A/HRC/42/59
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
15 August 2019
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Forty-second session
9–27 September 2019
Agenda item 9
Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
forms of intolerance, follow-up to and implementation
of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of
African Descent on its twenty-third and twenty-fourth
sessions*
Summary
The present document contains the report of the Working Group of Experts on
People of African Descent on its twenty-third and twenty-fourth sessions, prepared
pursuant to Council resolutions 9/14, 18/28, 27/25 and 36/23. During its twenty-third
session, held in Geneva from 3 to 7 December 2018, the Working Group held private
discussions. At its twenty-fourth session, held in Geneva from 25 to 29 March 2019, the
Working Group focused on the theme “Data for racial justice”.
At its public session, the Working Group discussed the human rights situation of
people of African descent globally. It also took a comprehensive look at the varied
intersections of big data and racial justice (and injustice). The Working Group presented its
draft report on countering negative racial stereotypes of people of African descent. It
concluded that mapping and analysis of disaggregated data were crucial to inform policy
priorities relating to equality and opportunity for people of African descent. In addition, the
refusal by some States to collect and disaggregate data based on race and ethnicity was one
of the most serious impediments to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals,
and achieving those Goals and meeting their targets required dismantling the structural and
systemic barriers to sustainable development that exist for people of African descent in
developing and developed countries. The Working Group also concluded that all relevant
stakeholders should make an effort to implement the Durban Declaration and Programme
of Action and the programme of activities of the International Decade for People of African
Descent.
* Agreement was reached to publish the present report after the standard publication date owing to
circumstances beyond the submitter’s control.
GE.19-13932(E)