A/HRC/51/54 disparities in health and well-being.9 Miriam Ekiudoko, another member of the Working Group, noted that racial disparities for children of African descent were evident in mortality rates, inadequate health services, lack of proper nutrition, risk of trafficking and inadequate education. 19. The Chief of the Gender and Human Rights Branch of UNFPA presented an analysis of the state of health and well-being of children and adolescents of African descent, examining the intersections with gender and other demographic markers and specifically referencing the challenge posed by the lack of data disaggregated by race and ethnicity in many States. She spoke about Latin America, where adolescent pregnancy existed at higher rates for girls of African descent, as did higher rates of maternal mortality, gender-based violence, sexual violence, trafficking, intimidation and torture that, in many instances, ended in femicide. She highlighted the urgent need for Governments to invest in disaggregated data showing the complexity and magnitude of the challenges and to inform the design of targeted transformational and inclusive policies, while continuing to advocate for the dismantling of discriminatory laws, in particular those that restricted bodily autonomy, encouraged harmful practices and limited access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. 20. Joia Crear-Perry from the National Birth Equity Collaborative (United States) presented various dimensions of birth equity, noting its significance to intergenerational survival and development of people of African descent. She examined racism as a root cause of maternal morbidity and mortality and noted the impact of racism on reproductive health and young children’s survival. Dr. Crear-Perry elaborated upon the importance of valuing human rights and development equally, in particular in the United States, to ensure that people of African descent were recognized as entitled to all human rights. She linked reproductive justice and birth equity to calls for reparations and accountability to repair the damage done in the past and continuing in the present. She emphasized the importance of adopting a reproductive justice framework, centring the expertise of people with lived experience and investing in racial justice as a matter of public health. 21. Sam Agbo, Senior Health Adviser in the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, spoke on health and nutrition literacy and identified disparities in inputs, outputs and outcomes for children of African descent. He identified climate change, ecological degradation, conflict, political instability, pervasive inequalities and predatory commercial practices as threats to the health and wellbeing of children of African descent. Those threats were often exacerbated by a triple burden of non-communicable diseases, undernourishment and obesity, and communicable diseases. Dr. Agbo also noted a lack of political will to address fundamental human rights as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He called for increased efforts and sustained advocacy. 22. Robert T. Carter, professor of psychology and education at Columbia University and author of Confronting Racism: Integrating Mental Health Research into Legal Strategies and Reforms and Measuring the Effects of Racism: Guidelines for the Assessment and Treatment of Race-Based Traumatic Stress Injury, focused his presentation on race-based traumatic stress injury, which is used to strengthen legal actions involving acts of racial discrimination. He noted that victims of racism found little recognition in non-discrimination and anti-racism laws, policies and existing remedies. In addition, existing mental health assessments and diagnostic categories failed to include race-based incidents as sources of emotional and psychological harm. However, acts of racism were external assaults that could functionally impair (i.e. cause injury). Race-based traumatic stress injury occurred with a racial encounter that caused emotional pain, was outside a person’s control, was unexpected and when coping efforts failed. Race-based traumatic stress injury also allowed understanding of race-based experiences as stress and as trauma, which was necessary to allow law and policy to reflect the realities of racial injuries that people experienced. Well-established legal processes based on injury and redress (including tort law) were currently underutilized. 9 6 See the report of the Working Group on COVID-19, systemic racism and global protests (A/HRC/45/44).