ABSTRACT 

Afrophobia marginalises people of African descent from access to universal human rights in neoliberal western democracies; I therefore advocate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “integrate (universal) human rights into national priorities where inadequacies exist in policy interventions,” (UNGA, 2016, p.11).  Implementation of targets for Sustainable  Development Goals (SDGs) can enable an inclusive, dynamic, and holistic human rights approaches to social, economic, and environmental development of our communities. Notably, SDG 10 of the 2030 Agenda aims to reduce inequality within and between countries, on the grounds of race or ethnicity, and other protected characteristics. I therefore advocate state parties implement SDG Target 10.3, “to ensure equal opportunity (…) by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices, and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and actions”. This can facilitate achieving interventions that specifically address Afrophobia, such as the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD) 2015 -2024. The central research question queries, can people of African descent better fulfil universal human rights, where state parties implement the 2030 Agenda to achieve IDPAD’s thematic objectives of recognition, justice, and development? With this in mind, the Research Design and Methodology detail what the research is about, the methodology used and why, as well as how the methodology and methods link to conduct of research; e.g. strategies and tactics for data collection and analysis, such as summaries of case studies on policy interventions that address Afrophobia. The substantive aim of the research project is to empower African diaspora communities to better fulfil universal human rights, by critically analysing and evaluating implementation of anti-racism norms and policies. The methodological aim is to interpret and create new and original knowledge for understanding and critical evaluation, of public bodies’ impact in reducing Afrophobia, within the normative framework of the 2030 Agenda.  Although people of African descent amount to approximately 8 million in Europe, we remain disproportionately marginalised in access to universal human rights, (Farkas, 2017). Strategic interventions to combat Afrophobia, are therefore required of European signatories to the International Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) 1965. For the purposes of this project, the phrase ‘people of African descent’ is used interchangeably with Black people, African diaspora, and Africans, and includes African immigrants and the descendants of African immigrants, including Africans enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and similar historical contexts. As the majority of E-Team members including myself self-identify as  African or Afro-descendant, this scholarly work is auto-ethnographic due to our shared ethnicity and common experiences of systemic racism with other researchers, academics, and people of African descent globally.