A/HRC/28/81 55. At the 7th meeting on 10 October, Mr. Theodore Shaw, Professor and Director of the Center for Civil Rights of the Chapel Hill School of Law, University of North Carolina presented on the topic: Special Measures, including affirmative or positive measures, strategies or actions, to prevent, combat and eradicate all forms and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Mr. Shaw provided some historical context and background to the issue recalling to the transatlantic slave trade and subsequent slavery in the USA, as well as the “Jim Crow” legal era which continued to exist in many parts of the country until the 1960s. He said that affirmative action began in the 1960s as a remedial imperative to address the effects of 350 years of segregation and slavery which had to be viewed as a continuum. 56. He also said that since its introduction in the United States, affirmative action in the education sector had faced repeated backlash in the form of lawsuits alleging “reverse discrimination”. He cited the example of the case of DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974) concerning Marco DeFunis, an applicant to the University of Washington Law School, who alleged that he was discriminated against when he was not admitted although black and Latino minority group members had been accepted into the university. The case was ultimately found to be moot in 1974, as DeFunis had been provisionally admitted while the case was pending. He also gave the example of the Board of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), in which Mr. Bakke, an applicant to medical school had been rejected, while applicants from minority groups had been accepted. This landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the US upheld affirmative action but ruled that specific quotas were impermissible. More recently,, in 2003 the United States Supreme Court dealt with the case of Grutter v. Bollinger in which it also upheld the affirmative action policy of the University of Michigan Mr. Shaw added that in the United States these decisions were taken on the basis of a diversity rationale, rather than a remedial rationale. He provided different examples of the challenges in implementing affirmative action in the employment sector and stated that while the aim had been to achieve a country in which race did not subordinate people; there has been an ongoing struggle to fight against colour blindness to address the impact of racial discrimination. 57. The representative of Uruguay provided information about ongoing country initiatives to promote affirmative action in the education system for people of African descent, and asked about ways to continue to enforce and implement affirmative action to bring about lasting change in the future, given its temporary nature. The representative of Egypt asked the presenter what he considered to be the most appropriate steps at the international and the national levels to address gaps between existing laws and their enforcement. The delegate of Morocco asked for the presenter’s view on the effectiveness of the justice system to address racism and best practices from US experience that could be replicated.. The representative of the Republic of South Africa provided information on the country’s experience in applying affirmative action through the introduction of the Employment Equity Act and asked the presenter for reasons as to why there had always been a strong reaction to affirmative action policies and measures. Brazil highlighted its positive experience with the introduction of affirmative action, and asked the presenter for reasons behind the backlash against affirmative action. The representative of the United States of America expressed the Government’s commitment to address disparities in the society including through federal measures, and requested the presenter to shed more light on his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund. 58. In response, Mr. Shaw emphasized that education was an engine of opportunity and that backlash in this sector was faced primarily through racial discrimination against black Americans. He observed that while several types of scholarships existed in the American educational system for people from different nationalities, groups and those with different interests, the policies most under attack were those opportunities availed to racial 34