Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva Ch. Louis-Dunant, 15 1202 – Geneva / Switzerland Phone: (+41) (0)22 332 50 00 / Fax: (+41) (0)22 910 07 51 E-mail: mission.brazil@delbrasgen.org Human Rights Council Forum on Minority Issues Third Session Discrimination and Positive measures/affirmative action Geneva, 15 December 2010 Thank you Madam Chair, At the outset, we wish to commend the work of the Independent Expert and thank the panelists for their presentations. We listened with particular interest the presentation of Professor Marcelo Paixão on the promotion of racial equality in Brazil. African descendents represent more than 50% of Brazil’s population and more than 70% of its socio-economically vulnerable population. Combating this clear distortion is one of Brazilian Government key objectives and is in the origin of the creation of a Ministry dedicated to the promotion of policies for racial equality, SEPPIR, as highlighted by Professor Paixão. The Brazilian Government is fully committed to combating structural inequalities, I would like to refer in particular to access to education, to health and to employment. The Brazilian Government has spared no efforts aimed at increasing racial and social inclusion, through broad social policies, based on conditioned cash transfer, also by means of sector specific policies and, in particular, through affirmative action policies.