A/HRC/15/18 certain types of cancer. The Department has programmes aimed at addressing many of the issues of most concern to women of African descent, such as the Healthy Start Eliminating Disparities in Perinatal Health programme, which is designed to improve health care for pregnant women and reduce higher than average infant mortality rates in targeted communities. 70. The information provided to the members by the United States Census Bureau indicated that women of African descent have higher unemployment rates than the national average for women (in 2009, 12.4 per cent compared to 8.1 per cent), while information provided by the Department of Labor indicated that their median usual weekly earnings are less than the national average for women (in 2009, $582 compared to $657). When one considers these statistics in the light of the fact that, according to information provided by the Department of Labor, in 2009 44 per cent of families of African descent were maintained by women with no spouse present, the economic vulnerability of many women of African descent is brought into stark relief. IV. A. Conclusions and recommendations Conclusions 71. The experts greatly appreciate the comprehensive and informative meetings that were held with Government agencies. They note with satisfaction the many programmes and other initiatives that the Government implements to combat racial discrimination affecting people of African descent, including the work of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the various Civil Rights Offices that exist in Government departments as well as the many other institutions that are working on the promotion of diversity. 72. On the other hand, the experts note that recently anti-discrimination legislation and practice in the United States of America has been gradually eroding the affirmative measures introduced during the 1960s and 1970s aimed at overcoming the effects of past societal discrimination. A perception exists of racism being a thing of the past and that American society is now generally “colour blind”. Given this process as well as the unique history of people of African descent in the United States, the experts are concerned by an insufficient recognition in the present day of the influence of the baggage of the past, which necessitates specific institutions and programmes tailored to the situation of people of African descent. 73. The experts believe that two challenges from the past still linger: the remnants of slavery and electoral disenfranchisement. The abolition of slavery is not absolute as the Thirteenth amendment allows slavery “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted... within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”. The second part of the amendment, when considered alongside the overrepresentation of people of African descent in the prison population, conditionally understood, could make a link between the past and present slavery. The second challenge is that at any given time, 5.3 million American citizens are denied the right to vote because of criminal convictions and Americans of African descent constitute a disproportionately large percentage of this electorally disenfranchised population. 74. The Working Group also noted the existence of a circle of poverty, inadequate education, limited employment opportunities and challenges in the administration of justice affecting the lives of people of African descent on multiple levels which are not 18