CALL FOR APPLICATION FOR 2021 IS NOW OPEN
The Fellowship programme for people of African descent is a three-week intensive learning opportunity for people of African descent, from the diaspora, who are engaged in promoting the rights of people of African descent.
It takes place once a year at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
The Fellowship programme provides the participants with the opportunity to:
Purpose of the programmeThe aim is to strengthen participants' skills to contribute to the protection and promotion of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of people of African descent in their respective countries. The participants are equipped with the tools necessary to enhance the development of legislation, policies and programmes; to strengthen collaboration of civil society with governments; and to undertake local awareness-raising activities.
It takes place once a year at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
The Fellowship programme provides the participants with the opportunity to:
- Learn about and deepen their understanding of the international human rights law and the UN human rights system, the international framework to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and intersecting issues with a focus on people of African descent;
- Strengthen skills in developing project proposals, delivering presentations and submitting information to human rights mechanisms;
- Gain first-hand exposure to human rights mechanisms;
- Meet with a wide-range of actors.
Purpose of the programmeThe aim is to strengthen participants' skills to contribute to the protection and promotion of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of people of African descent in their respective countries. The participants are equipped with the tools necessary to enhance the development of legislation, policies and programmes; to strengthen collaboration of civil society with governments; and to undertake local awareness-raising activities.
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
HAPPY GLOBAL AFRICAN WOMEN'S DAY
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Acknowledging the 20th anniversary of the
historic UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa Now released to the public for the first time, a Pan-African film following the case for reparations. |
DURBAN 400
IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, 2001, the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances (WCAR) was held in Durban, South Africa. The DURBAN 400, a grassroots coalition of political activists, educators, and students who without any governmental support, traveled from the United States to Durban to demand reparations for crimes committed against African people through the trans-Atlantic “slave trade”, slavery and colonialism. Through their lobbying efforts, the issue of reparations was placed squarely before an international governmental body, including countries who were directly involved in the slave trade.
This documentary incorporates sound bites, and interviews with activists pointing to the shared frustration and anger around the West’s refusal to address these issues fairly by having key language included in the Final Declaration of the World Conference declaring the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and colonialism as “crimes against humanity”.
The DURBAN 400, who were a relatively small group, represented the aspirations of millions of African people around the world, seeking reparations for, as one activist from the UK expressed it, “the biggest temporal rip in the time space continuum of the development of African peoples.” The role DURBAN 400 played was to keep the pressure on, ensuring that someday soon reparations will be a reality.
“…It was wonderful to see in the Durban 400 video that people’s hearts are never on the ground no matter how long it takes to win justice.”
National Center for Human Rights Education
“Durban 400 documentary provides the much neglected coverage of everyday events at the 2001 WCAR, events so important they had to be recorded for future documenting of the struggle.”
New York Amsterdam News
Cover: Image text to the Final Declaration of the World Conference Against Racism.
Required viewing for Multicultural Studies at Fairfield University 2004
IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, 2001, the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances (WCAR) was held in Durban, South Africa. The DURBAN 400, a grassroots coalition of political activists, educators, and students who without any governmental support, traveled from the United States to Durban to demand reparations for crimes committed against African people through the trans-Atlantic “slave trade”, slavery and colonialism. Through their lobbying efforts, the issue of reparations was placed squarely before an international governmental body, including countries who were directly involved in the slave trade.
This documentary incorporates sound bites, and interviews with activists pointing to the shared frustration and anger around the West’s refusal to address these issues fairly by having key language included in the Final Declaration of the World Conference declaring the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and colonialism as “crimes against humanity”.
The DURBAN 400, who were a relatively small group, represented the aspirations of millions of African people around the world, seeking reparations for, as one activist from the UK expressed it, “the biggest temporal rip in the time space continuum of the development of African peoples.” The role DURBAN 400 played was to keep the pressure on, ensuring that someday soon reparations will be a reality.
“…It was wonderful to see in the Durban 400 video that people’s hearts are never on the ground no matter how long it takes to win justice.”
National Center for Human Rights Education
“Durban 400 documentary provides the much neglected coverage of everyday events at the 2001 WCAR, events so important they had to be recorded for future documenting of the struggle.”
New York Amsterdam News
Cover: Image text to the Final Declaration of the World Conference Against Racism.
