Kingston, 10 December 2024 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has urged nations to ensure that school curricula contain information on the various peoples relevant to the development of their nations as part of efforts to address racism and discrimination.

That was one of several recommendations put forward by the Minister at the Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination currently underway in Barcelona, Spain. The Minister addressed the meeting from Kingston today.

Minister Grange said that her Ministry partners with the Ministry of Education to ensure inclusion of ethnic and cultural diversity within the education curriculum. “This is significant as a basis for the promotion of acceptance, tolerance, respect and stability within the Jamaican sociocultural space.”

Minister Grange told the forum that while “racism and discrimination continues to manifest at an alarming rate” they were “among the outcomes of the transatlantic trafficking in Africans and their racialised chattel enslavement on plantations in the Americas as an integral element of colonisation and slavery.”

The Minister outlined actions pursued by the Government of Jamaica, “conscious of the historic suffering of our ancestors and the continuing impact on the descendants of the enslaved, and mindful of the power of the Jamaican culture… to create structures and systems to reduce the possibility of racism and discrimination.”

Among the actions listed were celebratory and commemorative activities related to ethnic and cultural diversity within the Jamaican society including Africa Day (May 25), Indian Arrival Day (May 10), Chinese Arrival Day (July 30), Takyi Day (April 8), Sam Sharpe Day (December 27) and the Day of Commemoration of the Zong Massacre of 1781 (December 21).

“We also include all ethnicities in the diverse landscape of Jamaica in the annual celebration of Grand Gala, the spectacular event that culminates the annual Independence celebration on August 6,” said the Minister.

Minister Grange recommended that other nations should ensure the recognition and celebration of ethnicities and cultures, with a focus on their achievements and contributions, to their various countries as an approach to tackle racism and discrimination.

The Minister also called for the creation of policies that ensure diversity in media content and ownership with an aim to present the community to itself and part of the process of promoting positive cultural identification within the community.

The Minister also highlighted the need to make amends. “The Government of Jamaica has actively led efforts to provide internal reparations for past wrongs and is pursuing external reparations from former enslavers.”

In light of an estimate that one in six people worldwide experience some form of discrimination, the annual UNESCO Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination is calling for decisive action to tackle the issue.

This year’s Forum is launching the Global Alliance against Racism and Discriminations to promote a collaborative approach to implementing impactful and lasting action.

Minister Grange said Jamaica would continue its work as an honoured member of this global alliance to combat racism and discrimination.

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