Amid preparations for the fourth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (UN PFPAD), the search continues for a new core group member charged with amplifying Diasporic African voices of all ages via engagement with the UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC).
For nearly a month, millennials and Gen Zers of the African diaspora have rallied around Pan-Africanist organizer and longtime PFPAD participant Miles Henderson as the ideal candidate for the position, which they’ve long demanded go to a young adult under the age of 35.
“We received more formal support letters sent to the HRC president… in recommendation of me being on the forum as a youth member,” said Henderson, 34, founder of the Pan-African collegiate platform known as True Culture University and leader of the youth subcommittee under PFPAD’s International Civil Society Working Group (ISCWG). “I’m thankful that everyone is seeing me as a voice that can represent the youth. The cultivation of experiences I had globally and the places I lived on the African continent and diaspora equip me with the ability to speak on Black issues globally.”
In addition to the launch of True Culture University, Henderson’s more-than-a-decade career as a Pan-African youth organizer includes travels to Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Ethiopia and his involvement in efforts to erect a bust of Marcus Mosiah Garvey in the African Union’s Addis Ababa headquarters. If selected as a PFPAD member, he will be replacing Chinese cultural researcher Hongjiang Huang and joining a body that currently includes: Howard University law professor Justin Hansford; Kenyan diplomat Martin Kimani; Colombian human rights activist Pastor Elías Murillo Martínez; former Costa Rican Vice President Epsy Campbell Barr; Egyptian diplomat Mona Omar; and St. Lucian diplomat June Soomer.
In his new role, Henderson would have direct contact with HRC, a UN intergovernmental body composed of nearly 50 countries that meets in Geneva to discuss the protection of human rights across the globe. He and his colleagues would also have direct say in how to shape policy recommendations submitted at PFPAD’s annual sessions by civil society representatives, Afrodescendent groups, human rights and equity organizations, and UN specialized agencies.
Last year, during PFPAD’s third session at UN’s Geneva headquarters, Henderson led the ISCWG youth subcommittee in making a call for direct youth representation on the forum. Despite the subcommittee’s collection of 300 signatures and a speech by Henderson that sparked a standing ovation, the forum didn’t acquiesce to the subcommittee’s request for two seats on the forum for adult representatives under the age of 35.
Months later, Henderson acknowledges his nomination, and likely selection to PFPAD, as the fulfillment of a mission to give young people more of a direct influence in global affairs.
“We always emphasize the inclusion of youth voices. Not just [giving] opinions, but [having] the ability to represent and consolidate viewpoints of what youth are saying at the table,” Henderson told The Informer. “We’re looking to identify the problem and be part of the solution [as] the ones closest to the emerging technologies and results of decisions made at PFPAD and other forums.”
Along the Road to Greater Youth Involvement in Global Human Rights Discussions
HRC didn’t immediately return The Informer’s request for comment about the selection process.
In 2021, A UN General Assembly brought to fruition an earlier motion to establish PFPAD in alignment with the International Decade for People of African Descent and as a channel through which Afrodescendents can help the UN improve the quality of life across the world.
PFPAD conducted its first two sessions during the latter part of 2022 and summer of 2023 in Geneva and New York, respectively. Each time, more than 700 people from dozens of countries discussed: reparations, inclusion of Africans in the global sustainability agenda, recognition of systemic and structural racism, Pan-Africanism as a fight for dignity, and international trauma.
As explained by ISCWG youth subcommittee member Mayowa Fageyinbo, members of their contingent also mulled how to further unify youth organizers and advocates in the African diaspora.
“The world seems like it’s going in a different direction and there are youth on the front line of the consequences,” Fageyinbo told The Informer. “We are concerned about interconnectedness and the agency of youth. We are concerned about how to build community. It’s up to the forum to listen to our concerns and make sure [responses to issues] are executed in collaboration with youth.”
Fageyinbo, a international education development graduate student at University of Pennsylvania who has a master’s in social policy, credits Henderson as a force for change that inspired her since she first participated in PFPAD’s first session in 2022 as a member of the youth subcommittee.
By last year, when PFPAD was conducting its third session, Fageyinbo returned to serve as an organizer of youth-focused side events that took place over the course of four days in Geneva. She also counted among those who threw their support behind a declaration for reparatory justice and, later, backed Henderson as he gave a speech in advocacy of PFPAD expansion of youth representation.
Fageyinbo said that seminal event compelled her and her comrades to, at the very least, attempt to collect their fellow PFPAD organizers’ contact information and advance their cause for increasing the youth’s presence on the forum.
“There was hardly a person not moved by Miles’ speech,” Fageyinbo said. “It felt like people felt the message for youth representation and what that meant for global Black rights.”
As Henderson’s presence on the forum becomes even more of a reality, Fageyinbo gave some words of wisdom to her elder comrades in the human rights struggle.
“It’s up to the forum to listen to our concerns and make sure [solutions] are executed in collaboration with the youth.”
A Longtime Colleague Expresses Support for Henderson
The fourth session of PFPAD, scheduled to take place on April 14-17 at UN headquarters in New York City, comes amid President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, and what advocates describe as ongoing threats to the rights of African people across the world.
For New York resident Jadayah Spencer, the upcoming session represents, yet another opportunity to authentically represent the wishes and desires of young people. As one of the longest-serving members of ICSWG’s youth subcommittee, Spencer said she can attest to the importance of her work with PFPAD.
“Our goal…is to see an improvement in the condition of our people around the world,” Spencer, a longtime colleague of Henderson, told The Informer. “It’s an excellent place to learn about issues that affect us, and identify commonalities and actions so people could move with more unity.”
Spencer, said upon Henderson being called to lead ICSWG’s youth subcommittee in 2021, he contacted her to join what eventually became a team of 30 young people.
At the time she accepted the call, Spencer was serving as International Youth Leadership Institute’s (IYLI) youth representative in the UN Department of Global Communications. She has since been on the frontlines with Henderson and others to ensure that young people can authentically participate in PFPAD.
As Spencer recounted, her latest act of service in that movement was joining the ICSWG youth sub-committee in submitting a letter on Henderson’s behalf to HRC.
“Knowing that the African continent is becoming younger over time, and is one of the youngest populations at this time, Miles is the ideal candidate because of his international experience and commitment to helping people of African descent and bringing us together,” said Spencer, who’s currently IYLI’s executive director. “He recognized how crucial youth involvement is in uplifting the youth voice. It’s an urgent need at this moment, and he’s got the strategic acumen and character for it.”