Required viewing for Multicultural Studies at Fairfield University 2004
The mobile app for The Fabric of Complicity is back for a short time!
This historic month long exhibition program held at Drammeh Center in 2015, highlights "commerce" as it relates to the enslavement experience in America. In particular, it interrogates the North's complicity with the cotton crop that was used to drive and sustain northern economies.
The anchor of this exhibit, features selected colorful paintings by artist John W. Jones, from his collection, The Color of Money. These paintings demonstrate Jones’ interpretation of the largely forgotten iconography found on paper money issued by the Confederate States of America that depict vignettes of enslaved men, women and children as they labor and pick cotton. Jones has researched as many as 90 images of slavery on American Confederate currency for several years and has used his art to bring these images into a "new light".
It is our honor to host this debate once again by re-introducing the exhibit as a mobile app which shows Jones' images paired with the actual bills. The app for Fabric of Complicity is live at here, and designed for use on smartphones and tablets.
A special thanks to master painter John W. Jones with selected paintings from his collection, The Color of Money, Chuma Gallery, Stacey Ann Ellis, co curator, Alfred Santana, videographer, Gladys DeJesus, soulful songstress, Dr. Sade Turnipseed, Founder of The Cotton Pickers Monument - a KHAFRE, Inc project, Dr. William Seraile, and support from, AfroAtlantic Theologies & Treaties Institute, Dr. Vilna Treitler, Michael McKinney, Deborah C. Nelson, and Humanities New York and Oncell.
For queries on Fabric of Complicity presentations, contact us here.
The anchor of this exhibit, features selected colorful paintings by artist John W. Jones, from his collection, The Color of Money. These paintings demonstrate Jones’ interpretation of the largely forgotten iconography found on paper money issued by the Confederate States of America that depict vignettes of enslaved men, women and children as they labor and pick cotton. Jones has researched as many as 90 images of slavery on American Confederate currency for several years and has used his art to bring these images into a "new light".
It is our honor to host this debate once again by re-introducing the exhibit as a mobile app which shows Jones' images paired with the actual bills. The app for Fabric of Complicity is live at here, and designed for use on smartphones and tablets.
A special thanks to master painter John W. Jones with selected paintings from his collection, The Color of Money, Chuma Gallery, Stacey Ann Ellis, co curator, Alfred Santana, videographer, Gladys DeJesus, soulful songstress, Dr. Sade Turnipseed, Founder of The Cotton Pickers Monument - a KHAFRE, Inc project, Dr. William Seraile, and support from, AfroAtlantic Theologies & Treaties Institute, Dr. Vilna Treitler, Michael McKinney, Deborah C. Nelson, and Humanities New York and Oncell.
For queries on Fabric of Complicity presentations, contact us here.
HAPPY GLOBAL AFRICAN WOMEN'S DAY - March 16, 2020
Viola PLUMMER, Chair and Founding Member,
December 12th Movement
Viola Plummer started her political work as a youth leader of the NAACP. She has worked hard for Black people’s self determination in many organizations including the African Liberation Support Committee, Mobilization Committee Against Police Brutality, Black Men’s Movement against Crack and the Harriet Tubman-Fannie Lou Hamer Collective. From union organizing in Mississippi to organizing the Durban 400 to the World Conference Against Racism, Viola has always pushed for grassroots leadership and working class discipline. “Tell no lies and claim no easy victories!
Valdecir NASCIMENTO, Coordinator for Brazil, Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora
Valdecir Nascimento, 59, is a prominent women’s rights advocate in Brazil and the Executive Coordinator of ODARA–Instituto da Mulher Negra (Black Women´s Institute), based in Salvador, Brazil. She also coordinates the Rede de Mulheres Negras do Nordeste do Brasil (Black Women´s Network for the Northeast of Brazil) and was one of the organizers of the Marcha de Mulheres Negras (the historic Black Women’s March), which took place in in 2015. Nascimento speaks about the black women’s movement in Brazil and the mounting infringement of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Stella Mystica SABIITI, UN Women Advisor to the African Union’s Network of Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation (FEMWISE-AFRICA)
Over the years Stella Mystica Sabiiti has developed a comprehensive approach to conflict transformation, grounded in her personal experience of war and torture, and a life spent as a refugee on three continents. Stella served as team leader for the operationalization of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) at the AU and in the Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD) in the Bureau of the Chairperson. In 2002 she led a successful peace process between the Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF2) rebel group. She has taught at the European Peace University (EPU) in Stadtschlaining, Austria and at the World Peace Academy, University of Basel in Switzerland. She belongs to the Community of Experts on UNSCR 1325 as well as being a qualified Senior Mission Leader for Peace Support Operations (PSOs). Stella is leading the launching of a new initiative on Positive Masculinities/Barbershops at the AU Peace and Security Department.
