E/CN.4/2005/21 page 21 38. States should ensure that their treaty obligations to promote, defend and fulfil the right to equality and non-discrimination are applicable to the right to adequate housing as a component of human rights to an adequate standard of living, and that they are integrated into policy formulation processes with a view to helping remedy poor living conditions of people of African descent. 39. States are encouraged to adopt measures addressing housing conditions of people of African descent, especially those of single women. IV. OTHER MATTERS 97. The Working Group held a private meeting with the African Group on 27 October 2004 to discuss questions raised as to the absence of two experts of the Working Group. The African Group also raised the issue of definition of “people of African descent” with respect to the scope of the mandate of the Working Group. The Chairperson-Rapporteur explained that the absence of the two experts was due to the rescheduling of the session, resulting in agenda conflicts for the experts, but that one of the two would participate at the session during the second week. The Chairperson-Rapporteur also submitted that the interpretation of the mandate of the Working Group was defined by its parent body, the Commission on Human Rights. The latter had established through its resolutions 2002/68 and 2003/30 that the Working Group was to study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the diaspora and to make proposals on the elimination of racial discrimination against Africans and people of African descent in all parts of the world. 98. During its private meetings, held on 2 November 2004, the Working Group considered, inter alia, the issue of country visits and concluded that they were necessary for the effective discharge of its mandate by facilitating in-depth understanding of the situation of people of African descent in various regions of the world. They offered the opportunity: to examine the status of the realization of human rights as regards conditions necessary to guarantee the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of people of African descent; to engage in dialogues with particular Governments, United Nations and intergovernmental organizations and civil society in their efforts to ensure the realization of the principle of equality and non-discrimination; to identify practical solutions and best practices in the realization of the provisions of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, its follow-up and relevant concluding observations, comments and recommendations made by treaty bodies, and to assess their impact on policies adopted by the countries concerned.