UN, historical promotion of human rights

AS WITH other months of the year, the UN celebrates various Days in March. These occasions are intended to educate the public, mobilise political will and resources to address global challenges, and celebrate and reinforce humanity’s achievements.
In March alone, such Days and Weeks number twenty-three (23) – beginning with World Seagrass Day on March 1 (UN Resolution 76/265) and ending with the International Day of Zero Waste on March 30 (UN Resolution 77/161).
Many Zambians, like others around the world, associate March with International Women’s Day on March 8. Less well known is the International Day of Women Judges, observed on March 10. Notably, several Days and Weeks in March are devoted to the protection and promotion of human rights for all people, both women and men.
The UN human rights framework is anchored in its foundational instrument, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on December 10, 1948. The UDHR was followed in the 1960s by
two covenants (and their protocols): the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). Together, these constitute the UN Bill of Rights. The UDHR later informed the African Charter
on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), adopted in 1981 and entering into force in 1986.
March-based human rights Days and Weeks that highlight Africans – both on the continent and in the diaspora – include:
1. Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling Against Racism and Racial Discrimination (UN Resolution 34/24, March 21–27).
2. International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN Resolution 2142 (XXI), March 21), inspired by the Sharpeville Massacre of March 21, 1961, when sixty-nine (69) innocent Africans were killed by apartheid forces in South Africa.
3. International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (UN Resolution 61/19, March 25), inspired by the Abolition of Slavery Act passed by the British Parliament on March 25, 1807.These commendable UN-promoted pro-African human rights observances in March should be seen within the broader context of at least five (5) other important UN decisions:
1. The International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (December 21, 1965, Resolution 2106 [XX]), considered the first of the UN’s core international human rights treaties.
2. The Programme for the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, adopted during the 34th Session of the UNGA in 1979.
3. The International Day for People of African Descent (2011), coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (2001).
4. The UN Permanent Forum for People of African Descent (Resolution 75/314, 2021), tasked with contributing to the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Promotion, Protection and Full Respect of the Human Rights of People of African Descent (Resolution 76/226).
5. The International Decade for People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development (Resolution 68/237), running from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2024, and extended to a second Decade (Resolution 79/193) from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2034.
The UN’s use of language suggests a distinction between Africans born on the continent and those of African descent – primarily descendants of the centuries-long trauma of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In the view of this writer, this distinction should be reconsidered. Instead, the term “Africans in exile”, proposed by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, an eminent Kenyan writer in exile, offers a more appropriate designation. This aligns with the language used by both UNESCO and the African Union(AU).UNESCO employs the concept of Global Africa, as seen in the ongoing Volume IX of the General History of Africa Project. The
AU, structured around six regions, includes five on the continent and a sixth encompassing the African diaspora, following its Constitutive Act amendment of 2003. The AU, however, should strive for consistency in its terminology. For instance, it designated 2025 as the Year for Reparations for Africans and People of African Descent, later extended to a Decade (January 1, 2026–December 31, 2035).
Historical parallels are instructive.
During apartheid, the Indian government initiated UN resolutions calling for the protection of the human rights of “our people”, referring to Indians in Durban – most of whom were descendants of indentured labourers and had never been to India.
They were not referred to as “People of Indian Descent”. Similarly, Chinese abroad are referred to as Overseas Chinese, not “People of Chinese Descent”.
While acknowledging the UN’s commendable efforts to promote and protect the human rights of all Africans, it is the considered opinion of this author that neither the UN nor the AU should inadvertently contribute to divisions among Africans, reminiscent of the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, when the continent was arbitrarily partitioned by European powers.
Instead of distinguishing between “Africans” and “people of African descent”, and to advance the collective human rights agenda of all Africans – whether born on the continent or in the diaspora – I propose adopting and adapting Zambia’s unifying national motto: One Africa, One People.May it be so.
The author is a lecturer of human rights at Dag Hammarskjöld Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Copperbelt University.