ST. KITTS AND NEVIS REPRESENTED AT THE UN’s SECOND FORUM ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT

Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 30, 2023 (SKNIS): St. Kitts and Nevis’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Her Excellency Nerys Dockery is representing the Federation at the second session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) from May 30 to June 02, 2023, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The overarching theme of the second session is ‘Realizing the dream: A United Nations Declaration on the promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of People of African Descent.’

“We are committed to “Realizing the dream” through a “United Nations Declaration on the promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of people of African Descent”, a declaration that is long overdue,” said Ambassador Dockery during her address to the robust body on May 30. “What is this dream? It is the dream that out of the tragedy and barbarity of slavery and colonialism – with its deportation of populations, its transfer of people from one continent to another, its distant memories of old beliefs, and its fragments of murdered cultures – can arise new, holistic systems dedicated to healing, mutual understanding, reconciliation, peace and restitution.

Her Excellency Dockery linked the theme to the aspirations of persons in the Caribbean.

“For us in the Caribbean, it is the dream that our beautiful archipelago that was once a synonym for pieces broken off from the original continent, can become the bridge of love and goodwill that reassembles, restores and re-unites the broken fragments of a scattered race,” said Her Excellency Dockery. “This declaration also has the potential to give rise to new partnerships and narratives around trade and investment, scientific partnerships, education and mobility, people-to-people exchanges among the peoples of African Descent in Africa and throughout her Diaspora.  It also requires that we revisit colonial approaches to how we educate our people and how our qualified and trained experts are received internationally by organizations like the UN.”

Her Excellency Dockery looks forward to the Sessions of the Permanent Forum which she hopes “will lay the foundation for us to elaborate this Declaration and to ensure that the human rights of people of African Descent remain paramount to our pursuit of human rights, social justice and sustainable development that leaves no one behind.”

Other members of the St. Kitts and Nevis delegation include Asha DeSuza, First Secretary and Third Committee Expert, as well as Carla Astaphan who is participating online.

The PFPAD will bring together human rights activists of African descent, Member States, United Nations organs and bodies, intergovernmental and regional organizations, national human rights institutions, civil society representatives, and other relevant stakeholders for four days of thematic discussions, side events and special events.

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