The International Day for People of African Descent will be celebrated for the first time on 31 August 2021. Through this Observance the United Nations aims to promote the extraordinary contributions of the African diaspora around the world and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against people of African descent. International days reflect the values that society shares. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and have the potential to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of their societies. Any doctrine of racial superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous and must be rejected, together with theories that attempt to determine the existence of separate human races.
International Day for People of African Descent: History
The International Day for People of African Descent was created only recently by the United Nations and is set to be celebrated internationally for the first time this year. This first observance comes in the midterm of the International Decade for People of African Descent, another U.N. initiative. This has largely influenced the creation of this holiday. According to the U.N., 2020 marked the year of a significant change in the way issues of discrimination and marginalization against people of African descent are addressed on a global scale.
While some progress has been made at legislative, policy and institutional levels, people of African descent continue to suffer intersectional and compounded forms of racial discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion. Five years into the Decade, the COVID-19 pandemic shed light on the urgency to address long-standing structural inequalities and systematic racism in health. The lack of recognition remains one of the major barriers impeding the full and effective enjoyment of human rights by people of African descent.
