A/HRC/51/54
the youth movement Los Imparables, which was focused on sport, psychological, educational
and cultural rights and prevention of violence in Colón, Panama. She called for increased
opportunities for children and youth of African descent.
47.
Akeyo Elsa Williams, of the Young Gifted Black initiative in Germany, discussed the
nationwide annual meeting of the Initiative of Black People in Germany, which had been
held annually for almost 40 years and was the largest event of the Black community in
Germany. Regular youth gatherings in Germany since 2017 highlighted how Black and
African people, and people of the African diaspora faced similar forms of racism, rooted in
the same colonial and racist legacies, ideas and systems. She noted that addressing those
collective experiences could empower and unite young Black voices in Europe.
48.
The sixth thematic panel, on the theme “Intergenerational deprivation and anti-Black
racism: asset-building for economic and financial freedom of children of African descent”,
was chaired by Mr. Raj, who noted the relevance of a racialized analysis to meaningfully
achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The historical underpinnings of economic
deprivation included loss of present-day value of assets due to the trade and trafficking in
enslaved Africans, intergenerational loss of opportunity and the inability to self-emancipate
due to structures and systems, with deleterious effects on health, education, development and
opportunity.
49.
Tanzila Qambrani Habiba, a Member of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, Pakistan,
explained that the question of identity was important for understanding how racism and
discrimination against people of African descent operated, as well as the strategies adopted
by individuals and collectives from those communities. Even where race was not codified in
law, racialized categories constructed social hierarchies and perpetuated social
discrimination. The recognition of racism faced by people of African descent and open
conversations about it could be an important turning point with respect to the life
opportunities of children of African descent in Pakistan.
50.
Phillip Binondo, an educator and human rights advocate from the Philippines, noted
the systematic “othering” of children of African descent in Asia. They continued to face
deprivation, socioeconomic disadvantage and marginalization due to stigma, bias and
prejudice. African Amerasian children had been deprived of opportunities to develop skills,
self-worth and agency. Name-calling, harassment and hate-mongering drove school dropout,
unemployment and homelessness, leading to intergenerational deprivations of opportunity
and rights. He emphasized the necessity to incorporate race and identity into educational
curricula and widen discussions on racism and racialized hegemonic consciousness.
51.
Omar Freilla of Collective Diaspora, United States, discussed how Black communities
around the world consistently experienced some of the lowest levels of economic, social and
health indicators, from high rates of poverty, incarceration and mortality to being at greater
risk from pollution and climate disasters. Those disparities existed both within and between
nations and had grown from the centuries-old trade of enslaved Africans and the subsequent
colonization efforts that built the wealth of Europe and its white settler colonies throughout
the Americas. A regenerative economy grounded in racial and gender equity might be
accessible through the development and growth of Black cooperatives across the African
diaspora. A growing Black cooperative support ecosystem sought to challenge the economic
isolation faced by Black communities and the extraction of Black wealth that had been taking
place in different forms since the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. The cooperative
traditions of collective ownership and collective uplift had survived in Black communities
throughout the African diaspora, even amidst the dominant economic model of extraction
and exploitation.
52.
During the discussion, civil society representatives noted the centrality of land to
conversations about economic freedom, reparations, justice and liberation globally, stating
that the southern United States had been characterized by intergenerational dispossession of
land despite guarantees of “40 acres and a mule” after emancipation. Others noted that
environmental justice dramatically affected economic opportunity and freedoms. Ms.
Shepherd recalled the programme of activities of the International Decade for People of
African Descent, citing the importance of compulsory history education about the numerous
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