Costa Rica called today in the World Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) to promote inclusion and equality, as well as to eliminate racism, xenophobia and discrimination. The democracy of the future must be constituted in the diversity of its societies, promoting new and varied leaderships of women, Afro-descendants, indigenous people, young people and of all people without any discrimination, affirmed the first Costa Rican Vice President, Epsy Campbell, when speaking in the virtual session of the Ecosoc.
She argued that the Afro-descendant population in the Americas still faces profound disparities in all areas, like access to education, health, nutrition, housing, employment, social protection and care, human security, and in the possibility of living a life free of violence and participate equally in public affairs.
Transformative action
Without a transformative action on the part of the States on the path of inclusive development, as a fundamental pillar of the response and recovery to COVID-19, these gaps can only become more acute and thus prevent us from achieving the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, affirmed the Vice President of Costa Rica.
She stressed that “without racial and ethnic equality there will be no governable societies and without full citizenship there will be no sustainable development.” In this regard, she thanked the United Nations General Assembly for supporting Costa Rica’s proposal to declare August 31st as International Day for Afro-descendants, the purpose of which is to end structural racism, guarantee peace, recognition, justice and developing.
Redoubling efforts
On behalf of her government, Campbell urged the international community to redouble its efforts in producing data that account for the real situation of the African diasporas in the world.
She specified that although there are significant advances in disaggregated statistical data, as a result of the inclusion of ethnic-racial self-identification questions in the region’s censuses, we are still far from having the information we need to make public policy to face the fight against inequalities. The lack of statistical information is one more example of the structural racism of our societies that we need to combat, she indicated.
After expressing her concern about hate speech, racial discrimination and racism, exacerbated in this context of the health crisis, Campbell stressed that “Costa Rica is determined to combat these prejudices and discriminatory attitudes, which should not take place in democratic societies.”
