A/HRC/18/45 remained invisible in most societies. Ms. Najchevska pointed out the need to abandon the view that fighting discrimination by reacting post facto is the only approach, and called instead for the shifting of the focus from a mostly negative approach towards a positive one, that is, enabling equality. She stressed that cumulative and historical disadvantages made it difficult for members of a disadvantaged group ever to attain equal rights and to achieve legal redress, and argued that an approach based on equality would create a responsibility for Governments to build institutions and to develop policies that would prevent discrimination through specific tools aimed at enabling the equal enjoyment of rights and freedoms. She reiterated the need to implement a systematic approach in the promotion and implementation of positive action based on the use of compensatory, corrective and redistributive methods. She added that international mechanisms should play a leading role in enabling special measures directed at people of African descent, referring to the already existing developments in the cases of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. Ms. Najchevska insisted that people of African descent should be recognized as a group exposed to a unique form of discrimination, and called for the identification of measures designed to address the specific inequity traps that people of African descent were caught in. She reiterated her call for the establishment of a decade for people of African descent. 70. Commenting on the Chairperson’s presentation, Mr. Paixao noted that positive action measures needed to be broader and inclusive in order to ensure that minorities benefited from better living conditions. Ms. Sahli noted that the three approaches introduced in the presentation – compensatory, corrective and redistributive – should be used cumulatively rather than alternatively. 71. A member of the Working Group, Monorama Biswas, gave a presentation on the perspective of the Working Group on positive action. She stressed that minorities, particularly people of African descent, found it harder to have access to decent employment and that too many of them encountered discrimination at least once at work. In order to overcome this structural discrimination, Ms. Biswas called on States to put in place national action plans that would include special measures, such as legislative, executive, administrative, budgetary and regulatory instruments, at every level of the State apparatus. They should also develop plans, policies, programmes and preferential regimes in areas such as employment, housing, education, culture and participation in public life for disadvantaged groups, devised and implemented on the basis of such instruments. She added that States should include special measures in their legal systems, whether through general legislation or legislation directed to specific sectors, as well as through plans, programmes and other policy initiatives at national, regional and local levels. Referring to the model in North America, the member pointed out that, despite the controversy that tainted it, affirmative action had produced a legacy of tangible successes, including a revolution in recruiting and hiring, and had helped to redress the country’s long history of racial discrimination. She stressed that rethinking affirmative action in terms of structural inequality, exclusionary institutional practices, trans-generational disadvantages and even unconscious biases were effective ways to engage people, individual Governments and the international community on the issue. 72. Following the presentation, discussions were held on the issues of self-identification in censuses and the ever-growing problem of discrimination faced by African migrants in Europe, including in the area of employment. 73. Ms. Biswas noted that it was for each country to take into consideration the difference between vulnerable groups and to take appropriate and specific measures to tackle discrimination efficiently. She stressed that the Working Group could contribute through collecting data and country visits. 12