Festival of whales, historic sites, heavenly beaches, Sainte-Marie remains an inescapable and a dream place for vacation.

Also known as Nosy Boraha, Sainte-Marie is a tropical island located at the heart of the Indian Ocean. It lies in the Northeast of Madagascar and is a small island – only 60 kilometers long and five kilometers wide. Thanks to its idyllic seascape and its places full of history, the island has become a popular tourist destination that amazes not only foreigners but also residents. Some Malagasy travelers who got attracted to the beauty of this small island nicknamed it “Andafy kely” which, figuratively speaking means piece of heaven.

Libertalia and the legend around the chair of miracles.

The story that is told about Ile Sainte-Marie is quite mysterious but somehow exciting. Known for being a former pirates’ habitat, the island is located on the zone of pirates who traveled by ships returning from the East Indies. Since it was near the maritime route, those so called bandits of the seas stayed there to finally settle in. Between the 17^th and the 18^th centuries, Nosy Boraha became a popular campground for pirates where a utopian free colony named “Libertatia”, commonly known as “Libertalia” was founded.

There is another legend that goes unnoticed by many, yet, still makes the charm of the place, that of the chair of miracles. This chair does exist for real and is located in the island of Forbans where legendary pirates lived at that time. The island of Forbans is found in the bay of Sainte-Marie’s main town, Ambodifototra. On this island, a chair believed to be magical is built. The legend of the chair has been linked to the enchanting story of a marginalized pirate called “Koko” and “Darafify”, the last giant from the East coast. The story relates that Koko was an unfortunate bandit of the seas who dreamt of good fortune and abundance. One day, he met with Darafify who unveiled the secret of making his dream come true. Darafify suggested him to make a wish that starts with “Dear Darafify” and ends with “Balawas Balawas” while contemplating the sunset and admiring the orange-colored sky. Koko did so, and the following day, his wish was fulfilled. To honor Darafify in exchange to his precious gift, Koko built a gigantic chair with a view of the sunset. From then on, the chair has been considered a place where wishes are welcomed and miracles occur, hence its denomination “the chair of miracles”.

These are perceived as legends; nevertheless do not necessarily mean unreal. No matter what, Ile Sainte-Marie remains a must-see destination for travelers and tourists. Enjoy its various historic places and monuments such as this chair of miracles and the pirate cemetery found downtown; the first Catholic Church in Madagascar established during French colonization and its smaller island filled with history and wonders – Ile Aux Nattes.

Sources : ONTM / Office du Tourisme de Sainte-Marie / Princesse Bora Lodge & Spa

Driven by the passion for change and sustainable development, Rindra is a brilliant environmental student and activist who has relentlessly worked out to make Madagascar green again.

A well-paved way with a clear-cut purpose.

Currently preparing her Master thesis in renewable energies engineering, Razafimamonjy Faniriantsoa Rindranirina is a green activist and the founder of a company named BIOMAD. Since 2018, the young woman has participated in several conferences, competitions and trainings including  OJADE Madagascar (Organization of Young Africans for the Development and Emergence of Madagascar), FIJEV (the International Youth and Green Jobs Forum) led by the OIF (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie), and the International competition “Climates Innovation Labs Africa”, where her team ended up among the top five competitors with their innovative project called “Simplified Waste” – an Android app intended to make waste collection easier. In the current time, she continues to collaborate with various organizations and associations such as IKM (Ivon’ny Kolontsaina Malagasy), the international organization “Data flow”, and Alliance (Adaptation Alliance Africa-Asia) that gathers local and international organizations involved in tackling climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Rindra and Biomasse de Madagascar.

Her vision to restore Madagascar and create an eco-friendly company arose when she realized that Madagascar dealt with serious environmental issues. “Madagascar is a big island with huge potential. Home to nearly 15,000 species of plants – 90 percent of which are endemic to Madagascar, yet, 50,000 ha disappear annually due to human action: wood exploitation, the “tavy” (burn agriculture) and the use of coal”, Rindra says. Feeling long desperate with the situation, Rindra started her nature-friendly and solution-oriented business called BIOMAD or Biomasse de Madagascar, officially launched in June 2019 during FIJEV-OI held at the International Conference Centre (CCI Ivato).

BIOMAD designs bio-charcoal and produces biogas to help slow down deforestation in Madagascar. Through BIOMAD, Rindra seeks to lower the rate of deforestation up to 70 percent, to encourage rural population to substitute wood energies into biogas and bio-coal, and to contribute to rural development by appealing to environmental conservation emergency.

