The 51st Session of the Human Rights Council

12 September 2022 - 7 October 2022

General Debate Item 9 : Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, follow-up to and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action

4 October 2022

Statement of the Association Ma’onah for Human Rights and Immigration and Geneva International Centre for Justice

Delivered by Rute Belahcew

Thank you,

The Durban Declaration represented the international community's unequivocal commitment to combat racism and associated intolerance at the national and international levels. To do so, we must first acknowledge the value of all human beings by identifying the harm inflicted by colonialism and white supremacy. 

Discriminatory laws frequently target and uproot indigenous populations across the globe, such as the Maasai in Eastern Africa and First Nations people in North and South America. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, persecution and house demolition have devastated families for decades. This contempt for Indigenous peoples is pervasive as the technological sector continues to receive governmental support despite their harmful extraction practices. Extractions of resources, like lithium and cobalt, destroy their ecosystems and harm their capacity to cultivate crops for sustenance until they are eventually displaced. 

Furthermore, the alarming number of Indigenous women who continue to disappear in the United States and Canada demonstrate the harm caused by silence. 

Ma'onah and Geneva International Centre for Justice call on nations to reevaluate laws that enable for the ongoing oppression of indigenous peoples. Lastly, we implore states to implement comprehensive legislative frameworks in accordance with the Declaration and Programme of Action to ensure that all institutions responsible for perpetuating cycles of systematic racism and discrimination end before it’s too late. 

Thank you.