The 60th Session of the Human Rights Council

8th September 2025- 8th October 2025

(1st October 2025)

Item 9 : Enhanced Interactive Dialogue with the High Commissioner and the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement

Joint Statement of International Organisation for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination

Delivered by Rose Chiara Atieno

Thank you,

We thank the Independent expert for their work on this important issue and the council for their continued efforts in tackling the issue of racial discrimination. However, we remain concerned about the exponential rise in hate speech towards different racially marginalised groups that ultimately corelates to the rise in hate crime.

Across different countries, people of African descent continue to be victims of racial injustices and the systems in place that should be aimed at protecting them, pose to be the very systems that subject them to these injustices. People of African descent continue to face injustices within the justice system at all stages of trial, this includes the stereotypes that will often lead to their mistreatments.

Patrick Lyola, Sonya Massey and many other black people have been victims of excessive use of force and blatant discrimination because of their skin colour. We cannot afford to continue to have black lives, human beings ,be statistics any longer.

Human rights require for us all to be regarded as human and this includes persons of African descent. Therefore, we ask that the council and the international community further to push for the dissemination of information, addressing the root causes of prejudice against persons of African descent. Additionally, we urge that states address issues of discrimination at all stages of trial to ensure a just and fair trial for all persons regardless of their race and all other discriminatory factors. Finally, we urge all states to fully implement the DDPA to further ensure that there are measures in place to ensure the safeguarding of rights to all people but also ensuring the protection of the rights of people of African descent.

Thank you