A/76/302 transmission by 31–68 per cent in Louisiana in the United States, a very hard hit area. 16 Racial disparities driven by systemic racism demonstrably enhanced the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Black communities. 36. Vaccine hesitancy, among others, has also resulted in lower rates of vaccinations among people of African descent who do have access to vaccines. Ironically, although the science of inoculation in the West originated in the intellectual property of people of African descent, 17 there are disproportionately low vaccination rates among people of African descent in some States where vaccines are widely available at present. The foundations of distrust, including the systematic use of Black bodies for medical experimentation, 18 offer a powerful example of how systemic racism may redirect cultural mores. 37. There was also a troubling disregard for intersectional concerns during the pandemic. For example, restrictions on movement to decrease the number of people in the streets, reported in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America, sometimes mandated movement to certain days on the basis of gender without accounting for gender identity or gender expression and putting transgender people at particular risk, a risk that was further enhanced for Afro-Colombians already facing disproportionate police attention and abuse of authority. In the United Kingdom, online abuse and harassment increased during the pandemic, particularly among Black women and non-binary people. B. Police violence against people of African descent in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic 38. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, and despite the enhanced risk, people of African descent began experiencing police stops and law enforcement violence at shocking rates in some States. During the COVID-19 crisis, the enhanced and sometimes abusive policing of Black bodies and communities, including the criminalization of children of African descent, has detrimental effects on communities and families and fosters distrust of law enforcement. 19 39. In several States, human rights institutions reported a rise in violence during lockdown, quarantine and physical distancing periods mandated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Incidents of enhanced racial profiling, police violence, unlawful use of force, and abuse of authority were reported against people of Afric an descent or in areas with high concentrations of communities of African descent in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Toronto, Canada, a 2020 report on racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service found that Black people were more likely to be proactively arrested, charged and subjected to use of force in a wide range of police interactions, and confirmed that Black communities were subjected to a disproportionate burden of law enforcement in a way consistent with systemic racism and anti-Black racial bias. 20 Migrants of African descent in Mexico report violence and abuse by immigration officials and the police, in addition to racism in public __________________ 16 17 18 19 20 12/22 Eugene T. Richardson and others, “Reparations for Black American descendants of persons enslaved in the U.S. and their potential impact on SARS-CoV-2 transmission”, Social Science & Medicine, vol. 276, May 2021. Carey Baraka, “Onesimus: the African slave who taught America how to vaccinate itself from smallpox”, Quartz, 10 May 2020. A/HRC/45/44, paras. 53–56. A/HRC/45/44. Ontario Human Rights Commission, A Disparate Impact: Second Interim Report on the Inquiry into Racial Profiling and Racial Discrimination of Black Persons by the Toronto Police Service (Ontario, 2020). 21-11641