A/HRC/43/73 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted by the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 34/34. II. Organization of the session 2. The Working Group held its seventeenth session from 16 to 20 December 2019 and on 16 January 2020. Participants discussed and shared views on the situation of racial discrimination worldwide, on challenges faced by women of African descent and on measures to enhance the effectiveness of the follow-up mechanisms to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and to ensure better synergy and complementarities in the work of those mechanisms. The Working Group reviewed the progress achieved concerning the implementation of the programme of activities for the International Decade for People of African Descent. It held a half-day meeting to exchange preliminary views on the preparations for the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. A. Attendance 3. The session was attended by representatives of States Members of the United Nations, observers for non-Member States and representatives of intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations (see annex). B. Opening of the session and election of the Chair-Rapporteur 4. The seventeenth session of the Working Group was opened by the Chief of the AntiRacial Discrimination Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). During the session, presentations were made by human rights experts. 5. In his statement, the Chief of the Anti-Racial Discrimination Section recalled that inequalities of wealth and income had reached historic proportions, threatening all pillars of the United Nations, from development to human rights to peace and security. Those inequalities were nourished by prejudices, racism, hatred and violence and aggressively infiltrated every aspect of life. He recalled that those inequalities disproportionately affected people of African descent and, in particular, women and girls of African descent who suffered intersecting forms of discrimination. In that respect, he referred to a recent publication of OHCHR in which some of the challenges faced by women and girls of African descent, including high school dropout rates, discrimination in employment and in the workplace, discrimination in access to health services, notably in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights, hate crimes, sexual and gender-based violence and negative stereotyping, were highlighted. He informed the Working Group about a regional seminar on the empowerment and political participation of women of African descent organized by OHCHR, in collaboration with the government of Costa Rica, which was held in December 2019 in San José. At the seminar, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights acknowledged that there had been unprecedented growth in the number of women in positions of power in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, but it had not been beneficial to all women equally. The obligation of States to ensure inclusiveness in the exercise of the right to participate in public affairs and the need to collect data, disaggregated by relevant factors, on participation in political and public affairs were emphasized, and the adoption of policy measures, including temporary special measures, and institutional arrangements to promote and ensure the equal participation of women of African descent at all levels of decision-making processes and institutions was recommended. 6. The Permanent Representative of Lesotho to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, Refiloe Litjobo, was elected Chair-Rapporteur. 2