“ENPAD and UN Human Rights Office organise a core group of parliamentarians of African descent to meet in Brussels to set up global caucus to accelerate the implementation of the UN Decade for
People of African Descent 5 years on”
On the following day of the landmark vote and again in Brussels, ENPAD organised together with UN Human Rights Office and the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) a meeting of African Descent members of parliament from around the globe to reaffirm the Decade of People of African Descent and set up a caucus on how to accelerate the progress of change in the Decade. Hosted by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, parliamentarians from Pakistan over Tunisia and Poland to Honduras
will establish actions on how to accelerate the Decade. Belgium’s role as a supporter of inclusion initiatives at the United Nations includes its leadership at the Durban Conference against Racism in 2001, of which the Decade on People of African descent is an offspring.
“The full inclusion of people of African descent in the societies in which they live is not only their human right,” says regional representative Birgit Van Hout, Head of the UN Human Rights Office in Brussels, “it is in the best interest of society as a whole. Vice versa, when people of African descent are excluded, this also exacts a toll on society as a whole.”
The EU watershed EU resolution and the kickoff of the caucus in Brussels is a boost for ENPAD in vindicating its daily struggle and hard work in uniting people of African Descent in Europe.
The Resolution was adopted by the European Parliament by 535 votes.
