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International Day for People of African Descent

Sunday, 31 August 2025

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Culturally and Linguistically Diverse

Honouring the contributions of the African diaspora

As we mark the International Day for People of African Descent this year, we also mark the final year of the International Decade for People of African Descent, an initiative launched by the United Nations General Assembly to recognize people in the Americas, who are of African descent as a distinct group whose human rights must be safeguarded. Through this Observance the United Nations aims to promote the extraordinary contributions of the African diaspora around the world and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against people of African descent.

International days reflect the values that society shares. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and have the potential to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of their societies. Any doctrine of racial superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous and must be rejected, together with theories that attempt to determine the existence of separate human races.

The United Nations strongly condemns the continuing violent practices and excessive use of force by law enforcement agencies against Africans and people of African descent and condemns structural racism in criminal justice systems around the world. The Organization further acknowledges the Transatlantic Slave Trade as one of the darkest chapters in our human history and upholds human dignity and equality for the victims of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism, in particular people of African descent in the African diaspora.