A/HRC/55/51/Add.1 23. Paraguay has an important specific legal framework on Indigenous Peoples, such as Law No. 904/81 on the Statute of Indigenous Communities, Law No. 234/93 ratifying the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Law No. 5469/15 on Indigenous health. The Special Rapporteur commended the Government of Paraguay for the very recently enacted Law No. 7008/2022 on Indigenous languages, which created the National Commission for the Strengthening, Promotion and Valourization of Indigenous Languages (Comisión Nacional para el Fortalecimiento, la Promoción y la Valorización de las Lenguas Indígenas), drawing special attention towards Indigenous languages, and in complementarity with Law No. 4251/2010 on languages, which has the purpose of providing appropriate measures to promote and guarantee the use of Indigenous languages of Paraguay.17 The Law on languages also stressed that the Guaraní language, as one of the official languages according to the 1992 Constitution,18 would be used in all public institutions, be the object of special attention by the State, as a sign of the cultural identity of the nation and an instrument of national cohesion.19 24. The Special Rapporteur also commends other legislation, such as Law No. 3231/2007, which is aimed at ensuring the literacy of Indigenous Peoples in the mother tongue, and the recent Law No. 6530/2020 and its implementing decree, which is aimed at regularizing all matters related to teaching in sign languages. 25. The country also needs to be commended for the recently enacted law addressed to the communities of Afrodescendent people, Law No. 6940/2022. The law represents an important step and indicates progress made in recognizing the Afrodescendent minority community in the country and in adopting legislation to combat racism and racial discrimination. While providing the definitions of racial discrimination, racism and race, 20 the law has the purpose of recognizing, valuing and dignifying the Paraguayan Afrodescendent population and people of African descent who live within the national territory who have historically been victims of racism and discrimination.21 The new law also provides a framework for what can be considered as discriminatory and racist acts towards Afrodescendent peoples and condemns hate speech against Afrodescendent peoples, considering racist act as the dissemination by any means of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred.22 The law also provides for a mechanism of punishment against the discriminatory and racist acts, with penalization by fines. It establishes the National Secretariat of Culture as the organ responsible for the implementation of the law, which has the mandate to prepare a national plan for the promotion, encouragement and protection of human rights. The plan, in the public sphere, is addressed to members of the Paraguayan Afrodescendent population and people of African descent to coordinate working groups with the national authorities, Afrodescendent civil associations and members of academia for the elaboration of a strategy in the curricular approach and to apply the sanctions.23 26. The Special Rapporteur considered impressive the legal and constitutional framework of Paraguay for advancing human rights, in particular in recent years. Nevertheless, the framework did not protect the full range of human rights, which Paraguay had accepted as an obligation when it ratified the human rights treaties. The framework also did not provide direct, or only very limited, remedies for individuals whose human rights might not be fully respected. He noticed that there was no general or comprehensive national human rights framework and mechanism to ensure that any person whose human rights were violated had an effective remedy, as was required under many of the human rights treaties ratified by Paraguay. There is instead a scattering of legal and administrative structures in place, such as the Human Rights Directorate of the Public Prosecutor or the General Directorate of Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice, which are not necessarily well known, understood 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 6 Art. 1. Art. 140. Art. 3 of Law No. 4251/2010. Art. 3. Art. 2. Art. 7 (b). Art. 4. GE.23-23380