This report debates the human rights implications around the negative usage of images and narratives of Africa and Africans. It recommends a consideration of the various factors influencing the composition of campaign images and literature and the nature of the responses they elicit in audiences, as well as the impact it has on people of African descent. It engages with academic literature where the topics of media images and representation have been discussed at length, documenting the arguments.

The two main organisations involved in framing the discussion on human rights in the context of this

research are the European Convention on Human Rights and Committee on the

Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Convention and its

members are committed to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of

understanding among all races. It also compels its parties to outlaw hate speech and

criminalise membership in racist organisations.

 

The official discourses relating to Africans and those of African descent in the wider

socio-political context of Northern Ireland must be considered given that it provides a

context for how race and human rights are provided for more generally in the region and

how this is informing how new communities are portrayed. The Race Relations (NI)

Order 1997 (RRO) echoed the provisions of the 1976 Race Relations Act in Great

Britain. It outlaws discrimination on grounds of colour, race, nationality or ethnic or

national origin.

 

This places the rights for individuals and groups to be free from discrimination which

may be viewed as being exacerbated by campaigns which essentialises and

reduces the identities of individuals to a point where they are only recognised in terms

of the ethos underlying a specific cause or campaign. This may be considered as

discriminatory as it denies differentiation for individuals/groups/regions and contributes

to a culture of stereotyping.