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The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to encourage debate on important public policy challenges.

Racial equity is at the heart of the multidimensional civil, political, social, economic, cultural and not least environmental crises facing humanity.

Across the world, liberal democracy is faltering, ethnic and racial nationalism is on the rise, social and economic inequalities are widening both within and among countries, and greenhouse emissions and massextinction of biodiversity are increasing while the planet is overheating and multiple biosystems are at risk of irreversible tipping points and collapse.  

At the global level, the biggest divides are between the Global North and South (or so called ”developed” and ”developing” countries). The Global North—less than 20% of the world’s population—consumes most of the world’s natural resources, profits most from the global economy and has contributed most to global warming. Whereas, the Global South suffers most from climate disasters such as monster hurricanes, flash floods, droughts, and biodiversity loss.

It is not a historical accident that all Global North (or ”developed”) countries—except for Japan and maybe Israel too—are either European or former European settler colonial states with majority white populations. Or that most of the poorest (or ”least developed”) countries are in Africa.

The international order is racially stratified, socially, economically, politically and environmentally.

Within countries in the Global North too—as well as within countries in Latin America and the Caribbean—white people are on average more privileged than people of color in their enjoyment of human rights across areas of society such as access to employment, quality education, housing and healthcare. Among the most disadvantaged are people of African descent and indigenous people.

In all European and former European settler colonial countries systemic racism/white supremacy is very real. And neither this is a historical accident.

What the world needs now more than anything else are two things.

First, the international community needs to find ways to effectively work together to regulate and transform the global economy so that it stays within the confines of nature, does not pollute air, sea and land, and instead serves to replenish, not merely consume and destroy the world’s natural resources. This will require previously unheard levels and forms of international cooperation.

Second, the international community and countries across the world need to make more equitable and effective use of the world’s natural resources so that the entire world—not only a small minority of people—can have their basic needs met and enjoy human rights and equitable opportunities for human flourishing. This too will require previously unheard of levels and forms of international cooperation.

These two things will require a transformative emphasis on basic principles of justice and human rights of the equal moral worth of all human beings and non-discrimination of any and all racial, ethnic, national, religious, socio-economic and other groups. It will require an understanding of humanity as interconnected with the natural world and the health and well-being of the planet. Above all, it will require us to reimagine and transform social and international systems and structures into ones that promote human flourishing for all without distinction and that are more socially, economically and not least environmentally sustainable.

For this, pointing out entrenched racial inequities within and among countries, including their roots in historical injustices and crimes against humanity, and promoting social and global racial justice will be essential.

Africans and people of African descent and indigenous people too are at the forefront of social and global racial injustices and must therefore be at the forefront of racial justice.

We are not the problem, but we are part of the solution. 

Michael McEachrane, Member and Rapporteur for the UN Permanent Forum on Peoples of African Descent