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A Template to Submit Information to the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

Oct 1, 2018

Overview: The following is a suggested template for U.S. Civil Society submissions to the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent[UNWGEPAD or Working Group].

This information is being collected to brief the Working Group for their official visit to the United States January 19 – January 29, 2016. The group will go to Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, New York, NY, Chicago, IL, and Jackson, MS.

The broad mandate of the Working Group includes:

(a) To study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the Diaspora and, to that end, gather all relevant information from Governments, non-governmental organizations and other relevant sources, including through the holding of public meetings with them;

(b) To propose measures to ensure full and effective access to the justice system by people of African descent;

(c) To submit recommendations on the design, implementation and enforcement of effective measures to eliminate racial profiling of people of African descent;

(d) To make proposals on the elimination of racial discrimination against Africans and people of African descent in all parts of the world;

(e) To address all the issues concerning the well-being of Africans and people of African descent contained in the Durban Declaration and Program of Action;

(f) To elaborate short-, medium- and long-term proposals for the elimination of racial discrimination against people of African descent, bearing in mind the need for close collaboration with international and development institutions and the specialized agencies of the United Nations system to promote the human rights of people of African descent.

To learn more about the mandate of the working group and their US itinerary, visit the USHRN UNWGEPAD event webpage  for continuously updated information.

 

Issues of Interest: The Working Group is particularly interested in focusing on Criminal Justice as a cross-cutting issue, as well as Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.  

See the below annexed list of issues of interest in Appendix I for a suggested list of issues to focus on in your submissions, organized around the thematic areas from the International Decade for People of African Descent.

 

Length: In the interest of making the submission accessible to the Working Group members, we recommend that Organization or individual reports are a maximum of 5 pages. While multiple organization reports are a recommended maximum of 10 pages. These page limits are not inclusive of title page or foot/end notes.

 

What to include: The submission should include links to existing websites, reports, and other resources that further elaborate on the topic. The language used should be concise. This will ensure that the Committee’s focus remains on the key issues you intend to highlight.

 

How/when to submit: Submissions should be sent in MSWord by December 23, 2015  (deadline extended) to africandescent@ohchr.org and cc’ member@ushrnetwork.org.

 

FILE: 

UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

 Submission Template for US Civil Society