A/HRC/27/68 47. The Working Group recognizes the right to education as a tool for achieving social justice for youth of African descent. 48. The Working Group notes that the failure to provide good quality education and appropriate professional orientation for people of African descent is an obstacle to their accessing positions in the judiciary and administrative institutions at the highest levels. 49. The Working Group recognizes that the failure to provide appropriate education and training for youth of African descent often results in their aimlessness and unemployment and leaves them vulnerable to social and police profiling, consequently resulting in their overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. 50. The Working Group recognizes the intersectionality between multiple forms of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, religion or origin and other forms of discrimination. 51. The Working Group regrets that, despite having gained independence, formerly colonized peoples are still living with the legacies of slavery and colonialism. The forced separation of Africans from their homeland has resulted in cultural and social alienation from their roots and identities. The cultural rupture caused by the transatlantic trade in Africans as well as by European colonization still has an impact on the discrimination faced by people of African descent in their search for justice. 52. The Working Group recognizes that it is possible to seek and achieve reparatory justice and compensation for victims of colonial injustices, as demonstrated by the Mau Mau case in Kenya. 53. The Working Group notes that education that is culturally appropriate and history education that is not only linked to slavery but includes Africa before the transatlantic slave trade are forms of social justice for people of African descent. 54. The Working Group notes that, despite guarantees in international and national law, the prevalence of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance affects people of African descent in a unique fashion, to the point that many people of African descent are still unable to obtain remedies for wrongful acts through their domestic institutions. Structural discrimination occurs at all stages and levels of the administration of justice, inter alia in legislation, law enforcement, courts and tribunals. One of the most important challenges that people of African descent face is discriminatory treatment by the very institutions that are supposed to administer justice. 55. The Working Group underscores that both judicial and law enforcement bodies, which should be primary forces in opposing and preventing racism, fail to uphold justice and equality, and instead mirror the prejudices of the society they serve. In some cases, even if the law is not discriminatory, people of African descent are denied the right to a fair trial, which puts them at an increased risk of harsh punishments, including the death penalty in some countries. 56. The Working Group emphasizes the need for philosophical and legal changes to juvenile justice systems, which currently maximize penalties and lead to the increased entry of juveniles into the adult criminal justice system, thereby resulting in the institutionalization of young people of African descent, instead of using alternative methods and solutions. 57. The Working Group stresses the need to address the persistence of racial discrimination among judicial and law enforcement officials, which affects the application of the law and the functioning of the criminal justice system and 12