A/HRC/45/44/Add.2 Annex Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Peru I. Introduction 1. The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent undertook a visit to Peru at the invitation of the Government from 25 February to 4 March 2020. The members of the delegation were Ahmed Reid (Chair), Dominique Day (Vice-Chair) and Sabelo Gumedze. 2. During the visit, the Working Group assessed the situation of human rights of people of African descent living in Peru, and gathered information on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, Afrophobia and related intolerance that they face. It examined the official measures taken and mechanisms intended to prevent structural racial discrimination and protect victims of racism, and the responses to multiple forms of discrimination according to the concept of intersectionality. The Working Group visited Lima, Yapatera, Piura, Chiclayo, Chincha and Ica. 3. The Working Group met representatives of several central government ministries in Lima, including of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture, Justice and Human Rights, Development and Social Inclusion, Women and Vulnerable Populations, the Interior, Health, Labour, and Housing, Construction and Sanitation, Education, the Presidency and the Council of Ministers, and of the National Institute of Statistics (INEI). It also met with senior officials at the regional and provincial levels, Afro-Peruvians, representatives of civil society, and United Nations entities working to promote the rights of people of African descent, and also with representatives of the National Police of Peru, the Office of the Public Prosecutor, the National Anti-Discrimination Commission (CONACOD), the National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) and the Office of the Ombudsperson. The Working Group also visited the Casa de la Cultura in Yapatera and the exhibit “La Arqueología de la Esclavitud en las Haciendas de Nasca” at the Museo Regional de Ica. 4. The Working Group met with various local government authorities, including judicial and law enforcement authorities, in Piura and Ica regarding human rights, education, health, employment, housing and culture. In all cities that the Working Group visited, it also met a considerable number of Afro-Peruvians, human rights activists, lawyers, academics and representatives of non-governmental organizations. 5. The Working Group thanks the Government of Peru for its invitation and the authorities in the provinces of Lima, Piura and Ica for their support and cooperation during the visit. It thanks in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Working Group also extends its thanks to the United Nations agencies in Lima for their support. It also expresses its appreciation to Afro-Peruvian civil society in various parts of the country, and for the feedback from all those who shared their views on the situation of human rights of people of African descent in the country. II. Historical overview and population 6. Peru is located in western South America, along the Pacific coast, and bordered by the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. The country has a land area of 1,285,215.9 km2. Administratively, Peru is divided into 24 departments, one constitutionally autonomous province, 195 provinces and 1,845 districts. 7. The Afro-descendent presence in Peru dates back to the arrival of the Spanish conquerors and during the first half of the sixteenth century. Today’s Afro-Peruvians are descended from enslaved Africans, brought to the colonies by the Spanish conquerors to perform forced labour. In that first migration, many enslaved Africans came directly from Africa, or from Spain or other colonies. By 1850, approximately 95,000 enslaved Africans 2