Dr. Barryl Biekman, the founder of the African Union African Diaspora Sixth Region Facilitators Working Group-Europe (AUADSFWG) and Civil Society Speaker in 2014 during the United Nations launching of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), has called on the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent and Senior Officials of the United Nations, to join hands in the fight against all forms of racism and promotion of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA).

The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) is the United Nation's blueprint to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance globally.

“I’m using this expression, to emphasize that we can only be successful in the fight against all forms of multiple racism if we do what we have promised: defending and promoting the full implementation of the DDPA which is the strongest universal document of the United Nations’-programs to realize the rights of all victims of racism including Afrophobia, racial discrimination, and Reparatory, Restorative, and Climate justice,” she said.

Biekman, at the third Session, General Debate of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD3) held on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland, tasked her audience to stand up and to speak out against the disinformation and false propaganda against the DDPA.

“We can no longer be silent about the undermining and defamation of the DDPA that has taken place during the past 23 years and now escalated to the extreme,” she explained.

Calling for the need to silence oppositions who are undermining the DDPA and its implementation, she stressed that, “Without the DDPA we would not have been as close as we are today in having a global Platform positioned to recognize the unfulfilled rights of Africans and People of African Descent at the United Nations and in the Sphere of the global society. During this 3rd Forum Session we must come out with a crystal-clear Statement that the time is now, is today to say, ‘No to the denial of the DDPA’ in the name of People of African Descent and that we shall not settle down for anything less than our birthright, collective rights, and our human rights.”

During this 3rd Forum Session, Dr. Biekman alerted the senior officials of the United Nations to stand up and to speak out against the disinformation and false propaganda against the DDPA as “during many occasions, we experience the absence of different countries when it concerns activities concerning the DDPA.”

She furthered that “Our concerns are especially with regards to the young generations black and white, in short, from all ethnic Groups who are implicitly deprived of knowledge about the meaning and importance of the DDPA,” adding that the important task is for the Permanent Forum in the field of expertise promotion and capacity building on the implementation of the DDPA.

Noting education as a principal tool for the DDPA as a context, she cited that the Tiye International C. S. is not the only organization that is concerned about the insufficient knowledge about the DDPA, expressing that Permanent Forum should take up the roles of education and promotion as the center of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent.

While advocating for African-centered curricula in the context of restorative justice to educate people, she added that “we believe that the emphasis should not only be on education as a tool for capacity-building in general, but that within the education systems, People of African Descent should be given real and fair opportunities.”

“We further draw to your attention the test modalities that are used. What we see is that students of African Descent are too often qualified as insufficiently suitable for higher education. This is due to the test models that are used. That's why we're advocating for a better coherence between the educational programmes in relation to the effect of fair and equal opportunities for People of African descent to get out the marginalization position,” she concluded.