Resources
UN Efforts to Address Racism
News Articles
- The Virus of Racism: An Enduring Dilemma for Humanity
- Human Rights Council calls on top UN rights official to take action on racist violence
- ‘I am my brother’s keeper’, Philonise Floyd tells UN rights body, in impassioned plea for racial justice
Statements by UN officials
- UN Deputy Secretary-General’s statement to UN Human Rights Council’s urgent debate on racially inspired human rights violations (17 June 2020)
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ statement to UN Human Rights Council’s urgent debate on racially inspired human rights violations (17 June 2020)
- Joint statement by senior leaders in the UN on pervasive and systemic racism (14 June 2020)
- Letter from UN Secretary-General to staff on the plague of racism (9 June 2020)
Download and Print
- The Ark of Return banner
- The Ark of Return brochure
- The International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Poster
- Remember Slavery Notepad
- Remember Slavery Banner
- Remember Slavery Sticker
Print files available upon request at [email protected]
Social Media Materials
Videos
- UNESCO: United against racism
- Amina Mohamed (Deputy Secretary-General), Urgent debate on Racially Inspired Human Rights Violations - 40th Meeting, 43rd Regular Session Human Rights Council
- Secretary-General’s Video Message 2020
- Secretary-General’s Video Message 2019
- UN News interviews Christopher Cozier, artist and keynote speaker at the 2019 Commemorative Meeting of the General Assembly to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
- UN News interviews Essence Gant, BuzzFeed Beauty Director and keynote speaker at the 2019 ‘Remember Slavery’ Global Student Videoconference
- UN News interviews Lonnie G. Bunch III, Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and keynote speaker at the 2017 Commemorative Meeting of the General Assembly to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
- The Ark of Return: A Virtual Visit (4 May 2020)
- The Ark of Return
- Rodney’s Journey: Making the Ark of Return
- The Ark of Return: Lest We Forget
- Ark of Return: New Slavery Memorial
- Ark of Return designer, Rodney Leon discusses his design with Italian sculptors
- H.E. Mr. Henry Mac Donald, Permanent Representative of Suriname to the United Nations, visits the Ark of Return
- H.E. Ms. Kiva Clarke, Consul General of Trinidad and Tobago in New York, visits the Ark of Return
- H.E. Mr. Diego Gómez Pickering, Consul General of Mexico in New York, visits the Ark of Return
- H.E. Ms. Barbara Atherly, Consul General of Guyana in New York, visits the Ark of Return
- Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, visits the Ark of Return
- The President of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Miroslav Lajčák, visits the Ark of Return
- H.E. Mr. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea, becomes the first Head of State to visit the Ark of Return
- H.E. Mrs. Memunatu Pratt, Minister of Tourism and Culture of Sierra Leone, visits the Ark of Return
- Essence Gant, BuzzFeed Beauty Director, visits the Ark of Return
- Ramin Ganeshram, Executive Director of the Westport Museum for History and Culture, sheds light on the little-known history of slavery in Westport and the exhibit “Remembered: The History of African Americans in Westport”
- Ross from St. Matthews Academy Music Program plays bagpipes at the Ark of Return
- Martin Luther King III and family visit the Ark of Return
Videos about the United Nations Permanent Memorial to Honour the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Ark of Return)
United Nations - After winning a design competition sponsored by UNESCO in 2013, Rodney Leon’s masterpiece, the Ark of Return, which is the Permanent Memorial in honour of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was officially unveiled in New York on 25th March 2015.
United Nations - After winning a design competition sponsored by UNESCO in 2013, Rodney Leon’s masterpiece, the Ark of Return, which is the Permanent Memorial in honour of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was officially unveiled in New York on 25th March 2015. It sits majestically on the plaza of the United Nations as a reminder to the leaders of the world of their responsibility to prevent tragedies such as the Transatlantic Slave Trade from ever occurring again.
For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history.
United Nations - The 15th to the 19th century saw a brutal trade in human beings. More than 15 million Africans were sold in the Americas as slaves. Now their ordeal is once again being remembered - and honored.
United Nations - In late October 2014, Ark of Return designer Rodney Leon visited the ABC Stone Company in Brooklyn, New York, to meet two visiting Italian sculptors to discuss his design for the Permanent Memorial in Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade which will be erected on the grounds of the United Nations.
Documents
General Assembly Resolutions on the Permanent Memorial and the Outreach Programme
- 2019: A/RES/73/345
- 2015: A/RES/70/7
- 2014: A/RES/69/19
- 2013: A/RES/68/7
- 2012: A/RES/67/108
- 2011: A/RES/66/114
- 2010: A/RES/65/239
- 2009: A/RES/64/15
- 2008: A/RES/63/5
- 2007: A/RES/62/122
Secretary-General’s Reports
Programme of educational outreach on the transatlantic slave trade and slavery
- 2018: A/73/88
- 2015: A/70/221
- 2014: A/69/281
- 2013: A/68/291
- 2012: A/67/255
- 2011: A/66/382
- 2010: A/65/390
- 2009: A/64/299
- 2008: A/63/213
Permanent memorial to and remembrance of the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade: status of the United Nations Trust Fund for Partnerships - Permanent Memorial
International Instruments
- Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery (1956)
- Protocol amending the Slavery Convention signed at Geneva on 25 September 1926 (1953)
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) [A/RES/217 (III)]
- Slavery Convention (1926)
Websites
UN System
UNESCO
- Breaking the Silence: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project
- The Soul of Resistance
- Slave Routes: A Global Vision
- 2004 International Year to commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition
- Slavery in Canada
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