For the twists and turns of our campaigning at the UN for a Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, please read its post on my Academic Creative Enterprise blogsite at ornettedclennon.me
But first, some background.
We believe that in our Post Brexit times, our human rights as People of African descent are more precarious than they ever have been. For example, our race discrimination laws have been watered down in our current Equality Act but even more worrying, the Equality Act itself will be further weakened when we adopt a British Bill of Rights, scrapping the current Human Rights Act. The current administration has been promising this since 2015 and it would appear that their wishes might eventually be granted. Where will this leave us? Right now, we already have a job ahead of us obtaining justice under our current legal framework. Where will we go when our legal address becomes ever more restricted? This is where The Permanent Forum, as an international body will be potentially extremely useful to us because it will be an international space where we will be able to submit our grievances and be listened to on an international platform. This will be helpful to us in two ways. Firstly, The Forum will be our one-stop shop where we will be able to access all the available UN Human Rights instruments that will force the UK government to answer the case made against it. Although significant in itself, the second way that The Forum will be able to help us is by using the evidence submitted to it, as the basis to mount strategic litigation cases with international human rights lawyers, who will be able to amplify any UN inquiry with court cases brought in the UK and beyond. The Forum will be the legacy of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 – 2024) and was agreed by the UN General Assembly in the Durban Declaration of Programme of Activities. So, The Forum is the first step in making sure that the human rights of People of African Descent around the globe are promoted and protected. With this in mind, we are also campaigning for the Forum to be able elaborate on current UN Human Rights Declarations from a specifically African Diaspora Perspective.
Academic Creative Enterprise 