Rev. Dr. Nkechi Madonna Agwu, Ph. D., aka, Nma Jacob is a Professor of Mathematics and former Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching Learning and Scholarship at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. She is an Ethno-mathematician and a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow for a collaborative project, “Culture, History, Women’s Stories: A Framework for Capacity Building in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Related Fields and for Fostering Entrepreneurship with the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja, Nigeria. She is a titled as Chief Ada Bende in Abia State, Nigeria, and Queen of Igedeland in Benue State, Nigeria, for her work in facilitating STEM education, vocational skills acquisition, agricultural enterprise and small business entrepreneurship among orphans, people with disabilities, children, youth and women. She is the Founder/Vice President of Miracle Agricultural and Real Estate Company in Nigeria. She is also the Founder/CEO of CHI STEM TOYS Foundation in the United States and Nigeria which operates to promote STEM education, educational equity and small business entreprenuership in partnership with Worldwide Association of Small Churches (WASC), the Jacob Agwu Memorial Vocational Education and Entrepreneurship Center in Agbakoli Alayi in Nigeria, and the Jacob Ukeje Agwu International Conference and Media Center in Ozuitem in Nigeria. She is author of several publications, including “God’s Own: The Genesis of Mathematical Story-telling” an autobiography of herself. She is steadfast in her belief that “nothing is impossible with God” – Luke 1:37, and that “those who know their God shall perform exploits” – Daniel 11:32b.
Listen to Dr. Nkechi Agwu on Math Theory
PART I
In this intimate conversation at Drammeh Center Dr. Agwu discusses indigenous African knowledge as a framework for capacity building in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Related Fields.
PART II
Dr. Agwu discusses indigenous African knowledge as a framework for capacity building in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Related Fields as well as the representation of women and girls in Mathematics.
Viola PLUMMER, Chair and Founding Member,
December 12th Movement
Viola Plummer started her political work as a youth leader of the NAACP. She has worked hard for Black people’s self determination in many organizations including the African Liberation Support Committee, Mobilization Committee Against Police Brutality, Black Men’s Movement against Crack and the Harriet Tubman-Fannie Lou Hamer Collective. From union organizing in Mississippi to organizing the Durban 400 to the World Conference Against Racism, Viola has always pushed for grassroots leadership and working class discipline. “Tell no lies and claim no easy victories!
Valdecir NASCIMENTO, Coordinator for Brazil, Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora
Valdecir Nascimento, 59, is a prominent women’s rights advocate in Brazil and the Executive Coordinator of ODARA–Instituto da Mulher Negra (Black Women´s Institute), based in Salvador, Brazil. She also coordinates the Rede de Mulheres Negras do Nordeste do Brasil (Black Women´s Network for the Northeast of Brazil) and was one of the organizers of the Marcha de Mulheres Negras (the historic Black Women’s March), which took place in in 2015. Nascimento speaks about the black women’s movement in Brazil and the mounting infringement of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Stella Mystica SABIITI, UN Women Advisor to the African Union’s Network of Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation (FEMWISE-AFRICA)
Over the years Stella Mystica Sabiiti has developed a comprehensive approach to conflict transformation, grounded in her personal experience of war and torture, and a life spent as a refugee on three continents. Stella served as team leader for the operationalization of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) at the AU and in the Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD) in the Bureau of the Chairperson. In 2002 she led a successful peace process between the Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF2) rebel group. She has taught at the European Peace University (EPU) in Stadtschlaining, Austria and at the World Peace Academy, University of Basel in Switzerland. She belongs to the Community of Experts on UNSCR 1325 as well as being a qualified Senior Mission Leader for Peace Support Operations (PSOs). Stella is leading the launching of a new initiative on Positive Masculinities/Barbershops at the AU Peace and Security Department.