Rindra’s innovative solution to transform agricultural and forestry waste into biogas and bio-charcoal has been acknowledged and acclaimed. She has been offered the opportunity to publish an article about green economy in a scientific journal called Sciences Letters. In her article, she argues that the most effective way to solve this glaring problem is to create green jobs and to foster green and blue economies. She states: “As I wrote in my article entitled ‘Empowering Green Economy in Post COVID-19 World Order’, we need to focus on creating green employment and boosting green economy to end climate disaster, to promote sustainable development and environmental protection in Madagascar."

“Let’s act together to build a better world far from climate change”, Rindra concludes.

Get in touch with Rindra:

• Phone number: 0342590398
• Email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Malagasy language is the foundation of both the oral and written forms of the Malagasy literature.

The first known form of literature present in Madagascar was the oral tradition or verbal art, which is considered one of its foremost artistic traditions expressed in the forms of hainteny (poetry), kabary (public discourse) and ohabolana (proverbs). As an artistic tradition, hainteny or Malagasy poetry that is originally an oral literary component holds an important role in featuring Malagasy folklore wrapped up in literature. Malagasy poetry and poems are rich in the elements of Malagasy people's daily life. Thanks to the old traditions and histories that passed down across generations, many stories and poems are told through musical forms or with song patterns. Since the traditional Malagasy poetry has been inseparable from song, it has gained its own literary structure which combines words, known as tonony with song or hira – tononkira and tononkalo as the Malagasy words for poem.

In his book “Research in African Literatures” and its chapter about “Folklore and the history of literature in Madagascar,” author Lee Haring talks about the complexities of this verbal art categorized as folklore but then turned into “native literature”. Haring also describes the process whereby the oral hainteny were transformed into written literature by mentioning the vital role of missionaries in contributing to the publications of various written literary contents, of Malagasy and foreign authors and poets such as Madagascar’s great poet named Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and Jean Paulhan – the French writer who republished some of his earlier translations of hainteny.

Jean Joseph Rabearivelo as a key figure of the Malagasy poetry.

Born Joseph-Casimir Rabearivelo, Jean Joseph Rabearivelo is a Malagasy writer recognized as one of the most important and first modern African poets. He has been baptized the father of modern literature in Madagascar. Rabearivelo’s life was a living proof of all his achievements and huge contributions to the Malagasy literature, since he grew up in a poor family and did not even finish his secondary school. Despite his family’s fate, he did not settle but educated himself instead.

During the colonization, Rabearivelo was influenced by French culture and language. The 19th and 20th century French literature became his passion and shaped his career as a self-taught artist. Since then, his writing career took off. He changed his name to Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo to have the same initials as Jean-Jacques Rousseau – a famous Swiss-born writer, philosopher and political theorist.

Before his tragic death, J.J.R. managed to write seven volumes of poetry in French, including “La coupe de cendres” or “The bowl of Ashes” (1924) which was his first collection of poems, “Sylves” (“Virgin lands”, 1927), “Presque-Songes” – “Half Dreams” (1934) and “Traduit de la Nuit” or “Translated from the Night” (1935). Many of the poems in Rabearivelo’s last collection called “Vieilles Chansons du pays Imerina” or “Old Songs from the land of Imerina” are love poems and are based from the traditional Malagasy poetic form known as hainteny.

Sources: Britannica / Chicago Review “Hainteny : The
traditional poetry of Madagascar”, Leonard Fox, 1990
/ “Research in African Literatures”, Lee Haring, 1985.

Whenever you apply for a scholarship or a work-based training, having volunteering experience is among the skills required to be successfully selected. This means that not only does volunteering help improve your personal and interpersonal skills but it also advances your career. Better yet, it provides several benefits to both your mental and physical health.

There is no denying that everything has its pros and cons. As you get ready to engage in volunteer work, some questions related to time-management, time-consuming tasks, and work pay may pop up in your mind. However, despite the few cons, volunteering offers generally far more advantages than you may imagine. Being a volunteer shows how much you feel committed to and concerned for your peers.

