descent has the mandate to work to establish the
Declaration of Human Rights of people of African descent,” Campbell Barr said. The final product will be a document that shows the U.N.’s commitment to African descendants in the Americas and throughout the world. “It will be the main important document and commitment of the U.N.” to Black people.
That’s why it was important to feature the input of civil society groups during the forum, Desiree Cormier Smith, the U.S. State Department’s first ever Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, told the AmNews: “The International Decade, we championed the creation of it. We have been commemorating it under this administration and we believe it is important,” Cormier Smith said.
Credit: Karen Juanita Carrillo photo
The U.S. government has been widely criticized for not heralding the importance of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) which was adopted 21 years ago at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. The World Conference against Racism helped push the U.N. to create a decade for recognizing the global Black diaspora.
The problem the U.S. has with the DDPA, Cormier Smith said, is “it’s singling out of Israel and then some restrictions on free speech which are counter to our constitution.” She insisted that that doesn’t mean the U.S. doesn’t agree with the aims of the DDPA. “Let me be clear on that. The Durban Declaration and Program of Action is meant to be a blueprint on how member states can work towards the elimination of racial discrimination, intolerance, and xenophobia. We agree with those aims; we are committed to those aims. We just don’t agree with the DDPA as a policy.”
The United States did play a major role in the formatting of the Permanent Forum, Cormier Smith asserted. “We … championed the creation of the Permanent Forum as a part of that Decade. We were a strong supporter of the creation of that forum. And we also strongly supported the participation, the robust participation, of civil society in the forum as central to the forum.
“Not all member states were a fan [sic] of that. I want to make sure that that is on record, that we were one of the loudest voices to ensure that civil society could be robustly included because we felt that was important to the credibility of the forum: you have to have the people who are closest to the pain be a part of the solution because they have the best answers, they have the best solutions.”
Howard University Professor Justin Hansford, who also serves as an elected member of the Permanent Forum, explained that some of the recommendations and suggestions that activists and community organizations made will form part of the Permanent Forum’s final conclusions and recommendations to the U.N.
“One of the interesting things about the forum to me is that it’s not just about civil society’s engagement with the official mechanisms and organisms. It’s about talking to each other,” Prof. Hansford added. “I know that some of the things that people have talked about in the sessions, they’ve gone off on the side and had people approach them and projects get started and relationships get formed. So, there’s a lot that can happen simply by letting people know what you’re interested in doing and this is a platform where we had, I think we’re at 1,200 people, both online and in person at the forum. These are all human rights activists fighting for Black people all over the world. What’s exciting is that they’re going to be building connections and relationships and coming up with their own projects even outside of whatever happens at the official forum. And that’s going to be where a lot of the change happens.”
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