Rev. Dr. Nkechi Madonna Agwu, Ph. D., aka, Nma Jacob is a Professor of Mathematics and former Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching Learning and Scholarship at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. She is an Ethno-mathematician and a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow for a collaborative project, “Culture, History, Women’s Stories: A Framework for Capacity Building in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Related Fields and for Fostering Entrepreneurship with the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja, Nigeria. She is a titled as Chief Ada Bende in Abia State, Nigeria, and Queen of Igedeland in Benue State, Nigeria, for her work in facilitating STEM education, vocational skills acquisition, agricultural enterprise and small business entrepreneurship among orphans, people with disabilities, children, youth and women. She is the Founder/Vice President of Miracle Agricultural and Real Estate Company in Nigeria. She is also the Founder/CEO of CHI STEM TOYS Foundation in the United States and Nigeria which operates to promote STEM education, educational equity and small business entreprenuership in partnership with Worldwide Association of Small Churches (WASC), the Jacob Agwu Memorial Vocational Education and Entrepreneurship Center in Agbakoli Alayi in Nigeria, and the Jacob Ukeje Agwu International Conference and Media Center in Ozuitem in Nigeria. She is author of several publications, including “God’s Own: The Genesis of Mathematical Story-telling” an autobiography of herself. She is steadfast in her belief that “nothing is impossible with God” – Luke 1:37, and that “those who know their God shall perform exploits” – Daniel 11:32b.
Listen to Dr. Nkechi Agwu on Math Theory
PART I
In this intimate conversation at Drammeh Center Dr. Agwu discusses indigenous African knowledge as a framework for capacity building in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Related Fields.
PART II
Dr. Agwu discusses indigenous African knowledge as a framework for capacity building in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Related Fields as well as the representation of women and girls in Mathematics.
THE GLOBAL AFRICAN WOMEN'S DAY DINNER GALA
HAS BEEN POSTPONED. WE ARE FOLLOWING MEASURES TO ADDRESS PUBLIC SAFETY DURING THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) OUTBREAK. TO RECEIVE UPDATES AND BE ADDED TO OUR MAILING LIST, PLEASE USE THE CONTACT TAB ABOVE.
WATCH THIS SPACE. MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW
HAS BEEN POSTPONED. WE ARE FOLLOWING MEASURES TO ADDRESS PUBLIC SAFETY DURING THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) OUTBREAK. TO RECEIVE UPDATES AND BE ADDED TO OUR MAILING LIST, PLEASE USE THE CONTACT TAB ABOVE.
WATCH THIS SPACE. MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW
RECKONING: The Visible Invisibility of Global African Women Examines identity, development and social protections for women and girls of African descent.
A parallel forum of the 63nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) with region reports from Nigeria, Latin America and Europe that address the role that invisibility plays in social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
RECKONING: The Visible Invisibility of Global African Women is organized with support from the UN Working Group of Experts for People of African Descent, and co-convened/co-sponsored by The Drammeh Institute, BringBackOurGirlsNYC, Murtala Muhammed Foundation, Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora, Tiye International, and African European Women’s Movement “Sophiedela”.
BACKGROUND - 63nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Each year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide.
Guest Speakers:
Opening - iman drammeh, Director, The Drammeh Institute
Supporting the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 - 2024) which aims both to highlight the contribution of people of African descent to societies and strengthen national, regional and international cooperation to ensure the human rights of people of African descent are respected, promoted and fulfilled.
Speakers BiosDominique Day is a member of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a UN special procedures mechanism that reports to the Human Rights Council. She is also a partner at Beldock Levine & Hoffman, a well-known New York City civil rights law firm, and a human rights attorney. She teaches in the Africana Studies department at John Jay College and runs an access to justice platform called, DAYLIGHT | Rule of Law • Access to Justice • Advocacy. Internationally, her litigation, policy, research, teaching, and capacity-building work over the past two decades has focused heavily on racial justice, intersectionality, and human rights advocacy. She has extensive experience in criminal and civil litigation on behalf of individuals and communities within the Black diaspora, in addition to working on rule of law and access to justice issues in post-conflict and transitional States. In 2015-2016, Dominique was a Fulbright Scholar, teaching and researching human rights at Al Quds University in the West Bank. Prior to this, Dominique was a public defender in New York City family and criminal courts, a complex civil litigator, and a policy advisor in New York City and internationally, and clerked in the Eastern District of New York. Dominique holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a juris doctor from Stanford Law School. Dominique is based in New York City.
