A/HRC/45/44/Add.2 educational level, including academic researchers investigating persistent AfroPeruvian realities. Even periods of widespread economic growth in Peru have seen a significant decline in the socioeconomic status of Afro-Peruvians. 82. Private sector employers have taken advantage of the desperation felt in the Afro-Peruvian community, while Afro-Peruvians themselves report cases of exploitation in the private sector and denounce the lack of recourse for extreme forms of exploitation by agribusiness employers. 83. The Working Group welcomes the analysis conducted by and resolutions against racial discrimination adopted by the National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property. 84. Although article 323 of the Penal Code criminalizes racial discrimination, it is little used by Afro-Peruvians. The law is currently being revised to eliminate subjectivity, to make anti-discrimination norms enforceable and to set clear standards. 85. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru has exacerbated structural racial discrimination faced by Afro-Peruvians, severely undermining their right to health, employment and education. 86. The pervasiveness of structural discrimination faced by Afro-Peruvians is reflected in disparities in education, employment, housing, health and living standards. Some Afro-Peruvians have no bridges to cross rivers, paved streets, waste removal, potable water, access to primary-care facilities or recourse for complex health needs. 87. Bullying and discrimination in schools on the basis of race is a significant concern; their impact on educational performance reflects the mutually reinforcing impact of poverty and racial discrimination. 88. Education is an engine for development, an indispensable tool to eradicate poverty and discrimination and to promote social mobility for Afro-Peruvians. AfroPeruvians suffer disproportionately from unequal access to quality education, particularly in rural areas. 89. Afro-Peruvians face significant employment discrimination. Large numbers of Afro-Peruvian women perform domestic work, and are often subjected to sexual violence, discrimination and racism. 90. Afro-Peruvians often tolerate shocking living and working conditions at the hands of agribusiness, oil and hydroelectric production industries, including unconscionable contracts; they are denied access to safe drinking water, and their fishing areas are compromised. In some cases, environmental impact statements explicitly recognize Afro-Peruvian cultural traditions without acknowledging or assessing the impact on the water rights and basic needs of Afro-Peruvian communities. 91. Many Afro-Peruvians lack access to appropriate housing and have no land title, despite living on their lands for centuries. The Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation demonstrated an understanding of these persistent challenges, including the historical lack of land title. In Lima and Ica, ministry representatives cited plans to design specific programmes to navigate obstacles facing Afro-Peruvians. 92. The Working Group is concerned that the National Afro-Peruvian Museum is currently closed, and that it has not yet been formally designated as a museum, despite 12 years of operation. 93. Afro-Peruvian human rights defenders and civil society organizations are subject to violence, harassment, death threats, stigmatization, intimidation and racism. 94. The Working Group notes that, according to the 2017 census, 13 per cent of AfroPeruvians are over 60 years of age. The absence of any national policy on elderly AfroPeruvians puts them at risk, given the lack of specific social protection for them. 95. Afro-Peruvians also reported complex, intersectional forms of discrimination. The access of Afro-Peruvian women to health care is complicated by stereotyping and health assumptions based on race, cultural insensitivity, disregard for their humanity 16