Paraguayan Lawmaker's Racist Rant Against Mbappe ‘Despicable’: UN Human Rights Office

New Delhi: A Paraguayan lawmaker's racist remarks on French footballer Kylian Mbappe are “despicable” and “dehumanising”, and she made them even though public officials in particular must stand against racism, the UN's human rights office has said.

“The racist and dehumanising remarks against French footballer Kylian Mbappe by Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla are despicable and, regrettably, not isolated,” UN human rights spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan said on Tuesday (July 7), noting that reports of racist incidents at the ongoing FIFA World Cup “reflect a wider phenomenon across football and sports more broadly”.

Public officials, he added, “have a heightened responsibility to stand against racism, discrimination and hate speech in their discourse”.

“States and sports organisations must actively work to prevent acts of racism and any other form of discrimination” as well as institute effective accountability mechanisms, said al-Kheetan. Social media firms too are responsible for addressing racial discrimination and xenophobia on their platforms in line with international human rights standards, he said.

After France prevailed 1-0 over Paraguay during their world cup game in Philadelphia on Sunday, Amarilla went on a racist rant against French captain Mbappe in two tweets.

Mbappe, she wrote, is a “colonised Cameroonian pretending hard to be French” who has not listened to things any more “educated” than are “chimpanzees”. He was born and raised in Paris and his father is of Cameroonian origin.

The forward responded to Amarilla on Monday. “You are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position. You do not represent Paraguay, that country which has sweated passion and honour throughout the competition,” he wrote on X, adding that she has undermined her country's journey in the world cup with her remarks.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed support for Mbappe and the authorities in France are reported to be considering legal action for Amarilla's racist statements.

Paraguay's foreign ministry said on Sunday that the government “deplores and rejects” what Amarilla said, calling her remarks “contrary to the values and principles that inspire peaceful coexistence and respect for human dignity that our country promotes”.

Amarilla for her part has deemed Mbappe's response a case of “pure and simple gender violence”, threatening legal action if the French captain does not retract his remarks.

“… Right away, I regretted mistreating you with the same insults I receive, because I too am despised for being mixed-race and Latina and called dirty … I understand that it bothered you, because it is humiliating,” she also wrote in an open letter in French, before demanding that Mbappe retract his remarks and apologise to her.