A/71/301 first annual colloquium on fundamental rights convened by the European Network of Equality Bodies, on the theme “Tolerance and respect: preventing and combating anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hatred in Europe”, held in Brussels on 1 and 2 October 2015. 2. Inadequate human and financial resources 47. The Special Rapporteur notes that several national specialized bodies have not been given the appropriate resources, either human or financial, to be able to carry out their mandates successfully. In addition, several such bodies have felt the consequences of the global economic and financial crisis, in which Governments have been cutting public resources across the board. This in turn has limited their capacities to accomplish the different tasks they are mandated to undertake. In Mexico, for example, the National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination mentioned in its report for 2012 that the lack of adequate resources impeded the achievement of several objectives, such as the identification and systematization of the public budget relating to the right to non-discrimination assigned to federal government agencies. 26 3. Difficulties in gathering disaggregated data 48. Equality data are fundamental to assessing the comparative situation of groups at risk of discrimination, designing public policies that can contribute to promoting equality and assessing their implementation, and providing powerful tools against discrimination and exclusion. They shed light on the situation of groups that are at risk of discrimination but are invisible in general statistics or surveys. 27 49. The Special Rapporteur notes, however, that one of the major challenges to the work of national specialized bodies are the restrictions to the gathering of such data within their mandates. The European Network against Racism has emphasized the necessity to “proactively collect and publish data on court cases and complaints concerning discrimination in employment and disaggregate dat a by ground of discrimination and field of complaint”. 28 A report by the same organization on Afrophobia in Europe demonstrated that equality data collection is almost non-existent in European countries and that it is difficult to provide accurate figures, as information is collected only with regard to migration background and history, which leaves Afro-descendants born in Europe and who are citizens of a European country invisible in statistics concerning population, unemployment rates and educational attainment, and regarding other forms of potential discrimination. 29 50. Similarly, in Latin American countries, the Special Rapporteur has noticed a lack of disaggregated data on the composition of national populations, socioeconomic indicators, the impact of social inclusion measures and the living conditions of indigenous peoples and persons of African descent, although some __________________ 26 27 28 29 16-13565 Mexico, National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination, “Informe anual de resultados del programa nacional para prevenir y eliminar la discriminación” (annual report on results of national programme to prevent and eliminate discrimination, 2012, in Spanish), p. 62. See www.enar-eu.org/Equality-data-collection-What-is. European Network against Racism, Racism and Discrimination in Employment in Europe: shadow report 2012-2013 (Brussels, 2013), p. 5. European Network Against Racism, Afrophobia in Europe: shadow report 2014-2015 (Brussels, 2016), p. 3. 13/21