A/HRC/24/52 I. Introduction 1. The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent held its twelfth session from 22–26 April 2013 at the United Nations Office in Geneva. It was attended by all the members: Monorama Biswas, Mireille Fanon Mendes-France, Mirjana Najcevska, Maya Sahli and Verene Shepherd. The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolutions 9/14 and 18/28. 2. The participants in the session of the Working Group of Experts included representatives of Member States, the Holy See, international organizations, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and invited panellists (see annex II). II. Organization of the session A. Opening of the session 3. The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri delivered the opening statement. 4. In her statement, she welcomed the focus of the twelfth session on recognition through education, cultural rights and data collection. She noted that the right to education was critical for people of African descent throughout the world, not only as a means of extricating themselves from historical exclusion and discrimination, but also for the enjoyment, respect and recognition of their cultures, traditions and knowledge. She added that, regrettably, despite an improvement in access to primary-level education among children of African descent, discrimination at secondary and tertiary levels prevailed in several countries, and young people of African descent remained underrepresented or even invisible in higher education. She called upon Member States to adopt affirmative action policies at all levels of education for people of African descent, as means for Governments to recognize the existence of structural discrimination in education and to combat it. 5. The Deputy High Commissioner also highlighted the importance for contemporary societies of recognizing that they were multicultural in more than one sense, comprising indigenous peoples, national and ethnic minorities, immigrants from different cultures and other groups that demand the right to exercise their cultural identity. In the same vein, she suggested that, in order for people of African descent to overcome their situation of “social invisibility”, States should promote self-identification of groups that form part of their populations in all public registries, population census and household survey. She added that the disaggregation of data in accordance with provisions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, taking into consideration data protection regulations and privacy guarantees, was crucial. 6. She also informed the session that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was hosting the third annual Fellowship Programme for People of African Descent. The selected fellows, from seven different countries, would benefit from an intensive and practical learning opportunity at the United Nations. She closed by reaffirming that OHCHR remained committed to the realization of the rights of people of African descent. B. Election of the Chairperson-Rapporteur 7. Ms. Shepherd was re-elected Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group for a second and final year. 3