UNESCO’s message on remembrance day of slave trade ‎

Faced with the permanent dangers of racism and extremism, UNESCO is taking action to ensure that the ‎memory and history of the slave trade and its abolition ‎be forces for dialogue, tolerance and mutual understanding.  The Director General of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova declared this in a message ahead of the   International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, observed on Sunday, Aug. 23,   She said that by promoting the ‎diversity inherent in nations, through the experience of slavery and the slave trade, we can better ‎understand the world’s diversity and find the road to peace.  

Bokova said that the annual day, instituted by UNESCO in 1997, is both a tribute to every victim and their resistance against slavery and a call for truth,  justice and dialogue between peoples. The history of the slave trade is that of a  battle, and eventually a victory, for freedom and human rights, symbolized by the  uprising of the slaves of Santo Domingo  on the night of 22 to 23 August 1791.  Bokova noted that this year’s observance is particularly important, because 2015 marks the beginning  of the International Decade for People of African Descent, whose goal is to promote knowledge of and respect for the contribution of  people of African descent to cultural diversity and the development of societies. 

In her message Bokova noted that the crime of slavery has forged irreversible bonds between peoples and continents, and reminds all peoples of the world that their destinies are linked, because their histories and identities were partly made across the seas, sometimes even on other continents. By teaching, communicating and transmitting this history, we can now reinforce the rights and the dignity of people of African descent and, together, fight against all forms of racism and discrimination, she said.  (Source: UNESCO)