Honoring the contributions of the African diaspora.

As we mark the International Day for People of African Descent 2024, we also mark the final year of the International Decade for People of African Descent, an initiative launched by the United Nations General Assembly to recognize people in the Americas, who are of African descent as a distinct group whose human rights must be safeguarded. 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.

The year 2024 marks the end of the International Decade for People of African Descent. 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. In 2020, 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.