On August 2nd the United States of America like The Gambia voted in the United Nations General Assembly to create the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. The Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (#PFPAD) represents over 1.6 billion people of African Descent around the world, including 30m plus voters in the USA – voters for whom President Biden credits his 2020 victory.
According to Dr. Kofi Agyapong, a Board Member of Friends of the African Union and Chairman of the African Diaspora Directorate, “A Permanent Forum on People of African Descent is the most appropriate and vital mechanism with which to bring coherence to a host of instruments that have been tried and tested through the United Nations, and sometimes, through other international arrangements. Structural and systemic anti-Black racism manifests in the climate crisis, global public health crisis, state violence, economic inequality, and various other markers of human life. Not only is it time to create intergovernmental and civil society coherence to address the broad swath of issues affecting people of African descent—it is the best way for the United Nations to ensure that it is indeed a relevant international body, current and willing to address issues that have reached a breaking point.”
The vote was an opportunity for the Biden Harris Administration to heal, hope, and emerge from the countries darkest historic moments that started with enslavement of Africans in the English colonies that would become the USA on August 25th 1619. According to Hershel Daniels Junior Chairman of Friends of the African Union, “This vote the USA shows the world a resolve that a future for African Americans is part of an unprecedented American revival as envisioned by Presidential Executive Order 13985, issued on day 1 of the Biden-Harris Presidency”.
Executive Order 13985, officially titled Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, is the first executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. It purports to advance racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government.
In his Juneteenth message, United States President Biden stated in regards to Africans in the USA, “Juneteenth is a day of profound weight and power. A day in which we remember the moral stain and terrible toll of slavery on our country –- what I’ve long called America’s original sin. A long legacy of systemic racism, inequality, and inhumanity”.
These actions are inline with what the President said on the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, “great nations don’t ignore the most painful chapters of their past. Great nations confront them. We come to terms with them.”
Working The Gambia we plan to come to terms with the history of the United States and others in enslaving Africans as part of not only the transatlantic slave trade in the Americas but that to the Arab lands. This work is based on July 13th 2021 when Antony J. Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State issued a press statement entitled, “U.S. Leadership on Human Rights and Ending Systemic Racism.” According to Chairman Daniels we agree to this statement which said, “This Administration is deeply dedicated to addressing racial injustice and inequities at home and abroad. On the global stage, the United States is leading by example.” The actions August 2nd on the vote for Permanent Forum for People of African Descent as an example of the leadership we can expect from a Biden Harris Administration.
Dr. Agyapong believes that the United States strong support of the creation of the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent will support our full engagement in the modalities to shape its mandate. We will work with the Biden-Harris Administration in dismantling systemic racism and achieving racial justice using established financial tools.
It is in part a vital first step in the Global Black Folks Plan a human rights based proposal to the Biden Harris Administration in the creation of a public private partnership (P3) using the Daniels IDIQ. The P3 capitalization will be based on a 75-year investment from investors. The federal reserve financial institutions to be involved already have created $298B in bank based community benefit agreements under leadership of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (ncrc.org). We are signature to $118B of them including the newest a $88B 4 year agreement with PNC (https://ncrc.org/pnc-bank-ncrc-announce-88-billion-community-investment-commitment/).
At the forefront of our joint agenda is working within the The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as members of the global African Diaspora. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (also known as the Banjul Charter) is an African Union human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent. It established the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Commission was inaugurated in 1987 and the Commission’s Secretariat has subsequently been located in Banjul, The Gambia.
According to Chairman Daniels from this relationship we, as members of the global African Diaspora, Friends of the African Union and the African Diaspora Directorate, working together within the United Nations Human Rights Council for the worlds 1.6 People of African Descent, will engage the Commission’s Secretariat in developing a 21st century Human Rights Agenda in the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent. This work will be in line with their submissions to the Working Groups of Experts on People of African Descent and other UN activities such as the Universal Periodic Review of the USA, Nigeria and Mexico.
Both Dr. Agyapong and Chairman Daniels believe that the world through the United Nations has reached another important milestone on this collective journey: the establishment of a Permanent Forum for People of African Descent. This forum represents the full acknowledgement that, at long last, we are compelled to give voice to the dynamic challenges and aspirations of People of African Descent around the world. The Permanent Forum for People of African Descent has the potential to united a people with a $5 Trillion Dollar GDP owning collectively over $303T in assets. This forum is universal in its purview; and can be shaped to be forward-looking in its agenda. It creates a new and necessary space, for all People of African Descent, to come together and build a better future. The Gambia is a central part of the vision according to the Friends of the African Union.
By Friends of The African Union
Hershel Daniels Junior
Phone: 01.626.977.5282
WhatsApp: 01.513.858.527
