OPENING REMARKS OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL MENDEZ, LAUNCH OF EXHIBIT "RECLAIMING THE LEGACY OF LEADERS OF AFRICAN DESCENT IN THE AMERICAS (1801-1910)"

February 21, 2018 - Washington, DC

Distinguished Permanent Representatives and Permanent Observers
Delegates of Permanent and Observer Missions
Dr Ana Vicky Castillo, Founder of the African Diaspora Museum of Chicago
Mr. Owen Leroy and Mr. Karl Villanueva of Chicago, collaborators on this exciting venture
Distinguished Secretaries and Executive Secretaries
Esteemed guests
Colleagues

I am delighted to extend a most cordial welcome to you to the historic headquarters of our Organization which was founded to do right by all the peoples of the Americas in advancing and promoting their human rights, in strengthening democracy and the sustained security of our States, and in expanding avenues for human and social development across all fields of endeavour.

The work of the OAS through its programmes delivers tangible benefits to the citizens of the Americas, and speaks in direct ways to all facets of their lives, including the obvious deliverables of improved socio-economic opportunities through equitable access to education, health care, and fundamental rights and freedoms. Equally important to the core ethos of a hemisphere in which all peoples are recognized for the inherent value of their humanity and their contribution to our States, is the elemental significance of the richness of our diversity, and an appreciation of how this can be celebrated by honoring all of the peoples whose vibrancy makes us who we are as citizens of the Americas.

Over the 70 years of its existence, the OAS has never shirked its responsibility to serve as a catalyst for such recognition. My Office, for its part, has stridently embraced over the past two years, the opportunity to recognize and to promote the contribution of people of African descent in the Americas, and this year, working collaboratively with the OAS Art Museum of the Americas, we again seized the opportunity to partner with Dr Ana Castillo and her team from the African Diaspora Museum of Chicago to present today’s exhibit which will at once surprise and edify you.
It would be remiss of us to not acknowledge the evident absence of female representation in this body of work. While we are aware that many women played a vital leadership role in many resistance and liberation struggles, during the epoch they did not ascend to the ultimate leadership role. We use this opportunity to pay homage to all those Afro-descendant women whose leadership had remained invisible during this epoch.

In seeking to highlight the Organization’s laudable efforts to strengthen and to promote mechanisms to address the vestiges of personal and institutional prejudices left over from slavery, I am pleased to detail the following advances by the OAS in speaking directly to the Plan of Action for Persons of African Descent in the Americas (2016-2025), arising from the ‘Inter-American Convention against Racism and all forms of discrimination and intolerance’ which was negotiated and approved in 2013 by the Member States :

In June 2016 at the Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly in the Dominican Republic, Member States approved the Plan of Action for Persons of African Descent in the Americas (2016-2025), by which a framework is institutionalized for the implementation of policies, programs, and projects as well as guidelines for cooperation with other regional and national organizations to recognize and promote the rights of persons of African descent in the Americas. This Plan of Action adheres to the principles underpinning the proclamation of 2015-2024 by the United Nations as the International Decade for People of African Descent under the theme, "People of African descent: recognition, justice and development.” I recognize the work of the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, H.E. Andres Gonzalez, for his leadership in chairing the working group that was established to draft this OAS Plan of Action, as well as the efforts of Permanent Missions of Antigua and Barbuda, Panama, and Ecuador who served as vice-chairs and were integral to the working group’s success.
The Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity (SARE), headed by Mauricio Rands, was charged with monitoring and implementing the Plan of Action. Through its Department of Social Inclusion, SARE has collaborated with numerous organizations to produce reports on the situation of persons of African descent in the Americas. The Department is also preparing a publication entitled, “Afrodescendientes e Inclusión Social: Más Equidad, Más Derechos”.

The Department has participated in and organized numerous fora to discuss the work of the OAS in the implementation of the Plan of Action. In June of this year, it will collaborate with the Ministry of Culture of Peru and Harvard University to organize the First Inter-American Meeting of High Policy Authorities for the Afro descendant Population (I Reunión Interamericana de Altas Autoridades de Política para Población Afrodescendiente) to be held in Lima, Peru.

Other OAS Secretariats as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the OAS Art Museum of the Americas have also carried out work within the framework of the Plan of Action for the International Decade for People of African Descent.

The success of the last 2 years and the keen interest by Member States has led my office to seek to give institutional grounding to our events held within the framework of the Plan of Action and in celebration of Black History Month.

Just this morning the OAS Permanent Council approved two respective resolutions to establish the Inter-American Week for People of African Descent in the Americas and the Inter-American Week of Indigenous Peoples. The Inter-American Week for People of African Descent in the Americas will be held around March 25th, the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. The activities which marked Black History Month in February will now migrate to this Inter-American week in March, leading to greater visibility of the issues affecting afro-descendants and increased awareness of their contributions to the development of the Americas. This year, my office is planning to host several events to mark the week including a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; a Forum entitled, “From Africa to the Americas: Traditional Herbal Remedies of Afro-descendants”, and a Special Permanent Council to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery.

The work of the OAS underscores its commitment to paving through dialogue, deliberation, and action the path to justice, equality and equity, based on the acceptance of our common humanity as citizens of the Americas.

I recognize and applaud Dr Castillo for her inspiration to stay the course through the challenges of this research, unearthing data from an era in which recording and documenting the lives of people of African descent must have been undertaken with sporadic infrequency. Entitled ‘Reclaiming the Legacy of Leaders of African descent in the Americas (1801-1910)’, the objective of the exhibition is to illuminate facets central to the comprehensive history of the Americas to which we have been exposed only in part; for the real history of the peoples of the Americas will not be completely chronicled until an accurate and balanced account of our individual and blended histories has been laid bare for our consumption towards our holistic development as a united people.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, with these words, it is my pleasure to declare officially open the exhibition ‘Reclaiming the Legacy of Leaders of African descent in the Americas (1801-1910)’.

Thank you.