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome is an International Political Economist whose regional specialization is on the African continent. Educated at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Long Island University, New York, and Columbia University, New York, she’s a Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, CUNY; past Women’s Studies Program Director and past Deputy Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at Brooklyn College. Born in Nigeria, Mojúbàolú has worked on international development issues as a consultant for clients including the United Nations and Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Her teaching interests include a focus on the meanings of inclusive, equitable citizenship in the context of the interplay between globalization, democratization and economic development. Her research interests include: Effects of globalization, post-colonialism, and post-modernity on economic and political transformation; gender, democracy and citizenship in Africa and African Diaspora Studies. Her most recent publications are: two edited books published in 2013 by Palgrave-Macmillan: State Fragility, State Formation, and Human Security in Nigeria; and Contesting the Nigerian State: Civil Society and the Contradictions of Self-Organization; and one book co-edited with Afia Serwaa Zakiya published by Bookbuilders, Ibadan, Nigeria: Women's Political and Legislative Participation in Nigeria: Perspectives From the 2007 Elections. Previously, she co-edited two books with Olufemi Vaughan (January 2012) West African Migrations: Transnational and Global Pathways in a New Century. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, and also with Olufemi Vaughan (January 2012) Transnational Africa and Globalization. NY: Palgrave Macmillan. She founded #BringBackOurGirlsNYC and is founder and editor of Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration.
Aisha MUHAMMED-OYEBODE CEO, Murtala Muhammad Foundation
Aisha Oyebode, CEO of Murtala Muhammed Foundation and leader of the Bring Back Our Girls group in Lagos led the organizing and has worked assiduously these 1003 days on our advocacy to rescue our #Chibok Girls. She also has given material and moral support to the families of our Chibok Girls and others affected by the humanitarian crisis in Northeastern Nigeria. She and I have been taking care of five Chibok Girls here in NYC.
Dorotea Wilson TATHUM was born on September 15, 1948 in Puerto Cabezas, Bilwi. She comes from a family of five sisters and four brothers. Nicaraguan Costeña; Msc. In Gender and Development. Central American University (UCA). Mrs. Wilson inherited the legacy of struggle for women of African descent, who suffer because of their gender and racism. She is an activist and activist for the defense of the Human Rights of Afro-Descendant and Caribbean Women.
She is currently part of the advisory committee of the Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women's Network and at the national level she is the coordinator of Voces Caribeñas, a women's movement that promotes municipal policies with a gender focus in the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast.
Promoter of the First Summit of Afro-Descendant Leaders of the Americas in 2015. In which more than 270 Afro-descendant women from 22 countries of the Region participated, where the Afro-Descendant Leadership Policy Platform was approved with the content of 17 axes and 71 demands for the Decade of the Afro-descendant Population 2014-2024.
Paola YAÑEZ-INOFUENTES, is a Civil Engineer, graduate in International Mechanisms for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Women, an Afro-Bolivian activist, General Coordinator of the Afro-Latin American Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women's Network, Member of the UN Women's Civil Society Advisory Group - LAC, is a facilitator on issues of gender, identity, discrimination, racial discrimination, women's rights, rights of Afro-descendant populations.
Lídice CHAVEZ GAMMIE, Young Nicaraguan Afrofeminist, member of the local Organization Voices Caribbean and Co-Coordinator of the Central American Region in the Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women, graduated from the Sociology career with a mention in Autonomy at the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua URACCAN.
Valdecir NASCIMIENTO- Coordinator for Brazil
Yvette MODESTIN, a writer, poet and activist was born and raised in Colon, Panama. Ms. Modestin was named one of “30 Afro Latinas you should know.” Ms. Modestin has been profiled by the Boston Globe as “The Uniter” for her work in bringing the Latin American and African American community together and for her activism in building a voice for the Afro Latino/Afro descendant Community of Latin America and the Caribbean. She is Founder/Executive Director of Encuentro Diaspora Afro in Boston, MA. Ms. Modestin is the Diaspora Coordinator of the Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora an international network of Afro descendent women.
