A/HRC/54/67 clear benefits. Development aid has neither offset this exploitation nor alleviated persistent poverty in the most resource-rich countries in the world. 102. The cost of borrowing is effectively higher for Africans and people of African descent, a modern form of systemic racism, where viability determinations and credit scores embed colonial mindsets. 103. Unequal access to key educational resources, including skilled teaching and quality curricula, create serious intergenerational barriers for people of African descent. 104. Credit unions, cooperatives and circles that draw on the linguistic commonalities, values, principles, ethics and diversity in business competence have demonstrated the capacity to empower people of African descent. Such mechanisms embrace cooperative entrepreneurship and strategically use local ownership and language to promote a culture of self-reliance and trust. 105. There is momentum for a global imperative on reparatory justice and a shift from rhetoric to reality in many parts of the world. In Africa, there is increased momentum at the level of the African Union summit, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, and civil society, including academia, towards a reinvigorated multi-stakeholder and deliberately and carefully thought-out campaign. In Latin America, Colombia convened a global conference on reparations in 2022, in addition to the practical steps taken by the State of California and the return of some cultural artefacts to Africa by some European countries, among others. 106. Cognizable barriers to prompt access to reparations for and by people of African descent include denial of responsibility based on unilateral or colonial international law; disproportionate scepticism and questions about the ability of people of African descent to manage assets; overrepresentation of the (former) perpetrator(s) and the interests in reparation processes; and dismissing or underestimating the cause of people of African descent. 107. Economic justice and reparations are mutually reinforcing. Proportional, appropriate, prompt and adequate reparations would disrupt and end the vicious cycle of exploitation of Africans and people of African descent and create avenues for access to and return of resources. 108. Reparatory justice for people of African descent is a matter of common sense and benefits humanity. It includes the return of assets and cultural artefacts and requires new dialogue, cultural exchanges and partnerships. It resets international relations on a foundation of trust, honesty and mutual respect. 109. The history of Africa striving for reparatory justice dates back to the 1990s and is rooted in the work of the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union), with the first pan-African conference on reparations held in 1993 in collaboration with the Organization of African Unity and the Government of Nigeria. 110. The Working Group welcomes current efforts to establish a united front for justice and payment of reparations and establish joint African-Caribbean efforts to advance reparatory justice, in collaboration with the Africa Judges and Jurists Forum. 111. The Working Group commends the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on its resolution on “Africa’s reparations agenda and the human rights of Africans in the diaspora and people of African descent worldwide”. Key elements in this groundbreaking resolution include the inclusion of contemporary forms of slavery in the African reparations agenda and a call for civil society involvement in conceptualizing a reparatory justice agenda for Africa. The Working Group is proud of its contribution to this important achievement. 112. Burundi offers an exemplary case of the African demand for reparations, as it has been able to make an agreement with Belgium on compensation of 36 billion euros for the impact of colonialism on ethnic harmony within Burundi and for the forceful taking of biracial children to Belgium by former colonial authorities. 16 GE.23-12890