The contribution of volunteers to the well-being of individuals and communities has always long been acknowledged. In truth, it plays a fundamental role in keeping people and communities together, building social cohesion and meeting the needs of many groups in the face of adversities or in times of crisis. In short, it strengthens communities and helps make the world a better place. This is why many grassroots associations and international organizations like the United Nations appeal to volunteer service and encourage countries to invest in measuring the scale and the contribution of individuals’ voluntary efforts. In 2019, for instance, the UN General Assembly recognized that volunteerism can be a powerful and cross-cutting means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals by calling for a resolution on “Volunteering for the 2030 Agenda” (UN).

In addition to that, volunteering improves health in its whole. A study conducted with American older adults selected from the nationwide Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to work as a volunteer reveals interesting facts about volunteering. The volunteerism study involved a nationally representative cohort of 12,988 participants residing in the U.S. with an average age of 66. The findings reveal that older adults who volunteered for at least 100 hours per year – about two hours a week – show a substantially reduced risk of mortality and developing physical limitations, higher levels of subsequent physical activity, and improved sense of well-being later on compared to individuals who do not volunteer. (Kim et al,. 2020).

Erick Kim – the first author of this study based in Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health said in a news release: “Humans are social creatures by nature. Perhaps this is why our minds and bodies are rewarded when we give to others.” Through this statement, Kim proves how doing good does you good and engaging in regular volunteer work provides obvious benefits for health and well-being.

Through volunteering, you also learn different soft skills that will be of great value when applying for a scholarship, seeking a job, and engaging in a professional training. At the present time, whenever you enroll for an academic or professional training program, some specific skills acquired from volunteer services are listed among the selection criteria, including leadership, time management, professionalism, critical thinking and problem-solving, and communication skills.

If you want to increase your chance to be selected for a job, or any training program, volunteer. Similarly, if you seek to feel good in your skin and in your mind while caring for others, commit yourself in volunteerism. You will not be disappointed because sooner or later, it will pay off. So, why not give it a try!

Sources: Help Guide / Psychology Today / United Nations/
“Volunteering and Subsequent Health and Well-being in
Older Adults: An Outcome-Wide Longitudinal Approach”,
Eric S. Kim, PhD et al., 2020.

Over the last two or three decades, tourism has globally shown a stepwise increase. Following the outbreak of the pandemic and its far-reaching implications on the tourism industry, the recovery of the sector remains a top priority for every nation.

Tourism has become a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon worldwide. Some interesting facts and statistics about global tourism industry in the pre-pandemic reveal that travel and tourism industry was one of the world’s largest industries with a global economic contribution of over 7.6 trillion U.S. dollars in 2016. Before the pandemic, worldwide, the tourism industry has experienced steady growth almost every year. According to Statista, international tourist arrivals increased from 528 million in 2005 to 1.19 billion in 2015. In 2015, global international tourism revenue reached approximately 1.26 trillion U.S. dollar, having almost doubled since 2005. As of 2019, its total contribution to GDP worldwide was over 9.2 trillion US dollars.

Tourism and its role in the SDG’s.

Fulfilling the universal 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals is not an easy work, especially after rebounding from the devastating pandemic. Just a few months before the pandemic outbreak, 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals were recorded in 2019, globally. These figures were forecasted to exceed 1.8 billion by 2030. Nevertheless, in early 2020, travel and tourism have been interrupted, all tourism-related activities have ceased or at least slowed down, disrupting the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development.

Tourism is a great asset for the completion of the targets of SDG’s. As the 17 SDG’s and the corresponding 169 SDG targets offer the world a new direction, tourism can and must play a significant role in delivering sustainable solutions for people, the planet, prosperity and peace (UNWTO). Since tourism has been recognized as an economic powerhouse and became the third highest world category in export earnings in 2015 – representing 10 percent of world GDP, 30 percent of services exports and one out of every 10 jobs in the world – it has been included as targets in the SDG’s. Since then, the tourism sector is believed to have the potential to contribute, directly to all the goals, particularly Goals 8, 12 and 14 which are the inclusive and sustainable economic growth, the sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources.

Tourism Day as the kickstart of recovery and growth of global tourism.

September 27th is World Tourism Day. This year, the observance mainly focuses on “Tourism for inclusive Growth”. It is an opportunity to glance at the pre-pandemic global tourism and to rethink the future of this sector. In addition, World Tourism Day is also an occasion to foster awareness of tourism’s social, cultural, political and economic values and its contribution towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Today, to help you celebrate this Tourism Day, think about what you are willing to do to develop a sustainable tourism and how you can achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals through this sector.

Sources: United Nations/ Tourism for SDGs / The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) / Statista.