Dr. Barryl BIEKMAN holds a doctorate degree in Social Sciences and is a renowned politician, lobbyist, networker and broker. A pan-African and women’s activities for almost 47 years, she joined the student movement at the age of 14. By age 21. Biekman Is well-known as a human rights activist with extra focus on African people and in diaspora. General focus: fight against Afrofobie. The implementation of the DDPA and the UN International Decade for People of African Descent which she has titled as the Reparation Decade. Plus the implementation of the African Union African Diaspora 6th region policy (2012).
During the UN WCAR Conference in Durban 2001 Biekman was the NGO Liaison in the Dutch Governmental Delegation, unanimous appointed by the involved Pan African organisations, the Women’s movements and all other relevant Dutch NGO’s. An excellent opportunity to lobby that the trans-Atlantic Slave trade, slavery and colonialism be declared as crimes against humanity. In 2006 she was one of the initiators of the Pan African Roundtable on Durban Plus 5 and the Addis Ababa Roundtable in April 2007. Later She was one of the civil society leader in Europe during the UN and civil society preparation sessions of the Durban Review in April 2009; the International Year for People of African descent in 2011 and the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution by which 2015-2024 was declared as the International Decade for People of African descent. In 2014 she was appointed by the President of the 69th session of UN General Assembly as civil society Speaker during the UN Launching of the International Decade for People of African descent.
Selected Bios in Spanish
Dorotea WILSON TATHUM, nació el 15 de septiembre de 1948 en Puerto Cabezas, Bilwi. Proviene de una familia de cinco hermanas y cuatro hermanos. Costeña Nicaragüense; Msc. En Género y Desarrollo. Universidad Centroamericana (UCA). Heredó el legado de lucha por las mujeres afrodescendientes, quienes sufren por su condición de género y por el racismo. Es activista y militante por la defensa de los Derechos humanos de las Mujeres Afrodescendientes y Caribeñas.
Actualmente es parte del comité consultivo de la Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora y a nivel nacional es coordinadora de Voces Caribeñas, movimiento de mujeres que impulsa políticas municipales con enfoque de género en la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense.
Impulsora de la Primera Cumbre de Lideresas Afrodescendientes de las Américas en 2015. En el que participaron más de 270 mujeres Afrodescendientes provenientes de 22 países de la Región, donde fue aprobada la Plataforma Política de Lideresas Afrodescendiente con el contenido de 17 ejes y 71 demandas para el Decenio de la Población Afrodescendiente 2014-2024.
Paola YAÑEZ-INOFUENTES, es Ingeniera Civil, postgrado en Mecanismos Internacionales de Defensa de Derechos de Mujeres Indígenas y Afrodescendientes, activista afroboliviana, Coordinadora General de la Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora, Integrante del Grupo Asesor de Sociedad Civil de ONU Mujeres – LAC, es facilitadora en temas de género, identidad, discriminación, discriminación racial, derechos de las mujeres, derechos de las poblaciones afrodescendientes.
Lídice CHAVEZ GAMMIE, Joven Nicaraguense afrofeminista, miembra de la Organización local Voces Caribeñas y Co-Coordinadora de la Región Centroamericana en la Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora, egresada de la carrera de Sociología con mención en Autonomía en la Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua URACCAN.
A parallel forum of the 63nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) with region reports from Nigeria, Latin America and Europe that address the role that invisibility plays in social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
RECKONING: The Visible Invisibility of Global African Women is organized with support from the UN Working Group of Experts for People of African Descent, and co-convened/co-sponsored by The Drammeh Institute, BringBackOurGirlsNYC, Murtala Muhammed Foundation, Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora, Tiye International, and African European Women’s Movement “Sophiedela”.
BACKGROUND - 63nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Each year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide.
Guest Speakers:
Opening - iman drammeh, Director, The Drammeh Institute
- Dominique DAY- Member, UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
- Mojúbàolú Olufúnké OKOME, Moderator - Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, CUNY
- Aisha Muhammed OYEBODE- Founder and CEO, Murtala Muhammed Foundation
- Yvette MODESTIN - Panama Diaspora, Translator - Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora (RMAAD)
- Paola Yanez Inofuentes - Bolivia General Coordinator of RMAAD
- Dorotea WILSON, Past Coordiantor of RMAAD, Nicaragua
- Lidice CHAVEZ GAMMIE, Nicaragua, RMAAD
- Valdecir NASCIMIENTO, Coordinator for Brazil, RMAAD
- Dr. Barryl BIEKMAN- AFRIDU Ambassador to Europe, founder of the African European Women’s Movement ‘Sophiedela’
Supporting the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 - 2024) which aims both to highlight the contribution of people of African descent to societies and strengthen national, regional and international cooperation to ensure the human rights of people of African descent are respected, promoted and fulfilled.
