A/HRC/39/69 Gumedze for his work during his tenure as Chair-Rapporteur and congratulated Mr. Balcerzak on his election. C. Organization of work 9. The Working Group adopted the agenda (A/HRC/WG.14/22/1) and programme of work. III. Update and briefings on activities undertaken by the Working Group in the past year 10. Mr. Balcerzak informed participants that the Working Group had submitted its annual report on its nineteenth and twentieth sessions to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-sixth session, including reports on its country visits to Canada and Germany (A/HRC/36/60 and Add.1 and 2), and had engaged in a constructive dialogue with Member States. The Working Group also submitted its annual report to the General Assembly at its seventy-second session (A/72/319) and participated in an interactive dialogue with the Third Committee on 31 October 2017. 11. At its twenty-first session, the Working Group had held a closed meeting at which members reviewed the methods of work of the Working Group, prepared for its upcoming session, communications and country visits, and held meetings with various stakeholders and representatives of OHCHR. The Working Group had decided to liaise more intensively with financial and developmental institutions. It had also met with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to explore ways to increase collaboration between the two mechanisms on issues of mutual concern. 12. The Working Group had conducted country visits to Guyana (2–6 October 2017) and Spain (19–26 February 2018). At the end of each visit, the Working Group had released press statements.1 Reports of the visits would be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-ninth session. The Working Group thanked the Governments of Guyana and Spain for their invitation and for their assistance before, during and after the visits. The Working Group also thanked the representatives of NGOs and people of African descent with whom it had met. 13. The Working Group had continued to actively promote and participate in activities to interact with civil society and assist stakeholders in the implementation of the programme of activities for the International Decade for People of African Descent. It had participated in the regional meeting for Europe, Central Asia and North America held in Geneva on 23 and 24 November 2017. It had also established a standing agenda item for discussion in its public session on the International Decade as a commitment to raising further understanding and awareness of the need to implement the International Decade. 14. Ahmed Reid and Mr. Gumedze had participated (through a video message) in the launch of the Centre for Reparations Research at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica from 10 to 12 October 2017. From 8 to 11 March 2018, Mr. Reid had participated in the summit for the International Decade for People of African Descent in Georgetown on the theme “Where we are, where we ought to be, and how do we get there?” On 25 September 2017, Mr. Gumedze had delivered a keynote address on behalf of the Working Group at a side event during the thirty-sixth session of the Human Rights Council on racism, discrimination, Afrophobia and xenophobia in the United States of America, as a follow-up to the mission undertaken by the Working Group in 2016. On 10 October 2017, Mr. Gumedze had attended the fifteenth session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action in Geneva. Ricardo Sunga III had written a paper exploring the human rights experience of people of African descent in Asia, which had been published by the University of the 1 4 See https://ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22212&LangID=E and https://ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22705&LangID=E.