Geneva: Thompson Announces Global Litigation and Advocacy Network at United Nations
- Nicholas Marcus Thompson
- Apr 16, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 22, 2025
On April 16, 2024, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Nicholas Marcus Thompson announced the formation of the Global Litigation and Advocacy Network for People of African Descent (GLANPAD) during the Third Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
Speaking as Chief Executive Officer of the Black Class Action Secretariat, Thompson addressed the persistent failure of states and institutions to respond meaningfully to calls for reparations and justice for people of African descent. He emphasized that decades of requests, reports, and moral appeals have not produced the structural change required, and that systems built on exclusion do not reform themselves without accountability.
In his remarks, Thompson underscored that justice cannot rely on goodwill from the very institutions responsible for historic and ongoing harm. He called for a decisive shift toward enforcement through strategic litigation paired with sustained advocacy, framing this approach as essential to securing reparations and driving lasting systemic change.
GLANPAD brings together legal professionals, activists, and community leaders from more than twenty five countries. The network is designed to coordinate cross border litigation and advocacy efforts to confront systemic discrimination against people of African descent, dismantle entrenched structures of inequality, and advance reparative justice globally.
Thompson highlighted Canada as a concrete example of this model in action. Through the Black Class Action Secretariat, he is leading a landmark proposed two point five billion dollar class action lawsuit against the Government of Canada, seeking redress for decades of systemic anti Black discrimination experienced by Black applicants and employees in the federal public sector.
The announcement of GLANPAD marked a shift in global civil society organizing. It signaled a move from asking for justice to demanding it, enforcing it, and institutionalizing it. As Thompson stated, the goal is not simply to make history, but to make it right.
Comments