The United Nations would implement human rights initiatives for people of African descent in the next decade, in particular equal access to justice, said Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.
Addressing a Human Rights Day Event Tuesday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Eliasson said this year's Human Rights Day Wednesday, would also mark the beginning of the UN's Decade of People of African Descent.
"This will be an opportunity to shine a light upon the inequality experienced by Africans and the African diaspora in the world and to raise awareness of the historic burden of slavery and colonialism," he said.
Noting the "anguished, but vitally important" public debate on violent police action and racial profiling in the United States at present, Eliasson said these tragedies expose the need to do more everywhere around the world to ensure fairness in justice and law enforcement and to promote and uphold human rights for all.
"The people of African descent are some of the poorest and most marginalised groups around the world," he said. "They may experience discrimination in access to justice and they face alarmingly high rates of incarceration."
Eliasson also said that the UN will soon install at its headquarters a permanent memorial in honour of the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.
Last year, a UN General Assembly resolution declared that the International Decade for People of African Descent would start on Jan 1, 2015 and end on Dec 31, 2024, with the theme "People of African descent: recognition, justice and development."
The General Assembly proclaimed Dec 10 as Human Rights Day in 1950.
