Guyana recommits to anti-slavery efforts within UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights

Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister, Hugh Todd on Wednesday reiterated Guyana’s continued contribution to global efforts to maintain equality and justice.
The Minister made these remarks virtually during a thematic discussion on the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR): Learning from Anti-Slavery and Anti-Apartheid Mobilisation.
This discussion was held within the Ninth Session Group of Independent Eminent Experts on the Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action in Geneva, Switzerland.
Adopted by the UN in 1948, the UDHR is a document outlining 30 rights and freedoms that protect every individual, everywhere.
“The UDHR has become a point, an instrument of seminal reference, an inspiration in the promotion and protection of human rights in every corner of the globe. Guyana, like countries around the world, has fully embraced the Declaration, embodying, as it does, the equality of all human beings, without exception in dignity and rights,” Todd said.
In light of the UN’s focus on anti-slavery and anti-apartheid, the Minister noted that Guyana too has had a long history of slavery that birthed two of the most massive rebellions of enslaved Africans in the Americas: the 1763 Berbice Revolt led by Cuffy and the 1823 Demerara Uprising led by Quamina.
He explained that in the first instance, some 3000 Africans or approximately 75 to 80 per cent of the enslaved population participated.
Meanwhile, in the latter, while the number of participants was significantly larger at about 12,000 persons, they represented only 17 per cent of the enslaved population, thereby showing the immense growth of slavery within the nation in this period.
“Both of these rebellions were eventually brutally suppressed – the Berbice Rebellion after nearly 14 months, the Demerara Revolt merely one week later,” Todd said.
“No doubt, the spirit of resistance to oppression and domination manifested in the aforementioned rebellions helped to inform Guyana’s resolute stance against apartheid – a position we maintained at great national sacrifice,” Todd said.
Minister Todd noted that this year marks the bicentennial of the Demerara Uprising, a time of solemn contemplation and reflection.
“The lessons are many, fundamentally encapsulated in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, that all human beings are born free, equal in dignity and in rights. We must therefore work together for the total elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,” Todd said.
The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action is described as the UN’s blueprint to combat racism and related intolerance globally, and offers practical measures that can be taken by member states and civil society to address the issues.
The event at which Minister Todd delivered virtual remarks focused on the implementation of this Programme of Action.