A/HRC/57/70 Groups and other Stakeholders in Combating Global Racism” (17 July 2024). Ms. Bina D’Costa (a) organized and chaired a meeting with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Working Group in Canberra, Australia, in which plans over the next five years of both mandates were discussed (16 October 2023); (b) co-presented the Working Group’s work in the International Feminist Journal of Politics conference in Maputo (with Professor Shine Choi) in a paper entitled “Anti-racist education in the Asia and the Pacific and Engagement International Human Rights Mechanisms for the Rights of Africans and People of African descent”; (c) presented the Working Group’s mandate and work at the Africa Australia conference (December 2023); (d) was keynote speaker at the Development Studies Association Conference, University of Melbourne, where she presented a paper on hopelessness and racism and also spoke about decolonizing the curriculum in Australia, Asia, and the Pacific region; (e) was a panellist at a high-profile event with former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow Professor Sharon Friel on how to build a healthier future for all, during which she discussed migration and asylum issues and racism against people of African descent, focusing on the Working Group; (f) presented on victims and survivors of trafficking at the sixth meeting of the Bali Process Technical Experts Group, at the invitation of IOM and the Australian Government (March 2024); (g) was a panellist on “Resistance, Power, and the New Global Ethical Order”, where she spoke about racism, colonialism and invisibility of people of African descent in the war in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (18 July 2024); (h) was a panellist on “United Nations and Diplomacy and learning for both people of African descent and Indigenous Peoples” at the 75th anniversary event of the department of International Relations, the Australian National University. Ms. Namakula (a) participated as convenor of a virtual colloquium on the theme “Unifying Africa for Action to Advance Reparatory Justice”, with the overall aim of fostering dialogue and action toward reparatory justice in Africa, which included the launch of the University of the Free State (UFS) Africa Reparation Hub, organized by UFS (6 June 2024); (b) continued her work with the African Union Reparations Desk where the current focus is on securing funding through dialogue with funders. IV. Fulfilling the economic, social, and cultural rights of people of African descent in the age of digitalization, artificial intelligence, and new and emerging technologies 17. Digitalization, AI, and new and emerging technologies, as well as their processes, have led to significant transformations across virtually all sectors of society. New and emerging technologies are generally characterized by the following five attributes: (i) radical novelty; (ii) relatively fast growth; (iii) coherence; (iv) prominent impact; and (v) uncertainty and ambiguity6, which provide the basis for defining a new and emerging technology as: 18. A radically novel and relatively fast-growing technology characterised by a certain degree of coherence persisting over time and with the potential to exert a considerable impact on the socio-economic domain(s) which is observed in terms of the composition of actors, institutions and patterns of interactions among those, along with the associated knowledge production processes.7 19. AI should be understood as one among many new and emerging technologies. Digitalization and AI have enormous potential for automating and augmenting human decision-making and behaviour, and their impact on the political, civil, economic, social and cultural sectors is becoming rapidly evident, raising substantial questions and concerns about human rights and ethics as the use, misuse and abuse of these technologies can inadvertently or intentionally introduce, perpetuate and exacerbate biases and discrimination in virtually all sectors, communities and societies. Digitalization and AI have a multiplier effect, speeding up and extending their scope and reach with each successive iteration in their design 6 7 Daniele Rotolo, Diana Hicks and Ben R. Martin, "What Is an Emerging Technology?", Research Policy, 44(10):1827-1843 (December 2015); Oleg Litvinski, “Emerging Technology: Toward a Conceptual Definition", International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 9, No. 6 (December 2018); Winston & Strawn LLP, “Law Glossary: What Is Emerging Technology?”, 2024. Daniele Rotolo, Diana Hicks and Ben R. Martin, "What Is an Emerging Technology”, p. 13. 5