Geneva [Switzerland], July 7 : The UN Human Rights office has condemned Paraguay Senator Celeste Amarilla's remarks on Kylian Mbappe, calling them "racist and dehumanising" and part of a wider issue of racism in football and sports.
The Paraguayan Senator, following France's 1-0 win over the South American country in the FIFA World Cup round of 16, called Mbappe a "colonised Cameroonian", "pretending hard to be French, resentful, newly rich, arrogant, and ugly". Amarilla also said that France "won by a fluke and Mbappe was nervous and scared to death the whole match, like his entire team."
The UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan condemned the "racist" remarks against Mbappe, describing them as unacceptable and part of a broader pattern of racism and discrimination in football and sports.
"The racist and dehumanising remarks against French footballer Kylian Mbappe by Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla are despicable and, regrettably, not isolated. Reports of racist incidents during the FIFA World Cup 2026 reflect a wider phenomenon across football and sports more broadly," the UN Human Rights spokesperson said as quoted by the United Nations website.
The UN Human Rights spokesperson urged public officials, governments, sports organisations, and social media platforms to take stronger measures against racism, discrimination, and hate speech while ensuring effective accountability mechanisms.
"Public officials 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. They should also ensure that there are independent and effective accountability mechanisms in place. Social media companies also have a responsibility to prevent and address racial discrimination and xenophobic abuse on their platforms, in accordance with international human rights standards," added the UN Human Rights spokesperson.
In an X post, the UN Human Rights also said sport should promote equality, dignity, and respect, and that dehumanising language has no place in sport or public discourse.
"The power of sport must be used to promote equality, dignity & respect, not hatred or dehumanisation. Language that dehumanises people because of their race or ethnic origin has no place in sport or public discourse," the UN Human Rights said on X.
https://x.com/UNHumanRights/status/2074521636389212585
Notably, responding to the remarks of the Paraguayan Senator, Mbappe called her "a despicable woman" and "unworthy" of her position,
In a post on X, Mbappe said, "Madame Celeste Amarilla, 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. Through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World Cup, making way for an incompetent woman who gives the worst possible image of her country."
https://x.com/KMbappe/status/2074188157763875267
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron and FIFA President Gianni Infantino also condemned Amarilla's remark on Mbappe.