Speakers BiosDominique Day is a member of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a UN special procedures mechanism that reports to the Human Rights Council. She is also a partner at Beldock Levine & Hoffman, a well-known New York City civil rights law firm, and a human rights attorney. She teaches in the Africana Studies department at John Jay College and runs an access to justice platform called, DAYLIGHT | Rule of Law • Access to Justice • Advocacy. Internationally, her litigation, policy, research, teaching, and capacity-building work over the past two decades has focused heavily on racial justice, intersectionality, and human rights advocacy. She has extensive experience in criminal and civil litigation on behalf of individuals and communities within the Black diaspora, in addition to working on rule of law and access to justice issues in post-conflict and transitional States. In 2015-2016, Dominique was a Fulbright Scholar, teaching and researching human rights at Al Quds University in the West Bank. Prior to this, Dominique was a public defender in New York City family and criminal courts, a complex civil litigator, and a policy advisor in New York City and internationally, and clerked in the Eastern District of New York. Dominique holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a juris doctor from Stanford Law School. Dominique is based in New York City.
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome is an International Political Economist whose regional specialization is on the African continent. Educated at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Long Island University, New York, and Columbia University, New York, she’s a Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, CUNY; past Women’s Studies Program Director and past Deputy Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at Brooklyn College. Born in Nigeria, Mojúbàolú has worked on international development issues as a consultant for clients including the United Nations and Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Her teaching interests include a focus on the meanings of inclusive, equitable citizenship in the context of the interplay between globalization, democratization and economic development. Her research interests include: Effects of globalization, post-colonialism, and post-modernity on economic and political transformation; gender, democracy and citizenship in Africa and African Diaspora Studies. Her most recent publications are: two edited books published in 2013 by Palgrave-Macmillan: State Fragility, State Formation, and Human Security in Nigeria; and Contesting the Nigerian State: Civil Society and the Contradictions of Self-Organization; and one book co-edited with Afia Serwaa Zakiya published by Bookbuilders, Ibadan, Nigeria: Women's Political and Legislative Participation in Nigeria: Perspectives From the 2007 Elections. Previously, she co-edited two books with Olufemi Vaughan (January 2012) West African Migrations: Transnational and Global Pathways in a New Century. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, and also with Olufemi Vaughan (January 2012) Transnational Africa and Globalization. NY: Palgrave Macmillan. She founded #BringBackOurGirlsNYC and is founder and editor of Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration.
Aisha MUHAMMED-OYEBODE CEO, Murtala Muhammad Foundation
Aisha Oyebode, CEO of Murtala Muhammed Foundation and leader of the Bring Back Our Girls group in Lagos led the organizing and has worked assiduously these 1003 days on our advocacy to rescue our #Chibok Girls. She also has given material and moral support to the families of our Chibok Girls and others affected by the humanitarian crisis in Northeastern Nigeria. She and I have been taking care of five Chibok Girls here in NYC.
Dorotea Wilson TATHUM was born on September 15, 1948 in Puerto Cabezas, Bilwi. She comes from a family of five sisters and four brothers. Nicaraguan Costeña; Msc. In Gender and Development. Central American University (UCA). Mrs. Wilson inherited the legacy of struggle for women of African descent, who suffer because of their gender and racism. She is an activist and activist for the defense of the Human Rights of Afro-Descendant and Caribbean Women.
She is currently part of the advisory committee of the Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women's Network and at the national level she is the coordinator of Voces Caribeñas, a women's movement that promotes municipal policies with a gender focus in the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast.
Promoter of the First Summit of Afro-Descendant Leaders of the Americas in 2015. In which more than 270 Afro-descendant women from 22 countries of the Region participated, where the Afro-Descendant Leadership Policy Platform was approved with the content of 17 axes and 71 demands for the Decade of the Afro-descendant Population 2014-2024.
Paola YAÑEZ-INOFUENTES, is a Civil Engineer, graduate in International Mechanisms for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Women, an Afro-Bolivian activist, General Coordinator of the Afro-Latin American Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women's Network, Member of the UN Women's Civil Society Advisory Group - LAC, is a facilitator on issues of gender, identity, discrimination, racial discrimination, women's rights, rights of Afro-descendant populations.
