A/HRC/45/44/Add.1 14. Since 2009, many legislative initiatives have been adopted, all linked to the idea of the democratic, multinational and intercultural State that is in harmony with the principle of sumak kawsay (“the good way of living”) set forth in the Constitution, reflecting a democratic country committed to rights and justice. This process of policy reform has led to progress in harmonizing domestic legislation with the international treaties to which Ecuador is a party. 15. Through Executive Decree No. 60 (28 September 2009), the Plurinational Plan for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Ethnic and Cultural Exclusion was adopted with a view to minimizing rates of discrimination and exclusion and improving the situation of populations that have historically suffered discrimination (indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian and Montubio peoples), including affirmative action measures. 16. The Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code, which has been in force since 2014, includes articles 176 and 177 under which acts of racial discrimination and hate crimes are criminalized as offences punishable by one to three years’ imprisonment. 17. The Organic Act on Rural Lands and Ancestral Territories was adopted in 2016, which regulates the possession, ownership, management and redistribution of rural land as a factor of production for ensuring food sovereignty, increasing productivity, fostering a sustainable and balanced environment and providing legal certainty for all rights holders. 18. The Organic Act on Water Resources, Use and Management was passed in 2014, with the aim of protecting the right to water and regulating and monitoring the authorization, management, preservation, maintenance and restoration of water resources, as well as the use, overall management and reuse of water. 19. The Comprehensive Organic Act on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women was passed in 2018. Among the guiding principles for application of the Act are equality, non-discrimination, diversity and empowerment (art. 7), and the Act is to be applied with a gender, human rights, intercultural, intergenerational and intersectional approach (art. 8). Furthermore, according to the information received, a draft organic act on the prevention and eradication of racial discrimination and ethnic and cultural exclusion is currently before the National Assembly. B. Institutional and policy measures 20. The Working Group welcomes the recognition of the historic and structural racial discrimination faced by people of African descent, and the many good practices and positive measures developed by the Government, local authorities and national institutions to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and to specifically guarantee the human rights of people of African descent in Ecuador. In particular, they welcome the following institutional and policy initiatives. 21. The International Decade for People of African Descent (2015–2024), whose theme is “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”, was launched in Ecuador on 16 February 2016. Under Executive Decree No. 915, it was declared that it was national policy to achieve the aims and objectives of the programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade, adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 69/16 of 18 November 2014. 22. In addition to Executive Decree No. 915, the National Council for the Equality of Peoples and Nationalities, in accordance with the Organic Act on National Equality Councils, formulated the Agenda for the Equal Rights of Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples, Afro-Ecuadorian People and Montubio People 2019–2021, which contains public policy proposals regarding the demands and enforceability of such rights; and the Equality Agenda for the Decade for People of African Descent (2016), entitled “Capítulo Ecuador” (Chapter Ecuador), as part of the International Decade. 23. The Secretariat for Human Rights and the National Council for the Equality of Peoples and Nationalities have a mandate to protect the human rights of people of African descent. The Organic Act on National Equality Councils (2014) established the institutional 5