The Puerto Rico Community Foundation testified at one of the main meetings of the Third Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
San Juan, PR, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 Puerto Rico was present at the Third Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent of the United Nations Organization (UN), which culminated on Friday, April 19 in Geneva, Switzerland. The forum was held under the motto The Second International Decade for People of African Descent: Combating systemic racism, restorative justice and sustainable development.
The president and chief executive officer of the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR), the Dr. Nelson I. Colón Tarrats, had a turn on April 17 during the time allotted to civil society. During their speech, they addressed the racial situation in Puerto Rico and its close link to the colonial context, which still permeates our archipelago today, calling for the organization to speak out on the decolonization of Puerto Rico.
Furthermore, he suggested some considerations to be adopted for the second decade, starting in 2025. Among the considerations presented is the inclusion of qualitative and quantitative indicators that favor the periodic measurement of the impacts of the social movement of people of African descent; and he highlighted the potential of combining the resources of Member States with those of the philanthropic sector.
“From civil society, we can take initiatives to contribute to the sustainability of jobs through the construction of racial equity,» mentioned Dr. Colón Tarrats.
The meeting brings together a diversity of sectors, at a global level, to broadly discuss Afro-descendants and how to achieve a state of equity for Afro-descendant people. The FCPR delegation was composed of Dr. Nelson I. Colón Tarrats, the vice president of the FCPR Board of Directors, licensed Vivian I. Neptune Rivera; and the program director Racial Equity Building for the Americas (REBIA) of the FCPR, Hiram Williams Figueroa, J.D. Puerto Rico also featured a very fitting presentation by Dr. Palmira Ríos.
The UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, established in 2022, was created after the Statement of International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). The Forum serves as a consultative body for Afro-descendant people seeking to improve the safety, quality of life, and livelihoods of this community. It is also an advisory body to the Human Rights Council. According to an official document from the event organizers, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), since “The International Decade is drawing to a close, it is time to reflect on the achievements and shortcomings of the initiative, and to formulate recommendations on the tangible measures to be taken in the next 10 years.”.
On the other hand, FCPR, along with its REBIA program, sponsored the parallel event Building roads to sustainability for the racial equity agenda at the behest of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, focused on exploring alternatives to attract funds for the Permanent Forum. This included the participation of the entire Puerto Rican philanthropic delegation, members of the Forum, including its new president, June Sooners; and members of Open Society y from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.