Ambassador Chen Xu, China's Permanent Representative to the UN's Geneva office, made a joint speech on Monday on behalf of more than 50 countries across the region during an interactive dialogue with the UN Human Rights Council on systemic racism.

The speech called on the international community to step up efforts to fight against systemic racism, racial discrimination and hate crimes over Africans and Asians. Here's the full text. 

Madam President,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of a group of countries. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, yet the fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance remains a long and arduous task. We are gravely concerned that minorities, in particular Africans and people of African descent, Asians and people of Asian descent have long been suffering from systemic racism, racial discrimination and hate crime. We support multilateral human rights bodies to treat both symptoms and root causes of systemic racism and structural racial discrimination, and eliminate legacies of slavery, transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and labor trafficking. In this regard, we welcome the High Commissioner's report to the Human Rights Council.

We are particularly concerned that during the COVID-19 pandemic, some political and public figures made racist remarks, inciting violence, racial discrimination, xenophobia and islamophobia, and leading to a surge of discrimination and hate crime against Africans and people of African descent and Asians and people of Asian descent, especially women and children. We call for greater efforts to combat racial discrimination and hate crime against Asians and people of Asian descent, to urge political and public figures to stop racist remarks, and to fully guarantee the rights of Asians and people of Asian descent. We also call on multilateral human rights mechanisms to pay close attention to the above-mentioned issues and consider proper actions.

Thank you, Madam President.

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