Remarks by
Bradley A. Freden
Interim U.S. Permanent Representative
June 30, 2022
Excellency, the United States thanks you for your presentation and we very much look forward to the first in-person OASGA in two years in Lima.
We are also delighted that Peru has decided to put the issues of racial, gender, and ethnic equity front and center at the next OAS General Assembly in October and are looking forward to advancing our common goals to counter discrimination and address intolerance in the Americas.
There is no doubt that standing against hate and racism is an essential core value that should unite us as a region.
The United States acknowledges that systemic racism, a legacy of more than two centuries of slavery, and other forms of discrimination are ugly poisons that continue to plague the United States.
Racism, xenophobia, nativism, misogyny, ablism, homophobia, and other forms of intolerance are not problems unique to the United States. They are global problems. They are human problems that comprise our past but need not define our future. Not if we recognize, name, and dismantle them.
The United States recommits to the fundamental truth that every human being has inherent dignity and deserves to be treated equally. We, along with all nations, must recognize the ways that racism, gender discrimination, and other forms of marginalization intersect with and compound one another.
And we must all strive to eliminate inequities in our policies, remove barriers – whether physical or attitudinal – to full participation in our societies, and push for open and inclusive processes that respect all people everywhere.
Hate can have no safe harbor in America. It should have no safe harbor anywhere in the world. We must join together to make it stop.
The United States looks forward to working with all countries in the room to advance these issues in Lima in October. Thank you.
