A/76/302 76. Member States must commit to racial equality and justice and commit to putting an end to impunity for violence against people of African descent. An honest assessment of the past, including acknowledging and addressing the consequences of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, is necessary. 77. Member States must act swiftly to acknowledge, address and mitigate widespread and racialized health inequities that have an impact on standards of care and risks associated with COVID-19 and other pandemics. 78. The Working Group strongly encourages Member States and all relevant stakeholders to give due consideration to the recommendations made by the High Commissioner in her report and to quickly implement the recommendations set forth therein and in the subsequent resolution of the Human Rights Council. 79. Intergovernmental, governmental and local protocols must ensure that any successful COVID-19 vaccine must be equitably distributed, across countries and across the populations in any given country. Particular care must be taken to ensure that the inequalities of the pandemic will not be reinforced in the vaccine roll-out process. 80. New technology and intellectual property in the production of science related to the COVID-19 vaccine should be widely shared. States have the obligation to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines and treatments are equitably distributed and safe, available, accessible and affordable for all who need them. 81. Data on all aspects of the pandemic, disaggregated by race, are essential to inform health policy, financing and broader policy initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. States and civil society should undertake specific efforts, in cooperation with people of African descent, to collect, analyse and publicly report data disaggregated by race in all sectors. 82. Health professionals have remained essential amid the global pandemic. As trauma and stress relating to the pandemic mount, public and private resources must recognize this and support health workers and other essential first responders who have remained enmeshed in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 while also caring for family and loved ones in the past year, often while dealing with personal insecurity and chronic racial stress. 83. States and civil society should develop specific indicators on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and tailor policymaking and implementation to ensure that development and humanitarian efforts reach people of African descent in every sector. 84. In many communities of people of African descent, traditional health and care personnel (midwives, traditional healers and doctors) have been the only means of access to health care and advice as geographical and cultural conditions limit access to hospitals and health centres. However, traditional healers and midwives often experience tension in relations with the biomedical health systems. As a top priority, States should invest in relevant training and resourcing of traditional doctors, healers and nurses as de facto COVID-19 first responders. 85. States should promote intercultural methodologies that leverage ancestral knowledge and traditional medicines to expand and synergize public policies in the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic. States should likewise support community initiatives to monitor the pandemic, given the geographic realities of many communities of people of African descent. 86. States should ensure that hospital resources such as intensive care and ventilators and other devices are increasingly available in rural communities and communities where people of African descent lack health infrastructure. 20/22 21-11641