A/HRC/15/18 I. Introduction 1. Bearing in mind its status as a special procedure of the former Commission on Human Rights, the Working Group of experts on people of African descent decided at its fourth session to undertake country visits as a means of effectively discharging its mandate. The Working Group recognized that such visits could contribute to in-depth understanding of the situation of people of African descent in various regions of the world (E/CN.4/2005/21, para. 98). 2. At the invitation of the Government of the United States of America, the Working Group undertook a country visit to this country from 25 to 29 January 2010. The delegation, headed by Mirjana Najcevska, the Acting Chairperson of the Working Group, also included the experts Ralston Nettleford and Monorama Biswas. During their visit, the experts visited New York and Washington, D.C. The members of the Working Group regret to report that Mr. Ralston Nettleford passed away during the country visit. 3. In New York, the Working Group members met with various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In Washington, D.C., the Working Group members held meetings with representatives of the Department of State, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the United States Census Bureau and the Department of Homeland Security. They also met with Congressman Donald Payne of the Congressional Black Caucus and with NGOs. 4. The experts wish to thank the Government for its invitation and for its exemplary assistance before and during their visit to the country. They would also like to thank the NGOs and people of African descent with whom they met during their visit. In the present report the experts describe the information received by the members of the Working Group during their visit to the United States, identify good practices and make recommendations for actions that may assist in remedying challenges that were identified. II. Context of people of African descent in the United States of America A. General situation 5. Most people of African descent in the United States are the direct descendants of Africans who were held captive and survived slavery in the seventeenth century. The conception of a race-based slave system developed in the 1700s. By 1775, Africans made up 20 per cent of the population in the American colonies, which made them the second largest ethnic group after the English. In 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in states that had seceded from the Union were free. 6. The civil rights movement between 1954 and 1968 endeavoured to abolish racial discrimination against African Americans. Since then, direct individual or institutional (especially openly violent) discrimination has mainly disappeared from everyday life and African Americans have significantly improved their social and economic standing. However, structural and indirect discrimination is still visibly present in many fields of public life. Due partially to the legacy of slavery, racism and discrimination, African 4