A/HRC/45/34/Add.1 She notes, however, that government representatives were rarely in a position to provide comparative data regarding indigenous peoples for their area of responsibility. 24. The Special Rapporteur stresses that without information on the situation of specific groups of the population with regards to achieving goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals, inequality and indirect discrimination are bound to continue unabated and indigenous peoples will remain invisible in the overall statistics for the achievement of the Goals. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to strengthen its efforts to collect reliable comparative data on education, health, employment, access to justice, public participation and other indicators, to support the design and implementation of policies that seek to meet actual needs or remedy disparities. D. National Human Rights Commission 25. The National Human Rights Commission began its mandate in January 2019 and, at the time of the visit, was establishing its rules of procedure and defining the scope of its activities. 11 The Commission did not have any departmental representation and its staff lacked resources to travel outside Brazzaville. The President of the Commission informed the Rapporteur that, as of October 2019, no complaint had been filed by indigenous peoples and that the Commission was not yet in a position to undertake activities to promote Law No. 5-2011 nor to design a strategy to promote the implementation of the recommendations arising from the Special Rapporteur’s 2010 visit. III. Indigenous peoples’ rights: progress made and challenges remaining A. Countering discrimination and indigenous identity 1. Countering discrimination 26. According to the Government, discrimination against indigenous peoples is declining: it may not have been conceivable 10 years ago for indigenous peoples and Bantu populations to be living in the same neighbourhood. Equality and non-discrimination against indigenous peoples is now inscribed in Law No. 5-2011 (arts. 2 and 27), which also forbids the use of the derogatory term “pygmy” (art. 1). The Special Rapporteur acknowledges this progress but observes that indigenous peoples continue to be subjugated and marginalized in Congolese society and that their distinct identities and basic human rights are threatened in ways not experienced by the Bantu majority. 27. The previous Special Rapporteur recommended carrying out a comprehensive national campaign to combat discriminatory attitudes and foster understanding between indigenous and Bantu populations. He proposed that the campaign use a broad educational and media strategy promoting the culture and identity of indigenous peoples as a dynamic, contemporary element of Congolese society. 28. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the annual celebration of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples on 9 August but regrets the lack of a more comprehensive, participative, long-term and nationwide initiative to change attitudes towards the indigenous peoples of the Congo. 29. On 9 August 2019, a high-level national caravan travelled from Brazzaville to Pokola and distributed 200 school kits to indigenous children, raised local authorities’ awareness of the newly adopted decrees and distributed a symbolic example of birth certificates. Unfortunately, these efforts had an extremely limited reach, with no sustainable effect: they represented an isolated event of a mainly humanitarian character and failed to promote a comprehensive human rights-based approach. The national caravan, which was organized with the support of RENAPAC and other civil society organizations, did not 11 Law No. 30-2018 of 7 August 2018. 7

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