Photo: Screenshot UNWebTV. Mirtha Colon delivers her statement on behalf of ISHR, ONECA, and Race & Equality.
During the General Debate 9 at the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, held on 30 March, the Organización Negra Centroamericana (ONECA), ISHR, and Race & Equality presented a joint statement regarding the current situation of the Garifuna community of Honduras.
Mirtha Colón, president of ONECA, stated that migration is the only hope for the Garifuna’s population, once they face accentuated rates of police violence and racial profiling and are victims of arbitrary detentions, threats, and assassinations. Alongside this situation, institutionalised racism and social exclusion deepen this population’s access to quality education, housing, health, and social security.
Demanding recognition, justice, and development, Mirtha Colon requests that the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) call on the Honduran State to stop criminalising human rights defenders from the Garifuna’s community, as a matter of urgency.
Read the ISHR, ONECA, and Race & Equality statement here or watch it below:
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The NGO Forum, ahead of the 85th ACHPR’s session in Banjul, held several panel discussions on the AU 2025 theme 'Reparations: Justice for Africans and People of African Descent' with different focuses, including the regional and UN standards on reparations, economic justice, as well as discrimination in Africa based on work and descent.
UN report sheds light on procedural shortcomings in criminal proceedings against African and Afrodescendants.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)'s report on reparatory justice recognises that reparations are necessary to dismantle systemic racism.
