A/79/316 marginalized ethnic or racial group, including women and girls; children and youth; older persons; persons with disabilities; LGBTQIA+ persons; migrants; and forcibly displaced persons, including refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers. 80 64. For example, compared with their male counterparts, women from a marginalized racial or ethnic group may not benefit from special measures due to persisting gender discrimination and a lack of social capital. Similarly, they may not benefit from quotas for all women, as women from non-marginalized racial or ethnic groups may have greater social capital and are thus more likely to gain access to the reserved places for women. Compared with white women, for women of colour, race plays a crucial role in economic and political empowerment. The combined effect of race and gender can make it challenging for women of colour to overcome systemic racism. For instance, the representation of Black academic staff in senior positions remains low and, of nearly 23,000 university professors in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reportedly only 41 are Black women. 81 In the context of caste in India, Dalit women, who are characterized as unequal on the basis of caste and gender, are at the bottom of the economic and social structures – there are wide variations in human development indicators between Dalit women and upper-caste women. For instance, in 2009–2010, the literacy rate among Dalit women was reportedly 55.9 per cent compared with 76.5 per cent among upper-caste women. The unemployment rate for female Dalit university graduates was 29.3 per cent compared with 12 per cent for upper-caste women. 82 65. The Special Rapporteur calls upon States to ensure that special measures consider intersectional forms of discrimination. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also called upon States to adopt special measures regarding people facing intersectional forms of discrimination. For example, the Committee recommended that, in formulating special measures, Brazil should first improve the enjoyment of economic and social rights by Black and Indigenous women, as encouraged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to reach the furthest behind first. The Committee also noted that the quota system in Brazil had been less effective at granting access to university to people who faced intersectional forms of discrimination, including people of African descent with disabilities. The Committee recommended that Brazil strengthen its quota system, including by ensuring the access of people of African descent and Indigenous Peoples facing intersectional forms of discrimination, including those with disabilities. 83 Similarly, the Committee recommended that Portugal mainstream gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation and gender identity into all special measures aimed at combating multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination, including racial discriminati on. 84 __________________ 80 81 82 83 84 20/24 See United Nations network on racial discrimination and protection of minorities, Guidance Note on Intersectionality, Racial Discrimination & Protection of Minorities (2023). Available at www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/minorities/30th -anniversary/2022-0922/GuidanceNoteonIntersectionality.pdf. Victoria Showunmi, “Visible, invisible: Black women in higher education”, Frontiers in Sociology, vol. 8 (April 2023). Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal and Wandana Sonalkar, “Dalit women in India: at the crossroads of gender, class, and caste”, Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric, vol. 8, No. 1 (July 2015), pp. 55, 58 and 61. CERD/C/BRA/CO/18-20, paras. 14, 18 and 19 (c). CERD/C/PRT/CO/18-19, para. 14. 24-15073