APN-PAD Co-founder and Director of Diversity's Presentation to United Nations High-Level Meeting

APN-PAD Co-founder and Director of Diversity and Transnational Engagements Mr. Alando Chia under the invitation of the President of the United Nations 79th General Assembly participated in the United Nations High-Level Meeting at the Conclusion of the International Decade for People of African Descent in the UN headquarters in New York.

Mr. Chia addressed member states on the significance, challenges, and successes of the First International Decade for People of African Descent within the Asia Pacific Region, and continued APN-PAD's push for the proclamation of a Second United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent by the General Assembly.

During his visit, Mr. Chia also engaged in high-level civil society diplomatic engagements and advocacy on behlaf of APN-PAD, focussed on the human rights challenges and remarkable contributions of People of African Descent in the Asia Pacific with UN mechanisms such as UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD), the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, UNESCO Social and Human Sciences, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, The President of the General Assembly, The African Union and other key international civil society organisations.

Building an international network and engaging key stakeholders in the fight against racism, racial profiling, structural discrimination, stereotypes, and related intolerance is a core mission of APN-PAD.

Below is the full text of Mr. Chia's address:

Sylvarius Alando Chia Statement Panel 3 for The UN High Level Meeting on the Closure of The International Decade For People of African Descent November 9, 2024

Your Excellencies and Distinguished Colleagues
The Decade has been an empowering platform for advocacy and a robust medium of engagement between PAD civil societies, community leaders with states in the Asia Pacific Region to foster visibility and development of PAD through highlighting contributions, presence and advocating for recognition through representation.
Based on the mechanisms of the Decade such as UN Asia Pacific Regional The UN Fellowship Program for PAD, The UN Asia Pacific Regional Conference for PAD, The UN WGEPAD visit and report on the situation of PAD in Australia, The UN Asia Pacific Subregional Consultations on the Human Rights of PAD, and regional engagements of APN-PAD with PAD. The Decade has success in a couple of areas.
There has been remarkable progress in terms of raising awareness and mobilization of PAD civil societies and community leaders across the region from (SEA, NEA, SA and Pacific and Australia) to engage with local, state, and national institutions, NHRC, and Bureaus, African embassies on issues such as human rights, access to education, representation, social and economic mobility of PAD.

The Decade has lead to an increased in connectivity and collaboration amongst PAD civil societies, and community leaders in the regions with plans to build a broad coalition to improve data collection, foster visibility and research on social and economic mobility and the Human Rights of PAD to assist in overcoming common challenges of discrimination, negative stereotypes, racial profiling and subtle forms of racisms. In some subregions there has been collaboration with local, state, and national institutions on anti-racism campaigns and provision of multicultural grants to PAD to address long standing structural and systemic discrimination/inequalities.
The training of over 12 UN Fellows for PAD from the region and some governments provision of targeted development funds for African descent communities and civil societies -African Community Action Plans.
Increased knowledge in leveraging the UN frameworks and mechanisms (ICERD, DDPA) to engage with local, state, and national authorities to address the socio-economic and human rights challenges of PAD as integral to the UN Sustainable Development Goals including No poverty (Goal 1) and Reduced Inequalities (10).
Free primarily and secondary education has benefitted PAD. Pacific region and Australia there has been sustained investment in school retention rates of students of African descent through engagement programs such as African school community liaison officers to bridge the divide between school and community, and the organisation of students of African descent conferences.
Despite the recorded successes, the challenges of PAD in the region remain enormous as highlighted by UN mechanisms for the Decade.
Lack of representation and contribution of PADs in policy cycles despite strides in education, entertainment, healthcare and education. PAD contributions are largely invisible due to systemic inequalities, structural discrimination and related prejudices limiting PAD social and economic mobility. Therefore we recommend for governments in the region to enable active representation of PAD in policy spaces
The challenge of negative media coverage: Biased reporting of issues/events involving PAD foster negative stereotypes fuelled by an ignorance of and narrow perception of the African continent and limitation of the right to respond as a result of a culture of silence and language barriers by some PAD.
Subtle and overt forms of racism, microaggression, long-standing ignorance, prejudices and stereotypes especially within law enforcement in the region have a direct impact on the experience of racism and racial profiling infringing on their right to feel safe as residents and citizens.
Discrimination in access to decent housing as a result of fear created by media narratives, limited economic mobility as a result of lack of equal employment opportunity and sometimes open discrimination in employment.
African descent youths and children with multicultural and biracial identities face pressure to assert mainstream homogenous identities at the expense of their African identity thereby undermining their multicultural, biracial heritage.
Change the prevailing negative media narrative that undermines dignity and fosters negative stereotypes and racism through unbiased and objective media coverage on issues related to PAD. Such step should be attached with support for PAD media representation and content creation that foster harmony, inclusivity and celebrate diversity.
Need for states in the region to reinforced anti-racism campaigns and actively promote inclusion and equality programs and activities through NHR institutions, education institutions and civil societies and speed up multicultural engagements. These are key to social and economic mobility of PAD.
States could ensure law enforcement professionals undergo constant training on multicultural capacity building, anti-racism, anti-racial profiling programs and recruitment of PAD in law enforcement.
In order to shape policy making, OHCHR , states, civil society organisations should invest in collecting disaggregated data on the population, socio-economic, education, and health status of communities of African descent, in the four subregions of the Asia Pacific.
Regional Collaboration on Advocacy and Sharing Best Practices amongst PAD civil society organisations acknowledging the heterogenous nature of PAD, and overcoming internal disunity and bias as a result of ethnicity, regionalism, or colourism.
Increase access to decent housing and accommodation through investment in affordable, social housing schemes as well as crackdown on discrimination in the rental market that limits the choices of some PAD communities and families.
Active engagement between African Union and African embassies with diaspora African communities to protect the rights of PAD, promotion of African soft power in arts, culture, sports, education, and entertainment to counter negative media narrative.
PAD community leaders, civil society need to be represented in key policy and decision making spaces to share input on community needs, local knowledge and shape policy at the planning stages. Governments could facilitate this process by consulting credible PAD civil society organisations.
The Asia Pacific region due to its experience of colonialism is a natural ally and coalition partner of PAD in the fight against racism, racial profiling and structural discrimination due to it experience of colonialism and racism. The Asia Pacific Region is diverse and challenges and opportunities for PAD vary according to the unique historical, cultural, economic, political and social context of each sub-region and country.
The overall need is for the visibility, equality and sustained anti racism and racial profiling campaigns, increased acknowledgment of the presence and contribution of PAD in society, access to education and decent housing representation in policy spaces, improving positive media narratives, to foster inclusivity, diversity and embrace the increasingly multicultural character of its societies.
The Asia Pacific Network for People of African Descent encourages governments in the region to upgrade their engagements with PAD civil society organisations and community leaders to foster a culture of respect, address key challenges and expand multicultural social spaces that ensure respect for the human rights of all members of society especially minority communities.