Oral Statement to the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights Fifty Fifth Session, 28 July to 15 August, 2003

Oral Statement to the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

Fifty Fifth Session, 28 July to 15 August, 2003

Agenda item 5 ( c ) Prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities.

Speaker: Mr. Silis Muhammad (alternate: Ms. Ana Leurinda)

We, the Afrodescendant Minorities throughout the Slavery Diaspora, have experienced total destruction of our collective human rights: original identity - language, culture and religion, as articulated in the Declaration on the Rights of Minorities and in Article 27 of the ICCPR. We once were families of African Nations, but today our blood is mixed with the blood of the slave masters. We speak his mother tongue instead of our own.

We are today the living example of the lingering effects of slavery, scattered across the Americas and the Slavery Diaspora. The sweet smell of freedom to choose our destiny is still snatched from our Life. The rights of Afrodescendant peoples are not legally recognized by the UN General Assembly; thereby, we do not have the respect nor the protection of the UN as do other human families.

We began, in 1997, bringing our prayers to the Sub-Commission, and we know today that it is through the resolutions of the Sub-Commission and the diligent efforts of the Working Group on Minorities that we, Afrodescendant Minorities, approach restoration of our collective human rights.

The 9th Session of the Working Group on Minorities has decided to place Afrodescendant Minorities on its agenda for 2004, acknowledging that we are minorities in the States in which we exist, either as numerical minorities or minorities with regard to possession of wealth and power.

We are recognized thereby as new minorities. We seek official recognition that we are new minorities, from the Sub-Commission and all bodies of the UN.

We support the recommendations of the 9th Session of the Working Group on Minorities for a second regional seminar for Afrodescendants in the Americas Region as a follow-up to the highly successful La Ceiba Seminar of 2001.

We urge the Sub-Commission to place its full support behind the Working Group on Minorities, and establish an International Year for Minorities with a Decade for Minorities to follow, as recommended by the Working Group on Minorities.

Thank you.