A/HRC/45/44/Add.2 (l) The inclusion of Afro-Peruvians as a vulnerable group in the national human rights plan; (m) services; Targeting Afro-Peruvians for improved access to justice in public defence (n) The drafting of a national action plan on business and human rights, including for Afro-Peruvians; (o) The approval of a protocol on human rights defenders, including for AfroPeruvian human rights defenders. 73. Despite the above-mentioned positive measures, the Working Group is concerned about the prevalence of racial discrimination and the situation of human rights of people of African descent in Peru. 74. The recognition of Afro-Peruvians as a distinct people, with ancestral claims, is essential. Discourses on the visibility and development of Afro-Peruvians should include the acknowledgment of their collective rights. The status of Afro-Peruvians as a people in accordance with ILO Convention No. 169 and the resulting rights framework under international law offer the necessary protection. Civil society hails the importance of the recognition of Afro-Peruvians as a people rather than a population, in order to prevent institutional denial of collective rights, barriers to consultation or enforcement of certain rights, and the suppression of Afro-Peruvian identity. The recent rejection of “Afro-Peruvian” as a category in the collection of COVID-19-related data, reportedly because of their legal status, is a recent example of the risks and barriers that lack of recognition of Afro-Peruvians may cause. 75. The Government has not implemented a mechanism of repair to remediate harm caused, such as the ongoing invisibility of the Afro-Peruvian population in intercultural dialogue and its differences from the indigenous population. Popular conceptions of interculturality often exclude Afro-Peruvian identities, compromise collective rights and result in exclusion from the delivery of public services. 76. The National Anti-Discrimination Commission has an important role to play, but its impact on tackling racial discrimination, racism and xenophobia in an effective way is limited. It should therefore be strengthened. 77. The inclusion of a self-identification variable in the census conducted in 2017 is an important step and a demonstration of the State’s commitment to making visible and offering social protection to Afro-Peruvians. 78. The successful launch of the self-identification variable nevertheless revealed concerns, including how the broad (but necessary) category of mestizo may actually misrepresent the number of Afro-Peruvians without due care, and how the design of the sample for the census conceals analysis of Afro-Peruvian experience at the regional and local levels. 79. The National Development Plan for the Afro-Peruvian Population (2016–2020) has not been adequately or systematically implemented. The Working Group is concerned that no specific funding, resources, structure or authority have been specifically designated to promote and protect the human rights of Afro-Peruvians after the Plan has been implemented. Only eight of 19 ministries have agreed to implement the Plan. Only the regional governments of Ica and Piura have issued specific ordinances to draft plans to implement it. 80. In the public sector, the denial of access of Afro-Peruvians to public administration, goods and services is the result of a lack of implementation of the State’s existing anti-discrimination framework. Lack of investment in public utilities, infrastructure and irrigation, of formalization of land title, and of education and health care have led to a denial of access to basic services and to core human rights for many Afro-Peruvians. 81. Similarly, public investments in human capital and in research and development ignore the potential of the Afro-Peruvian community at every socioeconomic and 15