Opening statement by Elena Kountouri Tapiero, Acting Regional Representative, OHCHR, Regional Office for Europe, Brussels

27 August 2024, UN House

Good morning colleagues and friends.

Let me extend a warm welcome and gratitude to all speakers and participants, whether you are joining us in person or online.

In particular let me acknowledge the presence from:

DG Just, Anti-Racism Coordination team, Ms. Tanja Florath and Ms. Vanessa Kabuta

EPHA Director, Ms. Milka Sokolovic

Distinguished Academics, leading researchers in the field of health and racism

The DISQo Network

Civil society organizations

Colleagues from UN agencies in the field and headquarters

Health Practitioners

We have chosen 27th of August, as the day for our event, in commemoration of 31st August, which is the International Day for People of African Descent.

This is a day to promote greater recognition for – and celebrate – the diverse heritage and contributions of people of African descent to the development of our societies.

Let me also acknowledge that on Friday , 23 August, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, at its 113th session adopted General Recommendation 37 on racial discrimination and the enjoyment of the right to health, jointly elaborated by WHO and the Committee.

Fighting racism and racial discrimination, is a priority for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. One of the six pillars of the human rights programme is non-discrimination and equality. Anti-racism work is embedded in the remaining five pillars, which are mutually reinforcing. The Office has deployed anti-racism discrimination advisors to the five regions of the world, including for the European region in Brussels, my colleague Mila Paspalanova. We work closely with policy makers and civil society in defining, supporting the implementation, and measuring the impact of anti-racism policy, programs and strategies at the regional and national level.

Today we are very pleased and proud to present and deliver formally to the European Commission (EC) a document containing policy recommendations for the forthcoming post 2025 EU Anti-racism Action Plan (ARAP).

This has been elaborated through a broad consultative process and engagement with civil society, academia, health practitioners, victims of human rights violations, stakeholders representing public institutions and most importantly people of African descent.

This would not have been possible without the excellent collaboration extended to us by the Commission, in particular the Anti-Racism Coordinator, which also allowed us to form important partnerships, such as the one with EPHA. EPHA are leading EU public health advocates with over 30 years of history in Europe.

We started working together with EPHA by zooming on specific human rights challenges faced by racialized communities (including Roma) and really “dissecting” social rights. We focused on the unaddressed, traditionally overlooked or highly difficult to work on components of the right to heath, with the objective to bridge the gap between abundant academic evidence on the violations of the right to health to racialized communities, and also lived experiences on the one hand, and public policy on the other hand.

I want to pay tribute to the very high level of collective expertise of all professionals and stakeholders supporters of the anti-racism cause who have participated since last year in our collective endeavour.

We are grateful to both the EC and EPHA, for having opened the space and allowing us to contribute to the implementation of the current EU ARAP and to start contributing to the post 2025 EU ARAP.

On 26-27 June, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) held a two-day conference focusing on the right to health for People of African Descent, and co-organized with Artikel 1 Midden Nederland and De Hofnar Present B.V. . The event featured distinguished speakers from the European Commission and the Dutch Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. It included panel discussions, case studies, and interactive sessions. Key topics included the impact of racism on health, challenges in accessing healthcare, and methods for high-standard equality data collection. The event aimed to develop actionable recommendations to feed into the next cycle of the EU Anti-racism Action Plan, promoting health equity and combating racism across Europe.

The very rich body of recommendations for the post 2025 EU ARAP focuses on:

Recognizing racism and discrimination against People of African Descent communities as fundamental determinants of health

Strengthening the meaningful involvement of affected communities

Using respectful and inclusive language to enhance the quality of dialogue and discourse

Addressing major gaps and challenges regarding the collection, availability and comparability of equality data across EU member states

Breaking down silos in policy mainstreaming efforts

Addressing racism and discrimination in healthcare and science.

Allow me to address specifically the topic of a human rights-based approach (HRBA) to policy, and the fact that the recommendations point to the need to develop the EU ARAP with a HRBA lens.

The components of a HRBA to policy that the forthcoming EU ARAP should base itself upon are:

A human-rights based approach to policy and program development means that particular attention be given to people who may be in a vulnerable or disadvantaged situation based on grounds such as gender, race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin, disability or any other such characteristic. This includes ensuring that people are not subject to discriminatory treatment and that policies and programs should account for pre-existing sources of discrimination and inequity.

The HRBA is derived from international and domestic human rights obligations and is used to promote and protect human rights in policy and program development. At its core is the recognition that inequality and marginalization deny people their human rights and often keep them in poverty.

A HRBA seeks to analyse inequalities and redress discriminatory practices. It empowers the most marginalized communities by supporting their participation and inclusion in program or policy development and strengthens the capacity of government, policy and decision makers to respect, protect and fulfill their legal human rights obligations.

A HRBA ensures that program or policy development, implementation, management, budgeting and ongoing monitoring consider human rights principles and goals including equality and non-discrimination, participation of impacted groups, and oversight and accountability.

Let me conclude by underlining that this is only one of a series of further events and consultations we will have for shaping the post 2025 EU ARAP.

The focus on health and cross cutting issues such as participation and data is just the beginning of this process. Until the end this year and next year, we will continue to carry out consultative processes on social rights, participation, and other relevant topics for the post-2025 EU anti-racism agenda. We also trust that we can expand further our solid network with you to nurture the European and selected national agendas on eradicating racism.

A big thank you again to the EC for their commitment with the implementation of cross cutting principles such as participation and accountability, demonstrated through all the collaborative events we have together and for supporting the open fora for consultation on how the post 2025 EU ARAP should be shaped.