91Â鶹¹ú²ú¾«Æ·×ÔÅÄ

With this remark, Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO, explained the effort to revamp the at the first-ever event presenting its work. UNESCO is the 2021 Co-Chair of the Network, and through this Network leads the UN system in the fight against racism together with the permanent Co-Chair, OHCHR, represented by Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris.

Convened on the margins of the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council and on the International Day of Peace (21 September 2021), this online event brought together permanent missions of UN Member States, and members of the Network. The co-sponsoring by 11 UN Member States was a tangible indication of support and enthusiasm about the Network’s potential.

The UN Network on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, which now unites over 20 UN agencies and about 200 UN staff, was created in 2012 by decision of the UN Secretary-General. Over the past 18 months, the Network has been reinvigorated around an eight-pillar work plan for the period up to the end of 2025. Main areas of work include: implementing the Leave No One Behind principle, promoting work on criminal justice, the agenda for protection, communications and knowledge sharing.

This renewed engagement and action came at critical times as the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated racial discrimination and long-standing structural inequalities globally. Both co-chairs underscored the pandemic’s disastrous impact, particularly on minority groups and those subject to the accumulated effects of multiple discriminations, including women. These groups constitute the majority of the more than 97 million people who became poor due to the pandemic in 2020.

To effectively tackle these challenges, Ms Ramos urged key stakeholders and Member States to strengthen cooperation on all fronts, coherence and effective action on the ground, and enhance data availability and disaggregation for context-appropriate policy design. She recalled the importance of political support, as demonstrated by the in December 2020, which gave an impetus for upscaling the Organization’s work.

UNESCO’s firm commitment to this cause is expressed through various initiatives such as the ongoing development of a Roadmap against Racism and Discrimination, the , which will become an annual encounter, the continuation of the , and the expansion of the and the programme on  

The upcoming adoption of will be pivotal in avoiding that datasets and algorithms lead to new venues for discrimination and hate speech. 

The UN Resident Coordinator in the Republic of Moldova, Simon Springett, provided a concrete example of how the work of the Network could be relevant for UN action in the field. He notably praised the elaborated by the Network as a practical tool for a comprehensive situation analysis. He also shared examples of initiatives on the ground to empower Roma populations, such as and their capacity-building to boost participation in elections and decision-making and to support the Roma Community Mediators system, civil servants, CSOs and minority activists at national and local level.

The Member States taking part at an interactive dialogue segment underscored inter alia: the value of a firm political commitment to dismantling structural racism through a critical review of policies and practices; the need to address the compounded effect of multiple grounds of discrimination and exclusion with particular attention to groups such as women and indigenous peoples; the usefulness of guidance and support feeding into policy-decisions; the importance of tackling historical injustices and their impact on the perpetuation of racism and racial discrimination.

In closing, the Co-Chairs thanked Member States for their relevant remarks and support. They  reiterated the Network’s commitment to continue promoting initiatives capable of bringing about positive change on the ground.