A/HRC/45/47 anti-discrimination laws and national action plans that focus specifically on the human rights of people of African descent. 30. OHCHR has also provided technical support for implementing the Decade at the regional level through its engagement with the African Union Commission, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organization of American States. The establishment of the Inter-American Network of High-Level Authorities on Policies for Afrodescendent Populations to help coordinate and promote action by national authorities and the adoption of the Plan of Action for the Decade for Persons of African Descent in the Americas (2016–2025) by the Organization of American States are welcome achievements. E. Organization of regional meetings and engagement with various regional organizations 31. The programme of activities provides for the hosting of regional meetings.29 Three meetings have been organized by OHCHR to raise awareness about the Decade and to consider the programme’s three pillars (justice, recognition and development) through a regional lens, with the participation of State representatives and others stakeholders, including civil society representatives of African descent. In preparing the meetings, OHCHR ensured the participation of women and young people of African descent as experts and participants and included issues of multiple discrimination, gender and race in the programmes of the meetings. 32. Together with the Government of Brazil, OHCHR organized the Regional Meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean on the International Decade for People of African Descent, held in Brasilia on 3 and 4 December 2015. Representatives of the participating States from Latin America and the Caribbean adopted a declaration30 in which they recalled the programme of activities for the Decade and reaffirmed their commitment to the full implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action at the national, regional and global levels. Furthermore, they agreed, inter alia, to reaffirm support for the creation of a forum on people of African descent that would function as a consultation mechanism for all people of African descent and as an advisory body to the Human Rights Council on the difficulties and needs of people of African descent; to support the initiative of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on reparations; to support, in particular, the elaboration of a draft United Nations declaration on the promotion of and full respect for the human rights of people of African descent, stressing the importance of starting the work on such a draft declaration as soon as possible, and to offer substantive contributions to its drafting; to adopt affirmative actions to reduce and remedy disparities and inequalities, to accelerate social inclusion and to close gaps in access to education and employment resulting from historical and current injustices, mindful of the particularities of each country; and to promote and implement measures to combat the practice of racial profiling, punish perpetrators and promote training and awareness-raising programmes for police and judicial officers in the identification and investigation of that practice and the punishment of perpetrators. 33. The Regional Meeting for Europe, Central Asia and North America on the International Decade for People of African Descent, also organized by OHCHR, was held in Geneva on 23 and 24 November 2017. In the outcome document,31 the representatives of States from Europe, Central Asia and North America reaffirmed the commitments made in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action with regard to people of African descent. Furthermore, they reiterated the importance, inter alia, of implementing and enforcing effective measures to eliminate any practice of “racial profiling”; of collecting, compiling, analysing, disseminating and publishing reliable and disaggregated statistical data, in accordance with national legislation, at the national and local levels; and of taking all other 29 30 31 General Assembly resolution 69/16, para. 29 (c), and A/68/977, para. 8. See www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2015-12-03_declaration_of_the_regional_conference_on_the_ international_decade_of_people_of_african_descent.pdf. See www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/outcome_document__regional_meeting_for_europe_central_asia_and_north_america.pdf. 7

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