Are you among those people who feel anxious, idle and tense every time a new week kicks off? If you nod positively to this question, you may apparently struggle with what is called “Monday blues”, also known as “Mondayitis”.

For many, Monday is considered the worst day of the week. Mondays are said to be universally hated, especially at work. Worst, the Monday blues have become a cultural phenomenon. Individuals feeling the Monday blues are often those people who lack motivation to work on Monday morning. Alexander Kjerulf, an international author and speaker on happiness at work explains that the Monday blues describe a set of negative emotions that many people get at the beginning of the work week if they are not happy at work. “It contains elements of depression, tiredness, hopelessness and a sense that work is unpleasant but unavoidable,” says the author.

By definition, Mondayitis refers to a feeling of weariness, sadness, apathy and general distress that an individual feels when returning on a Monday after the weekend. The main reason why many people hate Monday remains totally blur and unclear. Saturday and Sunday are perceived as days of freedom and enjoyment. When Monday comes, it feels like a loss of or a return to an unhappy situation. Multiple studies suggest that going through Monday is psychologically hard. The transition from two-day relax time to weekdays induces massive emotional shifts making Mondays really dreadful and difficult for some people. Becky Stuempfig, an American licensed marriage and family therapist says, “When Monday rolls around, many people feel a sense of disappointment and dread about having to return to their responsibilities rather than spending time how they choose to spend it”. She adds, “It may feel like a loss of independence and control because other people are determining how you spend your time”.

How to beat the Monday Blues

Making the transition to an unpleasant workday on Monday can be very discouraging, especially when it is a fun-filled weekend. However, Monday blues can be avoided. Here are three tips to beat this dreaded Mondayitis:

Disconnect over the weekend. During the weekend, try to avoid checking your emails constantly and unplugging from any work-related problems to focus on enjoying the time off by just relaxing. Set stricter boundaries between work and personal time. Rita Friedman, a career coach, says, “It can be tempting to know what is waiting for you, but drawing clearly defined boundaries between work and personal time can help keep things in check”.

Reframe and ease up on Mondays. Given that Mondays are busy days at the office, think of getting your Mondays planned and set new routines like writing down your achievements and goals. “When you are planning meetings ahead, try to schedule them for Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This will help you to come into Monday with more ease from the weekend”, says Ryan Kahn, a career coach and founder author and television personality.

Cheer yourself up by doing something nice for someone else. Instead of ruminating, think about doing good to people and ways you can make someone else’s Monday better. Not only does it benefit others, but it also makes you feel better. Alexander Kjerulf asserts that one of the best ways to cheer oneself up is to make someone else happy.

Know that it is normal to feel sometimes nervous and dread about getting into Monday. Yet, when it starts turning into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday blues, there might be something wrong. So, it is up to you to notice when it is more than just blues.

Sources : Forbes/ Huff Post

Nowadays, academic skills are no longer enough for a kid to build their character. It is for this reason that many schools around the world focus on developing other skills such as critical thinking in their curriculum.

At some point, a kid cannot rely solely on basic knowledge like reading, writing or math to be not reach full development. To stand successful and ready for the world’s modern challenges, a child needs to develop various life skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving.

Critical thinking is a key foundation to every success and fulfillment. It is advised that in their early childhood development, kids are called to compare two things, explain why things occur, evaluate ideas and form opinions, understand others’ perspectives, predict the future, and solve problems in creative ways.

Scientists note that critical thinking skills do not fully develop until adolescence. However, the foundations for good thinking start at a younger age. From ages 5 to 9, with a salient cognitive development, young children start to question, explore, and discover things. All these feed their critical thinking skills. It may be true that at these ages, children are not yet ready to take on complicated thinking and reasoning; nevertheless, it may also be the best ages to help them lay a foundation for critical thinking.

When a child becomes a good critical thinker, they are more likely to consider different ways of finding solutions to an issue or problem. Critical thinking makes the child more open-minded when solving problems. Furthermore, it also fosters their independence, encourages their curiosity, and enhances their creativity, enabling them to make good and sound decisions. To make your children good critical thinkers, give the valuable method below a try. It is called the “E’s and P’s” strategy from the Hanen guidebooks ABC and Beyond:

• Explain. Engage children in the conversation and ask them to explain why things happen. Through this strategy, you encourage them to draw on their existing life skills and experience to formulate questions in their mind and search for answers.

• Evaluate. Help kids evaluate and process information. They are given lots of information at a time. Making them assess the reliability of the information is required in this second strategy. It encourages them to express their preferences and their perception of things.

