Oral Statement to the 60th Session of the Commission on Human Rights
15 March to 23 April, 2004
Agenda Item 14: Specific groups and individuals: (b) Minorities
Speaker: Mr. Silis Muhammad
Alternate: Ms. Ana Leurinda
I have been asked to speak on behalf of the Afro descendant leader, Mr. Silis Muhammad. Mr. Muhammad could not remain in Geneva over the holiday, beyond the scheduled time allotted for Item 14. Here is his statement:
Due in part to the efforts of the Working Group on Minorities, for the first time in the history of our sojourn, we who are descendants of enslaved Africans collectively took on the identity of Afro descendants at La Ceiba, Honduras in March 2002
We are unlike other people of African descent who live today in different parts of the world. They still have their identity; their mother tongue, and their tribal kinships, and they can enjoy the protection and assistance of their national authorities, if they so choose. But we, who were rendered a stateless people by slavery, were deprived of all of these most precious possessions, and are denied and deprived still of these rights; to enjoy our mother tongue, culture and religion. We cannot reclaim our grandparents – we are orphans in the earth to this day. Four hundred years of forced mixed breeding during slavery and its lingering effects have rendered us unprotected by human rights law.
We remained quiescent for a long period of time, in the names African American, Afro-American, Blacks, Negro, colored and so on. But today we have taken on the identity “Afro descendants” in some nineteen countries in North, Central and South America and throughout the Slavery Diaspora. Therefore, we Afro descendants request the recognition, protection and assistance of the Commission on Human Rights, and the authorities of the UN. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I have just read the AFRE statement, but I am not the person who should have read it. Wednesday, April 7, minority representatives were scheduled to speak to the Commission on Human Rights under item 14 (b). On that day, when the Secretary General spoke about the importance of protecting minorities, consideration of item 14 was pushed forward into the future. Some leaders of minority communities who travelled to the UN have been forced to return home without speaking because the Commission has fallen behind schedule. This has happened to the Afro descendant leader, Mr. Muhammad, three times. Would the Commission consider protecting leaders of minority communities by fixing item 14 as has been done with item 15? Thank you for your consideration.
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