A/HRC/55/51/Add.1 Institutions, in March 2019, the Office was accredited with B status with regards to its alignment with the Paris Principles. 32 The Sub-Committee noted various concerns with respect to the effectiveness of the institution, including in relation to providing recommendations to the State, to ensuring a clear and effective mandate and to providing assistance to victims of human rights violations. The institution is the national human rights protection mechanism, but the mission of the institution seems to have been minimized or ignored since its creation, and has been plagued with lack of transparency and monitoring, resulting in its being the object of criticism of its political independence regarding its designation, distortions of its mission and mandate and resource and management issues. Even though the budget has increased in the past 10 years and it relies on approximately 200 officers, it has not been entirely fulfilling its mandate. It needs to be aligned with the Paris Principles and to have a consistent plan of action. With the new Director recently appointed, in September 2022, the Special Rapporteur hopes that the capacity of the Office will be better promoted and utilized. 4. Policies and programmatic framework 31. The Special Rapporteur applauds the creation and implementation of such programmes as the 2021 national plan for Indigenous communities, which was the result of a long process of analysis and consultations, between 2016 and 2021. 33 The 2021 plan is aimed at guiding and consolidating the design and implementation of public policies as State policies, in accordance with the ways of life of Indigenous Peoples, for the achievement of well-being and the full guarantee of their rights.34 32. The Special Rapporteur commends the establishment of the relay centres for deaf people (Centro de Relevo para la Comunicación con Personas Sordas) and the programme of the Municipality of Asunción to raise awareness on the challenges faced by students with disabilities, including the deaf children and users of sign language, entitled “Put yourself in my place” (“Ponte en mi lugar”). 33. Paraguay also has a national human rights plan, embracing human rights themes, in general. However, the plan does not reflect agreements and consensuses reached with State institutions and civil society prior to its adoption, as other United Nations human rights experts already pointed out a few years ago.35 Moreover, in general, the implementation of the national human rights plan has been limited, in part due to insufficient resources. 34. Despite the positive steps and good practices developed by the Government of Paraguay, in particular in recent years, there are remaining challenges that need to be tackled in the protection of the human rights of minorities. VI. Minority rights and specific issues A. Afrodescendent minority and communities 35. In 2016, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, after examining the situation in Paraguay, recommended that the State undertake affirmative action measures to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination, especially against Indigenous Peoples and AfroParaguayans, and to protect human rights defenders from those groups. 36 Years later, the Special Rapporteur noticed during his visit that the context had not changed much. The Afrodescendent minority of Paraguay is often invisible and unacknowledged. Through 32 33 34 35 36 8 See https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/NHRI/GANHRI/SCA_Report_March _2019_-_EN_.pdf. See https://www.indi.gov.py/application/files/8716/1903/8084/Plan_Nacional_Pueblos_Indigenas__version_digital.pdf (in Spanish). Ibid. CCPR/C/PRY/CO/4, paras. 8 and 9. See also María Eugenia Escobar Bravo, “El derecho a la igualdad y a la no discriminación de Afrodescendientes en Paraguay”, Agenda Estado de Derecho, 22 February 2022 (in Spanish). GE.23-23380