Lídice CHAVEZ GAMMIE, Young Nicaraguan Afrofeminist, member of the local Organization Voices Caribbean and Co-Coordinator of the Central American Region in the Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women, graduated from the Sociology career with a mention in Autonomy at the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua URACCAN.
Valdecir NASCIMIENTO- Coordinator for Brazil
Yvette MODESTIN, a writer, poet and activist was born and raised in Colon, Panama. Ms. Modestin was named one of “30 Afro Latinas you should know.” Ms. Modestin has been profiled by the Boston Globe as “The Uniter” for her work in bringing the Latin American and African American community together and for her activism in building a voice for the Afro Latino/Afro descendant Community of Latin America and the Caribbean. She is Founder/Executive Director of Encuentro Diaspora Afro in Boston, MA. Ms. Modestin is the Diaspora Coordinator of the Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora an international network of Afro descendent women.
Dr. Barryl BIEKMAN holds a doctorate degree in Social Sciences and is a renowned politician, lobbyist, networker and broker. A pan-African and women’s activities for almost 47 years, she joined the student movement at the age of 14. By age 21. Biekman Is well-known as a human rights activist with extra focus on African people and in diaspora. General focus: fight against Afrofobie. The implementation of the DDPA and the UN International Decade for People of African Descent which she has titled as the Reparation Decade. Plus the implementation of the African Union African Diaspora 6th region policy (2012).
During the UN WCAR Conference in Durban 2001 Biekman was the NGO Liaison in the Dutch Governmental Delegation, unanimous appointed by the involved Pan African organisations, the Women’s movements and all other relevant Dutch NGO’s. An excellent opportunity to lobby that the trans-Atlantic Slave trade, slavery and colonialism be declared as crimes against humanity. In 2006 she was one of the initiators of the Pan African Roundtable on Durban Plus 5 and the Addis Ababa Roundtable in April 2007. Later She was one of the civil society leader in Europe during the UN and civil society preparation sessions of the Durban Review in April 2009; the International Year for People of African descent in 2011 and the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution by which 2015-2024 was declared as the International Decade for People of African descent. In 2014 she was appointed by the President of the 69th session of UN General Assembly as civil society Speaker during the UN Launching of the International Decade for People of African descent.
Selected Bios in Spanish
Dorotea WILSON TATHUM, nació el 15 de septiembre de 1948 en Puerto Cabezas, Bilwi. Proviene de una familia de cinco hermanas y cuatro hermanos. Costeña Nicaragüense; Msc. En Género y Desarrollo. Universidad Centroamericana (UCA). Heredó el legado de lucha por las mujeres afrodescendientes, quienes sufren por su condición de género y por el racismo. Es activista y militante por la defensa de los Derechos humanos de las Mujeres Afrodescendientes y Caribeñas.
Actualmente es parte del comité consultivo de la Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora y a nivel nacional es coordinadora de Voces Caribeñas, movimiento de mujeres que impulsa políticas municipales con enfoque de género en la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense.
Impulsora de la Primera Cumbre de Lideresas Afrodescendientes de las Américas en 2015. En el que participaron más de 270 mujeres Afrodescendientes provenientes de 22 países de la Región, donde fue aprobada la Plataforma Política de Lideresas Afrodescendiente con el contenido de 17 ejes y 71 demandas para el Decenio de la Población Afrodescendiente 2014-2024.
Paola YAÑEZ-INOFUENTES, es Ingeniera Civil, postgrado en Mecanismos Internacionales de Defensa de Derechos de Mujeres Indígenas y Afrodescendientes, activista afroboliviana, Coordinadora General de la Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora, Integrante del Grupo Asesor de Sociedad Civil de ONU Mujeres – LAC, es facilitadora en temas de género, identidad, discriminación, discriminación racial, derechos de las mujeres, derechos de las poblaciones afrodescendientes.
Lídice CHAVEZ GAMMIE, Joven Nicaraguense afrofeminista, miembra de la Organización local Voces Caribeñas y Co-Coordinadora de la Región Centroamericana en la Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora, egresada de la carrera de Sociología con mención en Autonomía en la Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua URACCAN.