Fourth in a four-part series of special Borderlines episodes with UC Berkeley Law guest hosts Professor Roxanna Altholz and Professor Laurel E. Fletcher shining a spotlight on human rights champions—all guest speakers in their Human Rights Practice Workshop course, where leading practitioners working in a variety of institutional settings share their struggles against corruption and impunity, the relationship between legal and social justice, and the future of human rights movements.

Episode 20 of Borderlines showcases guest host Professor Laurel E. Fletcher, Co-Director of Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic and the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law in conversation with Professor Justin Hansford (Howard) about his role as a member of the new UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, in 2021 the United Nations established the Permanent Forum on Peoples of African Descent (PFPAD). This new, consultative body has a mandate to undertake a range of activities with the goal of “improving the safety and quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent.” Professor Hansford shares his views about this new consultative mechanism, which addresses anti-Black racism as a UN platform, including its development, opportunities and challenges, and what was at stake in getting it approved and realized. He also examines reparations from a global and a US perspective, and discusses ideas for putting human rights strategy and practice into action in local marginalized communities.