NEW YORK, USA – UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed sadness over the death of Rev. Jesse Jackson, a giant of the civil rights movement in the United States and a longtime champion of human rights, equality and justice around the world who passed away on Tuesday aged 84.
“Reverend Jackson lent his powerful voice to the UN’s work against racism, against apartheid and for human rights”, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the secretary-general told reporters in New York.
The secretary-general extended his deepest condolences to his family, his loved ones, his friends, as well as the Government and the people of the United States.
Jesse Jackson at the United Nations Headquarters
In a visit to the United Nations in March 2018, Rev. Jackson spoke at an event marking the contributions of people of African Descent worldwide and said racial idolatry “manifests itself in so many ways, even in our politics”.
Speaking to UN News, the civil rights leader said that “it must be a massive global coalition of conscience” to eliminate racial discrimination.
“We’ve globalised capital, we’ve globalised technology […] We must now globalise human rights: workers’ rights; women’s rights; children’s rights; and environmental security. We must globalise all the values that make life ‘life,’ for everybody.”