Geneva: 13 July 2021 (TDI)- In an interactive dialogue with the UNHR chief Michelle Bachelet on systemic racism, the Permanent Representative of China to the UN’s Geneva office, Ambassador Chen Xu, delivered a joint speech on Monday representing 54 countries across the region. Mr. Chen Xu expressed grave concern over prolonged systemic racism, racial discrimination, and hate crime that Africans and Asians, and people of African and Asian descent suffer and called on the international community to step up efforts to fight it.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, commonly known as Durban I or the World Conference against Racism held in 20o1. The ambassador highlighted that two decades later the fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance remains a long and arduous task.
He expressed his concern for racism against Asians and Africans and said China supports multilateral human rights bodies to deal with the symptoms and root causes of systemic and structural racism, and eliminate legacies of practices of the past that lead to it. In this regard, we welcome the High Commissioner’s report to the Human Rights Council.
Mr. Xu mentioned that during the COVID-19 pandemic, some political and public figures made racist remarks and discriminatory remarks that lead to a surge of discrimination and hate crime against Africans and Asians, especially women and children.
He called for efforts to combat racial discrimination and hate crime against Asians. He also urged political and public figures to stop making racist remarks and fully guarantee the rights of Asians, and the multilateral human rights mechanisms to pay close attention to these issues and consider proper actions.