Christina Meinecke, Regional Representative for Europe,
Office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
19 March 2025

Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, friends, ENAR and collaborators who are, each year, the driving force behind the Anti-Racism and Diversity week and the anti-racism agenda in general.

It is an honour to be here with you to strengthen our collaboration across two deeply intertwined concepts that shape the future of social justice: anti-racism and transformative justice.

My main message for today is that if we want to overcome the current structural racism and racial discrimination, we need transformative justice.

Let me start with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

This quote reminds us of the interconnectedness of humanity and the importance of addressing injustice wherever it occurs. Addressing injustice related to systemic and structural racism is an individual, institutional and community issue, and the demand for justice is universal.

When we think about justice in the context of racism, we must go beyond punitive measures. Transformative justice is a model that seeks to heal and repair relationships, rather than simply assigning blame and punishment. It emphasizes accountability, the restoration of dignity, and the rebuilding of community.

Transformative justice encourages us to look at the root causes of harm—not just the act itself—and to approach the process of justice with empathy and inclusivity. This framework is deeply relevant in anti-racism work, where communities of color often face disproportionate harm and criminalization.

Transformative justice challenges us to ask: How can we rebuild what has been broken in a way that restores both the harmed and the harm-doer?

Please allow me to highlight UN efforts in this regard.

All of you have been in many discussions including during previous anti-racism and diversity weeks. You are familiar and celebrating later today the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which has provided a robust framework for tackling racism. We all engage with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which regularly reviews the efforts of States parties to combat racism and provides guidance for example through its General Comments but also recommendations addressed to States Parties. We use its recommendations -over 2500 recommendations addressed to EU Member States- to inform legislation, policies and action. Other relevant initiatives in the United Nations come from its Member States, like the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the First and Second Decade for People of African Descent.

Today, I thought to share with you an initiative with which you may not yet be so familiar, but which is very relevant to our discussion.

I want to focus on the Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality for Africans and people of African descent, which can easily be extrapolated to any other racialized community.

The murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020 in the United States and the ensuing protests thereafter marked a watershed in the fight against racism. Responding to this situation, the Human Rights Council met in an urgent debate and adopted resolution 43/1, asking the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a comprehensive report on systemic racism, violations of international human rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, to contribute to accountability and redress for victims; and to examine government responses to anti-racism protests.

The High Commissioner presented her report in July 2021, grounded in the lived experiences of families of victims and people of African descent. Listening to those voices, the need for a global transformative agenda for racial justice and equality was clear. You can find it as an Annex to that report (A/HRC/47/53).

What is the Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality?

The four-point Agenda sets out key changes that are needed, which, if comprehensively implemented, would:

1. Reverse the cultures of denial, dismantle systemic racism and accelerate the pace of action;
2. End impunity for human rights violations by law enforcement officials and close trust deficits;
3. Ensure that the voices of people of African descent and those who stand up against racism are heard and that their concerns are acted upon; and
4. Confront legacies, including through accountability and redress.

Let me suggest that as an outcome to this anti-racism week, a recommendation could be to integrate the steps from this “Agenda Towards Transformative Change for Racial Justice and Equality”, in the forthcoming post 2025 EU Anti-Racism Strategy. The Anti-Racism Strategy should also link its action points against the human rights indicators framework specifically to those that relate to justice, security, life and liberty of the person. Another recommendation could be to integrate the Agenda Towards Transformative Change at national level in Anti-Racism or Equality Action Plans and in particularly guide and inform the work of the justice administration, prosecution and security sectors.

OHCHR stands ready to provide further guidance in support of all of these efforts.

As I said at the outset, we need a whole of society approach to combat racism and related injustices. And I am very pleased to recall that we have two initiatives supporting transformative justice that have recently materialized: 1. the establishment of the Pan African Coalition for Reparatory Justice, Chapter Belgium (led by PAD Belgium) and 2. the European Working Group on Transitional Justice for Roma (led by ERGO Network).

Let us continue our efforts to prove that change is possible.

Thank you.