• Predict. When learning something new, encourage the kid to make plausible predictions on what is going to happen next, to think about the possibilities behind the predictions, and to form hypothesis. After finishing reading a book chapter for instance, drive them to think about the possible unfolding of the story, if there is any.

• Project. Stimulate young children’s empathy and teach them to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and into other’s minds by making them ask questions related to other people’s stories. This fourth hint helps them to understand other people’s actions or emotions.

• Problem-solve. Teach the kid to deal with small problems. Gear their mind towards problem-solving and motivate them to always think of and propose solutions based on their knowledge and experience.

Sources: The Hanen Centre / Michigan State University Extension / Bright Horizon.

Its history and culture make New Orleans far more interesting to visit than any other city in America. With its countless cultural riches, this city that stretches along the Mississippi river in the Southeastern region of the U.S. State of Louisiana has been given several nicknames such as NOLA, the Big Easy, the Crescent City, the Hollywood South, and the Paris of the South, and has become a major tourist destination in both Louisiana and America.

From a former French colony to a cosmopolitan city.

The history of New Orleans remains immensely fascinating. The city amazes not only foreigners, but also residents, who still enjoy the charming place filled with enchanting history and built with a complex culture. As New Orleans abounds in resources and is served by a great navigable network, it attracted more European people to come and live in.

While Louisiana was under Spanish control ceded by France to keep it out of the hands of the British, New Orleans was claimed for the French crown by explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682 and was founded by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville in 1718. As years went by, under the influence of Spain and France – as trading and cultural partners – the Big Easy underwent huge transformation both in infrastructure and culture. The Vieux Carré, today’s French Quarter, often called the Crown Jewel of New Orleans thanks to its French and Spanish Creole architecture, is one of the most well-known sites built at that time.

Although the entire Louisiana colony was sold as part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, NOLA’s residents kept the culture and customs of its colonists alive. The footprints of the French culture are well felt within the city’s cosmopolitan society.

From the birthplace of Jazz to the city of witches.

New Orleans is well-known for its people from various backgrounds and origins. The Creoles – locally born descendants of early inhabitants, many with French blood – make the fame of the city, especially when it comes to the “Creole cooking or cuisine” or “Creole architecture”. We mainly owe today’s remarkable cultural and historic heritage to those Creole New Orleanians.

It was when arts and performance flourished that Jazz emerged too and baptized the city of the New Orleans the birthplace of Jazz. The rise of jazz as revolutionary music is acknowledged as the greatest cultural contribution of New Orleans to the world. The jazz age saw the rise of talented artists and musicians like Louis Armstrong as well as various festivals like the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and carnivals such as the notable Mardi Gras.

Apart from jazz, New Orleans is also known as the city of witchcraft and voodoo. Voodoo is told to have landed in Louisiana during the colonial period when enslaved African people brought their culture and beliefs to the Crescent city. Marie Laveau, for example, got famous for being the Vodoo Queen of New Orleans. Later, New Orleans has been referred to as the “Hollywood South” since the city has become an important site for the film industry and a major hub in the film production world.

Sources: New Orleans / Experience New Orleans.

Madagascar stands unique as an island in the Indian Ocean. Home to some of the world’s most unique flora and fauna, Madagascar is rich in more than 12,000 plant species, most of which are endemic to the island. Orchid species are among those endemics, and we can count more than 1,000 different species in Madagascar.

Belonging to orchid species, vanilla is a plant that can be found anywhere in the world but is today grown in abundance in some regions of Madagascar. The vanilla plant is a member of the orchid family. It is made up of around 110 different species of orchid and originated from South and Central America and the Caribbean. However, since the plant has been successfully introduced to and grown in the island over a century, Madagascar became one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of vanilla, besides Indonesia.

Vanilla is commonly known for its fragrant and flavor spice that makes it highly appreciated. In addition, it has been labeled the second most expensive spice in the world, after saffron, due to its labor-intensive production. There are more than 30,000 hectares of vanilla plantations dispersed in different regions of Madagascar. The SAVA region in the north-eastern part of Madagascar is the known global centre of vanilla production. Around 70,000 farmers are estimated to produce 70 to 80 percent of all global bourbon vanilla, also called vanilla planifolia – one of the seven different vanilla plants that are mostly cultivated in the region (Hanke Hendrik, et al., 2018). Sambava which is among the four largest cities of the SAVA region has been appointed the “capital of vanilla”. Apart from Sambava, Antalaha, Vohémar and Andapa, there are other vanilla spots like Nosy-Be and Toamasina.

