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Working Group on People of African Descent
First Session
Geneva, Palais des Nations, Salle XVII
25 November 2002



Opening Statement by Bertrand Ramcharan
United Nations Deputy High Commissioner
for Human Rights



Distinguished Experts of the Working Group on People of African Descent,
Distinguished Representatives,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. I would like to welcome you all to this very first session of the Working Group on People of African Descent, which evolves from the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban South Africa in September 2001. The Working Group received its mandate from the Commission on Human Rights last spring to study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the Diaspora and to elaborate proposals for the elimination of this discrimination.

The Working Group on People of African descent is part of a very long process. This process started in villages, favelas, shantytowns, communities, and cities around the world long before today. This Working Group is in part the result of an often silent and invisible struggle and a dedicated and inspired movement that caused the human rights issues of Afro-descendants to be heard and recognized.

The human rights of Afro-descendants have been considered for some years by the Working Group on Minorities of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. These important human rights issues coalesced in October 2000 at the Regional Seminar for Latin America and the Caribbean which was held in Santiago, Chile to prepare for the World Conference against Racism. At this seminar, representatives of Afro-descendant communities in the Americas dramatically reminded Seminar participants of the need to keep their human rights concerns front and centre, and the issues about the human rights of Afro-descendants were subsequently reflected in the recommendations adopted by the experts.

Racial discrimination faced by Afro-descendants has thus made its way onto the national agenda of some governments around the world and now the United Nations. It must be mentioned that it is a dynamic and vigilant civil society from across the globe that brought the important concerns of people of African descent to us – the international community. In this sense it is truly a grassroots movement.

This session of the Working Group provides us with an opportunity to pay tribute to governments who are facing this challenge (among so many others which require attention on the domestic agenda), to intergovernmental and regional organizations such as the World Bank, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Pan-American Health Organization who are seriously tackling the issues of Afro-descendants in their work, to United Nations specialized agencies, programmes or entities such as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) who have begun to place Afro-descendants on their programming agenda, and to the representatives of NGOs and civil society (some whom are present here today) who lobbied governments, reminded the international community that racial discrimination against people of African descent demands their focus and attention.

We must also remember that it is not a new phenomenon that the United Nations provides the nations of the world space to study, consider and hold a dialogue about the human rights of particular groups. This truly is one of the hallmarks of the United Nations and this Working Group is not unique in that the United Nations for decades has dedicated time, space and resources to other groups.

But the process to realize the human rights of all continues and this is precisely why we have gathered here today to consider the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent in the Diaspora.

There are a great number of human rights issues affecting the dignity, equality and security of millions of people of African descent worldwide. People of African descent are amongst the most excluded groups, and in many cases, without the most basic of human rights in many parts of the world. World Bank figures show that many people of African descent are in a cycle of poverty and represent the lowest income-earning group in many countries. The low human development indicators for this group often represent decreased life expectancy, low literacy rates, poor water and sanitation conditions, inadequate housing, and limited or lack of access to education. In some countries, they are disproportionately afflicted by HIV/AIDS and the stigma that arises therefrom. Afro-descendants can face discrimination in access to employment and ill-treatment by authorities. People of African descent are racially profiled, disproportionately incarcerated (especially the young people) and they tend to face barriers in accessing justice and remedial measures.

In many parts of the world, they are all too often at the very bottom of a complex social structure – developed over several centuries – which has given rise to multi-racial and multi-ethnic societies marked by patterns of unequal economic and social relationships. This social and economic stratification has often resulted from the legacy of slavery, colonialism, institutionalized racial discrimination - and in some societies, these racially-defined factors persist.

Exacerbating the denial of the realization of their economic, social and cultural rights, in some parts of the world, is a basic denial by society at large of the contemporary suffering of people of African descent. In some States, getting a sense of the number of Afro-descendants in itself can become a political and controversial issue.

Yet, despite this invisibility there exist destructive stereotypes about people of African descent, sometimes perpetuated by the media and sometimes exploited in domestic political platforms. Some societies are faced with the challenge of recognizing the value of cultural diversity and that the human rights of all of its members must be equally promoted and protected.

Let us pause here and acknowledge the additional burden carried by women of African descent. There is not a single human rights issue outlined above that is not a women’s issue. Women and girls of African descent are every bit (and sometimes more) affected by illiteracy, unemployment, access to land, lack of drinking water and sanitation, and violence. They eke out a daily existence in slums, they are segregated in the employment sector as domestic workers and they are exploited and endangered as street children.

Women’s Afro-descendant organizations from various parts of the world were instrumental in bringing Afro-descendant issues to the domestic agenda and to the United Nations. It is hoped that these groups and others will remain equally engaged, included and considered in this Working Group process. In carrying out their work, the experts are encouraged to maintain a vigilant gender analysis of the issues of racial discrimination facing people of African descent.

In studying the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent, the breadth of international law that protects the human rights of all must be borne in mind. Let us remember that the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognize the inherent dignity and equal and unalienable rights of all and that everyone is entitled to all human rights without distinction.

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) underscores the principle of equality and condemns racial discrimination and segregation. States Parties to the Convention have undertaken to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination and guarantee rights to everyone without distinction in areas such as equal treatment before tribunals, security of the person, and the realms of political and civil rights.

States Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (ICEDAW) undertake to take all appropriate measures to ensure the human rights of all women. Human dignity, equality and security in areas as diverse as housing, heath care and education as well as the right to take part in cultural life are set out by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Let us also keep in mind how other United Nations mechanisms such as the Special Rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights as well as the treaty bodies might be able to contribute to the activities of the Working Group.

The role of the experts of this Working Group, then, will be to study, listen, consider and make recommendations as to how the international community according to international human rights law and through the current international, regional and national mechanisms, can eliminate racial discrimination experienced by people of African descent worldwide.

As you will note specifically from the provisional agenda, the experts of the Working Group are expected to study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent; gather relevant information from Governments, non-governmental organizations and other relevant sources; propose measures to ensure their full and effective access to the justice system; submit recommendations on the design, implementation and enforcement of effective measures to eliminate racial profiling against people of African descent; and elaborate short, medium and long-term proposals for the elimination of racial discrimination against people of African descent, including proposals for a mechanism to monitor and promote all their human rights.

As with every other Working Group mandated by the Commission, this Working Group will adopt recommendations and submit them to the Commission on Human Rights.

Thus how might this Working Group assist the United Nations to move forward? How might the United Nations continue this process that I mentioned at the outset?

The Working Group should move forward with intellectual rigour, objectivity and courage, with openness to ideas and input, always bearing in mind the right to equality and dignity of people of African descent - that is applicable to all - and that is enshrined in the Charter and the core international human rights laws.

This, of course, is the first meeting of the Working Group on people of African Descent. I would encourage all participants to extend their constructive support and input to the experts as they lead us forward.

Let me now take this opportunity to congratulate the experts and wish them a very good first session. Thank-you.



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