A/HRC/54/67 81. Ms. Gumbi pointed out that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action recognized the difficult issues of antisemitism and reparations for slavery. 82. Ambassador of South Africa to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Abdul Minty, defended the conference against claims of antisemitism and racism in reverse, stating that foreign ministers spent hours negotiating consensus positions. 83. The Chair of the Group of Independent Eminent Experts on the Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, Edna Roland, emphasized the importance of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action in the fight against racism and discrimination, noting that it contributed to the concept of people of African descent and affirmative action. 84. Ms. McDougall highlighted the existing gap between the commitments made in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the lack of their integration into law and practice at national and international levels. She emphasized the importance of working to empower all groups affected by racism and racial discrimination. 85. The Secretary-General of the International Association against Torture, Roger Wareham, mentioned the importance of removing the struggle from geographical and political borders and of putting it on the human rights agenda. 86. A civil society representative recommended that all European countries recognize the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity and sanction those who called for hatred and discord regarding people of African descent. The representative proposed revisiting Articles 28 and 109 of the Charter of the United Nations to create a new international economic order and suggested studying alternative economic models focused on postgrowth. The development of a blueprint on economic justice for people of African descent, similar to the Sustainable Development Goals, was suggested in order to measure progress in addressing systemic and structural barriers to opportunities for people of African descent and provide measurable goals for redressing economic atrocities. V. Conclusions and recommendations 87. The Working Group thanks Member States and representatives of international organizations and civil society for their active participation. A. Conclusions 88. The Working Group notes that the land, labour, intellectual property, innovation and reproductive rights of people of African descent have been consistently commodified as sites of exploitation since the trade and trafficking in enslaved Africans. The persistent expectation of the availability and disposability of Black bodies is a particularly potent colonial legacy. 89. Historically, and today, people of African descent have been considered objects of economic leverage, rather than agents of economic innovation, and have been exploited. This has included the degradation of Black knowledge production, leadership and innovation globally. 90. Ensuring equity and equality in economic access and empowerment should maintain fundamental human rights principles in economic rights, seeking to uplift a liberatory agenda that has been denied to people of African descent in varied contexts. 91. Anti-Blackness serves as an organizing principle, even in multi-ethnic spaces, to marshal political power and economic wealth, to align with the interests of former colonizers and to facilitate corporate capture and State capture. 92. Black debt, or systems and policies that have effectively promoted precarity and drained assets from individuals and communities of African descent through financial instruments, is a burden at national, community and individual levels. Indebtedness is rooted in enslavement, which deprived Africans of their liberty, family and kinfolk, identity, languages, traditional livelihoods, property, well-being and, in all too many instances, life, 14 GE.23-12890