International Year for People of African Descent

On December 18, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed this year -2011- as the 
International Year for People of African Descent
 
Approximately 200 million people who identify as being of African descent live in the Americas. There are many millions more who reside in other parts of the world (outside of the African continent)
 
The International Year for People of African Descent coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Durban Conference and will focus on certain issues of structural discrimination against people of African descent. The hope is to make an important contribution to the fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other related prejudices that are directed towards people of African descent.
 
The issues include:

• Health.
• Access to Education.
• The administration of Justice.
• The collection of disaggregated data as a tool in fighting structural discrimination.

The plan is to foster discussions that will generate proposals for solutions to tackle these challenges.