The United Nation’s International Decade of the People of African Descent (UNIDPAD,2014-2024) comes to a close at the end of this year and, to mark the closure of the Decade, on the 6^th of December a number of invested leaders were invited to collect for an evening of reflection at the City Hall.

Organised by the African and Caribbean Support Organisation of Northern Ireland (ACSONI), the reception and dinner was hosted by the Mayor of Belfast, Micky Murray.

Conversations at the table varied, with the conversation turning to continued problematics with discrimination and misrecognition, including the remnants of the recent riots on people’s lives in Northern Ireland. Invited to attend from Queen's University Belfast were Dr Gift Sotonye-Frank (Law, AHSS) and Prof Dina Zoe Belluigi (SSESW, AHSS), founding members of the African Scholars Research Network (AfSRN) and members of ACSONI, among other organisations.

Both engage with issues of discrimination and the importance of justice in their academic citizenry and practice.