A/HRC/60/77 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council in accordance with Council resolutions 9/14 and 54/26, in which the Council requested the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent to submit an annual report on all activities relating to its mandate. The report is focused mainly on the deliberations of the Working Group at its thirty-fifth session. 2. The Working Group held its thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth sessions at United Nations Headquarters, from 2 to 6 December 2024 and from 21 to 25 April 2025, respectively. Representatives of Member States, international organizations, regional organizations and civil society organizations and invited panellists participated in the thirty-fifth session. At its thirty-sixth session, the Working Group held meetings with representatives of international organizations, civil society organizations, bar associations and academic institutions. II. Organization of the thirty-fifth session A. Opening of the session 3. The opening of the session took place in two segments. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in New York, Ilze Brands Kehris, delivered the opening statement. She stated that members of the Working Group had the important task of making concrete recommendations to guide and support the pursuit of reparatory justice anchored in international human rights. She underscored the growing willingness among stakeholders, including States and regional organizations, to acknowledge the need to repair the continuing impact of enslavement, the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and colonialism on people of African descent. She highlighted the work of the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms in that regard, as well as initiatives taken at the national level, including by various stakeholders, such as universities. She acknowledged that there was still much to be done to fully and comprehensively embrace calls for reparatory justice. She called upon States and other actors to confront the historical injustices and to deliver reparations in various forms, with a comprehensive approach that restored the dignity of victims, achieved reconciliation and healing and reversed the consequences of exclusion and discrimination. 4. Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, delivered a statement by pre-recorded video message. She asserted that colonialism, enslavement and the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and their entrenched legacies of dehumanization and oppression continued to affect people of African descent daily. She called for leadership and political action to move from recognition to accountability and redress. She also called for the joining of forces to address the crimes of enslavement through reparatory justice for people of African descent and to eradicate systemic racism and racial discrimination through global action, policies and laws that ensured inclusion, participation, freedom and equality for all. She supported the call for the proclamation of a Second International Decade for People of African Descent. 5. Congresswoman of the United States of America, Barbara Lee, delivered the keynote speech. She expressed concern about troubling political shifts in the United States aimed at reversing progress against systemic racism. She called for the full acknowledgement of the painful and dangerous legacy of white supremacy in order to dismantle systemic racism and to continue fighting for racial justice and reparatory justice. She deplored the failure by the United States to adequately confront that legacy, which disproportionally affected communities of colour. Ms. Lee referred to the resolution that she had introduced in the United States Congress to establish the first commission on truth, racial healing and transformation, aimed at dismantling the legacy of institutional racism. She recalled that true healing and transformation demanded reparatory justice. 6. Ambassador and Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, Mathu Joyini, recalled the country’s commitment to the principles enshrined in the 2