Bourbon vanilla production.

Spice vanilla or bourbon vanilla can be used and tasted in several ways. The bourbon vanilla is mostly appreciated by cooking amateurs who perfectly know that flavor is the key to any dish’s success. The name of “bourbon vanilla” does not come from Madagascar, but after the former name of La Réunion, Ile Bourbon. Although spice vanilla can be spotted everywhere, its production and growth need to meet certain conditions such as the weather. Bourbon vanilla grows in very warm and humid weather; but it also needs a significant dry season for pollination and flowering.

The most difficult part in producing bourbon vanilla is pollination. It flowers only briefly for 24 hours and pollination must occur at that time; otherwise, it wilts and dies. It is still not entirely clear how the plant gets pollinated in the wild, it is just believed that a single type of small bee is responsible for it, and some hummingbirds. Yet, since some of those natural pollinators are not native to Madagascar, most plants must be artificially pollinated by hand with a feather or a chopstick.

If pollination is successful, a fruit develops in the form of a 6-to-10-inch-long green pod (about 15-25cm) filled with thousands of minuscule black seeds. At harvest, the plants take the form of string beans which are individually picked by hand as they become ripe, and then are subjected to a prolonged and multi-step treatment process. In order to obtain the desiccated, aromatic and black gold spice vanilla, the pods have to be fermented.

After that long and complex process, the vanilla pods which contain different flavor and fragrance components are now ready to be sold and savored.

Sources: ONTM/ National Geographic / Atlas
Obscura / « Socio-economic, land use and value
chain perspectives on vanilla farming in the
SAVA Region”, Hanke Hendrik et al., 2018).

Social injustice has existed for long and persists until today. One of the most common forms of social injustice that the world continues to face is racism – a global phenomenon that affects not only a group of people or a community, but every nation.

Throughout history, racism has created conflicts and given rise to hatred in the world, disrupting mutual understanding and peace between individuals. It keeps taking new forms as if it has been likened to a virus that mutates, taking on different shapes as it adapts to a changing world. Still worse, over time, it continues to gain more and more influence.

Over the past year, after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the phenomenon has reached an important milestone and the rate of racial discrimination has significantly increased. The pandemic resulted in dangerous misinformation, hate speech and violence against certain races and nationalities. More recently, with the spread of the pandemic, a high rate of discrimination against Asian people has been reported, mainly against Asian Americans. More and more Asia-descent people have been victims of hatred, bias and hate crimes. In March 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly warned of a potential surge in COVID-19-related hate crimes against Asian-Americans. Similarly, between March 19 and December 31, 2020, Stop AAPI Hate has received 2,808 reported incidents of racism and discrimination targeting Asian Americans across the U.S.

Since then, anti-Asian movement-based incidents have been one of the major global concerns. In late 2020, the United Nations reacted by issuing a report detailing the alarming level of racially motivated violence and other incidents against Asian Americans across the U.S. since the outbreak of Covid-19 and by calling for a global fight against racism. Global efforts to combat racism and discrimination have been already put into effect after the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, was officially declared. It is a drafted document recalling mainly the principles of equality and non-discrimination in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of any kind such as race, colour, as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (Durban Declaration, UN).

Back to the “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” in March 21, which aimed to foster a global culture of tolerance, equality and anti-discrimination and called on people to stand up against racial prejudice and intolerant attitudes, a resolution has been adopted by the General Assembly. This consists of a global call for concrete action for the elimination of racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The United Nations General Assembly’s action plans include bringing world leaders together for a one-day meeting in New York to mark the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action which will take place this September.

Apart from the Durban Declaration, there is also the “International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), a resolution that was ratified by General Assembly on 21 December 1965 that still serves as today’s important resolution in combating racism and discrimination of any forms, like the case of anti-Asian violence. The CERD underlines the U.N. human rights mechanisms which provide a valuable framework for understanding the scope of state obligations to combat racial discrimination.

Recalling the CERD and the Durban Declaration may be of a paramount help in tackling discrimination against people of African descent, Asian Americans, and today’s overall racism.

Sources: United Nations / Stop AAPI Hate: New
Data on Anti-Asian Hate Incidents Against Elderly
and Total National Incidents in 2020 / United
Nations Humans Rights / Durban Declaration