A/76/302 15. The Director of Programmes at AfroResistance, Ana Barreto, spoke on the human rights issues faced by people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID-19 pandemic. She noted the sharp increase in attacks against community leaders and human rights defenders. She expressed concern at the increase of feminicide, gender-based violence and “political feminicide”, as well as at the advancement of laws and policies restricting access to reproductive justice services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In that regard, she recommended the establishment of multidisciplinary national and community-based bodies for the prevention of violence against women and girls. She also expressed concern about the situation of Black migrants at the borders of Panama and Colombia who were residing in camps with limited access to testing and public health services. 16. A civil rights attorney, Benjamin Crump, discussed the root causes of the excessive use of force by police officers against marginalized people of colour in the United States. He explained that the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other Black Americans were no coincidence, but the outcome of the long legacy of systemic racism and oppression that characterized the United States since 1619, the first year that enslaved Africans were brought to America. He added that implicit bias in law enforcement was evidenced by data showing that policing was disproportionately abusive against people of colour. For example, over 75 per cent of chokeholds executed by law enforcement officers were against men of colour. He noted that the global protests against racism, colourism and xenophobia that followed the killing of George Floyd were a driver of political and structural change. He welcomed the adoption of the George Floyd Justice and Police Act by the House of Representatives of the United States as a first step in acknowledging the historical legacy of systemic racism and oppression against people of colour. 17. During the interactive dialogue, in response to questions by Working Group members, Ms. Brown further elaborated on the legislative and policy measures to be put in place for preventing and combating police violence and brutality against people of African descent. She recommended that the United States Congress adopt legislation in accordance with the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. She argued that Member States should focus their efforts on addressing demands for reparation and restora tive justice rather than on police reform, as the latter had proved to be insufficient for tackling racist bias in law enforcement. She added that financial and cognitive reparations should address the whole range of discrimination experienced by people of African descent, including environmental racism and racism in public health. Ms. Barreto noted that policy responses should give particular attention to vulnerable groups, such as children and domestic workers. The representatives of South Africa, the Eur opean Union, Brazil and Belgium presented measures taken in their respective countries to address racism and racial discrimination. Civil society representatives raised concerns about the deaths of Black people in police custody in the United Kingdom of Gr eat Britain and Northern Ireland and the environmental racism experienced by Afro-Ecuadorians. 18. The third panel discussion addressed the root causes of systemic racism through remedies, reparations, accountability and justice. Ursula Doyle, Professor of Law at Northern Kentucky University, discussed the failure of the United Nations to address the Jim Crow laws and practices that prevailed in the United States between 1877 and 1965. In direct contradiction of the human rights principles in th e Charter of the United Nations, the Jim Crow era was characterized by segregated public facilities, barriers to voting, forced displacement, land theft, debt peonage, convict leasing, “vagrancy” prohibitions, rape, torture and lynching. She demonstrated that the United Nations bodies failed to act in support of the claims raised by African Americans. Despite the fact that the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and 6/22 21-11641