A/HRC/54/71 Group is functionally linked to and cooperates with other follow-up mechanisms. It regularly participates in and provides expertise to the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, 62 the Group of Independent Eminent Experts on the Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the Ad Hoc Committee of the Human Rights Council on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 75. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is a principal partner of the Working Group. The Committee experts participate actively in the sessions of the Working Group and the two mechanisms conduct regular consultations on thematic issues and country-specific situations in preparation for their mandated activities. Both mechanisms work to coordinate and support the implementation of relevant recommendations, particularly those arising from country visits and reviews. The Working Group also provides input into general debates and the general recommendations of the Committee. 63 76. During its 20 years of work, the Working Group has conducted thematic consultations and annual sessions, carried out over 20 country visits and prepared various thematic reports. In discharging its mandate, the Working Group has been inclusive and broadly consultative, engaging international organizations, specialized agencies and other entities of the United Nations and national human rights institutions, academics, grass-roots organizations and specialized bodies within Governments. Its recommendations have been incorporated into the work of the universal periodic review 64 and the United Nations treaty bodies and mechanisms.65 77. The Working Group has held many consultative sessions with people of African descent in civil society, including victims and families. As work moved online in 2020 because of the pandemic, it was the first to organize online regional information-gathering consultations with people of African descent. 78. The Working Group has also strengthened its cooperation with regional human rights mechanisms, including with the Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons of African Descent and against Racial Discrimination of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,66 the Caribbean Community and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In November 2022, the Working Group participated in the seventy-third ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul. It advocated for an increased focus on the state of human rights of Africans and people of African descent in diaspora communities in the framework of the mandate of the Commission. The Working Group presented a draft resolution on people of African descent and Africans in the diaspora, which the Commission endorsed, resulting in the adoption of its resolution on the African reparations agenda and the human rights of Africans in the diaspora and people of African 62 63 64 65 66 16 A/HRC/46/66, para. 38; A/HRC/49/89, paras. 27 and 37; and A/HRC/52/78, paras. 23 and 56. See https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/cerd/general-recommendations. Data generated from the Universal Human Rights Index database shows that, over the course of the universal periodic review cycles completed thus far, a total of 236 recommendations relevant to the work of the Working Group were addressed to the 33 States under review. Among the recommendations were a focus on the overall themes of racial discrimination (21.6 per cent) and equality and non-discrimination (21.4 per cent), with significant linkages to legal and institutional reform (10.3 per cent) and the administration of justice and fair trials (8.2 per cent), with somewhat less attention to the constitutional and legislative framework (5.3 per cent). Recommendations on the right to education are represented in 3.7 per cent of the recommendations, access to justice and remedy also in 3.7 per cent and the right to physical and moral integrity in 3.2 per cent. The majority of recommendations referring to persons of African descent were linked to Sustainable Development Goal 10, on reducing inequality within and among countries (44.2 per cent), and to Goal 16, on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels (39.3 per cent), with a greater range of related Goals in smaller percentages, including Goal 5, on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls (5.8 per cent), indicating some attention to intersectionality. All recommendations are available from the Universal Human Rights Index database at https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/search-human-rights-recommendations. A/HRC/21/60, para. 84. GE.23-15301