A/HRC/54/71 achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development required States to address the racialized experiences of people of African descent. 25. The Working Group also conducted two technical visits: to Montevideo, from 21 to 24 March 2023, hosted by the United Nations country team and the Office of the Resident Coordinator in Uruguay, and to Mexico City, in addition to Guerrero and Acapulco, Mexico, from 27 to 30 March 2023, hosted by the Mexico Country Office of the United Nations Population Fund. During the visits, the Working Group advocated for an increased focus on people of African descent in development programming and provided technical assistance on a human rights-based approach to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals as they related to Africans and people of African descent. It also provided support within the United Nations system and to development partners on strategies to implement the International Decade for People of African Descent and its programme of activities at the national and local levels. D. Thematic work 26. Since its establishment, the Working Group has offered analysis and coordinated expertise to examine key issues worldwide that continue to have a significant impact on the lives and opportunities of people of African descent. These issues, often rooted in historical and systemic discrimination, are strongly influenced by local contexts and historical backgrounds, yet the Working Group has also observed surprising consistencies across regions and borders, given the transnational nature of the trade and trafficking in enslaved Africans, colonialism and the social construct of race. Some prevalent themes highlighted by the Working Group include: (a) Racial discrimination, including institutional racism, racial profiling and bias in education, employment, housing and criminal justice systems; (b) Poverty and socioeconomic inequality, including employment discrimination and downgrading, inadequate institutional support for civil society and social initiatives and barriers to access to public goods, services and accommodations; (c) Educational disparities, including unequal access to quality education, institutional discouragement from proceeding to tertiary education, persistent disadvantage, higher dropout rates and underrepresentation in institutions of higher education; (d) Health disparities, including inadequate access to health care, discrimination in medical settings and negative socioeconomic factors, including significantly higher mortality rates, physical illnesses and mental health disorders directly related to chronic racial stress and post-slavery and post-colonialism trauma; (e) Housing disparities, including housing discrimination, segregation and restrictive policies and practices, which can lead to unequal living conditions and limited access to affordable and safe housing and living environments for people of African descent; (f) Disparities in the experience of the criminal justice system, including racial profiling, overpolicing, persistent surveillance and control, harsher sentencing, higher rates of incarceration, especially for adolescent boys and young men of African descent, and the impact of punitive drug policies and racial stereotyping; (g) Violence and hate crimes, including hate speech and racially motivated crimes, with their severe physical and psychological impacts on individuals and communities; (h) Negative attitudes and practices regarding migrants and refugees, including xenophobia and discrimination, limited access to social services and double standards in status determination, resettlement and other legal decision-making; (i) Intersectional discrimination, including the ways that people of African descent with intersectional identities, including women, LGBTQ+ persons and migrants, experience extremes of violence and vulnerability, as racial bias and discrimination persist even within vulnerable populations; GE.23-15301 7