The third session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) took place from April 16–19 at the United Nations Offices in Geneva, Switzerland, with the theme as “The Second International Decade for People of African Descent: Addressing Systemic Racism, Reparatory Justice, and Sustainable Development.” This was the final session of the International Decade for People of African Descent, which began in 2015.
The Permanent Forum sessions have been held at the U.N.’s Geneva and New York City offices and have given people of African descent from all over the world the opportunity to come together, discuss their specific community concerns, and compare notes about the degrees of citizenship for Black people in different countries.
Governments have been eager to send their representatives to the Permanent Forums, mostly to publicly affirm their efforts to end racism in front of a larger audience. Because they are being called to an international stage to point to the policies they have enacted to aid their Black citizens, this decade for people of African descent saw some tangible human rights gains for African descendant communities.
During this last session, Brazil’s Anielle Franco noted she had been able to attend two of three forum sessions as head of her country’s Ministry of Racial Equality. Brazil has the highest population of people of African descent living outside of Africa: More than 55 percent of the country is Black. The work of her ministry, Franco said, shows Brazil’s “non-negotiable commitment” to tackling racial inequalities. “Our country has matured in understanding that there is no economic, social, or sustainable development without racial equality,” she said. “There is no development without guaranteed rights for all.”
“Though my country has never fully lived up to the values of freedom and equality for all, we’ve also never walked away from them,” Desiree Cormier Smith, U.S. State Department’s Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, told the conference. “And that is largely thanks to civil society, particularly Black civil society.”
Black efforts to free their communities from racism in the U.S. are felt everywhere, and Cormier Smith said the same scenario has taken place in other countries. The work of Black civil society benefits freedom fighters everywhere, she said—it’s what led to the creation of gatherings like the Permanent Forum and will be an example for others to follow.
Martin Kimani, Kenya’s representative to the United Nations, reminded attendees that with the U.N. preparing to hold its global governance event, the Summit of the Future, in September 2024, the Permanent Forum was the perfect opportunity to develop sustainable development-related governing recommendations that can be brought back for national delegations to potentially put in place.
Djibril Diallo, president of the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network (ARDN), attended the recent Geneva sessions and read a statement into the record. He told the Amsterdam News that the main point his organization wanted to raise was the importance of dealing with gender-based violence, particularly as it affects African-descendant women.
“This was an important platform to advocate for addressing head-on the issue of violence against women and girls,” Diallo said. “My entry point was how can we use the convening powers of sports and cultures…to address all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls?”
The ARDN has found that violence and discrimination almost directly lead to the poverty faced by young women of Africa and the diaspora. Statistically, the United Nations Population Fund has shown that women of the diaspora live with poorer health situations and face higher maternal death rates because of racial and other prejudices.
The ARDN brought its Red Card to All Forms of Discrimination and Violence Against Women and Girls campaign to the Permanent Forum and will reinforce that campaign during upcoming events in New York.
“My statement was at two levels,” Diallo told the Amsterdam News: “One, how do we make sure that the issue of addressing gender equality becomes central—becomes a cross-cutting issue of the work of the U.N. Permanent Forum, linking it to the sustainable development goals? SDG 10, for instance, focuses on reducing inequality within and between countries based on race and ethnicity. In that connection, you have a specific subpoint [that] says that the international community should make sure that there is equal opportunity by eliminating discrimination laws and practices, and promoting appropriate legislation, policies, and actions.”
Diallo said the ARDN hopes the U.N. Permanent Forum will join in its campaign to increase awareness of gender-based violence issues by using sports and culture as entry points for discussion. This, as well as other topics raised during the forum, is the kind of issue the Permanent Forum can be in front of in continuing to see gains for the world’s African-descent population.