A/HRC/54/67 and Humanitarian Law; in a virtual event on the theme of “Three years after George Floyd: is the global racial reckoning done?” organized by the office of the United States Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice (May 2023); in an event on the theme “A more equitable Switzerland: what can organizations do?” organized by the St. Gallen University Competence Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (August 2022); and in an event on the theme of “Ongoing legacies of colonialism and the transatlantic and trans-Saharan trades in enslaved Africans” organized by Birthmark of Africa and OHCHR (August 2022). She also participated in a meeting organized by the UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the project “Routes of enslaved peoples: resistance, liberty and heritage” in Halifax, Canada, (June 2022); in a meeting of the UNFPA reference group on the maternal mortality fact sheet and in a launch event at the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent (November 2022). Ms. Day also contributed to the UNFPA brief “In our own words: voices of women of African descent for climate and reproductive justice” (December 2022); organized the Working Group’s amicus curiae interventions to the United States and the European Court of Human Rights; and offered expert testimony to the New York Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in its inquiry into the New York child welfare system and its impact on black children and families (April 2023). Ms. Ekiudoko was a panellist at a reparations and racial healing event in Bellaggio in July 2022 and a panellist at the reparations and racial healing summit held in Accra in August 2022. She was a keynote speaker at the World Health Organization virtual event on the International Day of People of African Descent (August 2022); and on the role of international organizations on the virtual platform SDG Nugget Hour in November 2022 and on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 25 March 2023. She was the moderator of and a keynote speaker at the Women of African Descent Europe conference on the theme of “Recognition, justice and development” (April 2023). She was also a keynote speaker at an event, held on 9 June 2023 in Hungary, to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the African Union. 18. The Working Group has followed several emblematic cases with relevance to its mandate and in some of them it has asked to submit or has submitted amicus curiae briefings. For example, on 1 March 2023 in the United States, in the case of Commonwealth v. Mumia Abu Jamal, relating to the relevance of dismantling systemic racism using newly-discovered, deliberately withheld evidence; and in Switzerland to the Swiss courts and the European Court of Human Rights, in Switzerland v. Brian K., with respect to the role of systemic racism and racial stereotyping in the ongoing detention of Brian K. on ever-changing grounds since his childhood. Throughout the year, the Working Group members gave individual interviews to the media. IV. Summary of deliberations Thematic analysis: economic empowerment of people of African descent 19. The Working Group devoted its thirty-second session to exploring how systemic racism and global economic structures and financial mechanisms affect the economic and financial empowerment of people of African descent. 20. The first panel, entitled “Trade and trafficking routes: then and now”, was chaired by Ms. Day. She discussed the importance of confronting the ongoing role of anti-Blackness in the economic exploitation of profit opportunity. The exploitation of Black bodies is a measurable, direct legacy of colonialism and the triangular trade. People of African descent continue to be viewed as objects for exploitation, namely available or disposable sources of labour, intellectual property or other resources, rather than drivers of innovation or leaders in economic development. The legacies of colonialism and the trade and trafficking in enslaved Africans have left persistent mindsets at individual and systemic levels, including in the development agenda and the continued use of resources, labour and innovations from the global South to feed industrial and information-age technologies and production elsewhere. 21. The Deputy Mayor of Bristol, United Kingdom, Asher Craig, reported that the city had established the Commission on Race Equality and was implementing programmes 6 GE.23-12890