A/HRC/33/61 13. Mr. Sunga briefed participants on the country visits of the Working Group to Italy (1–5 June 2015) and the United States of America (19–29 January 2016). At the end of the visits, the Working Group had released press statements, which were available on the OHCHR website.1 He thanked the Governments of Italy and the United States for their invitation and for their assistance before, during and after the visits. He also thanked the representatives of NGOs and the people of African descent with whom the Working Group had met during the visits and informed participants that reports of the missions would be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-third session and made publicly available on the OHCHR website. 14. The Working Group 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. Ms. Fanon Mendes-France had participated on behalf of the Working Group in the first regional conference of the International Decade, held in Brazil in November 2015. Also in 2015, Mr. Sunga had delivered statements and participated in a range of events, using those opportunities to raise awareness and call for the implementation of the Decade. Having devoted its three most recent annual sessions to the three themes of the International Decade, the Working Group had decided to devote the current session to studying the interlinkages between the three themes of the International Decade in order to further enhance understanding and awareness of the need to implement the International Decade. IV. Summary of deliberations Thematic analysis: development and people of African descent 15. The Working Group devoted its eighteenth session to the theme of “Interlinkages between recognition, justice and development”. 16. The first panel discussion of the session focused on the interlinkages between the three themes of the International Decade for People of African Descent (recognition, justice and development). Danny Glover, an actor, producer and civil rights activist from the United States, delivered his statement through a videotaped message. He noted that the International Decade provided an important human rights and public policy framework for combating Afrophobia. He called upon national and multilateral policymakers to ensure that specific policies were targeted in support of people of African descent. He pointed out that mass incarceration and lack of access to education, employment, health care and political decision-making were characteristic of the treatment of people of African descent. He also emphasized the importance of reparatory justice in the context of the International Decade. 17. Ms. Fanon Mendes-France delivered a presentation titled “Interlinkages between the three themes of the International Decade for People of African Descent (recognition, justice and development)”. She explained that as there was still limited awareness of the International Decade, the Working Group had decided to focus the session on the interlinkages between the three themes of the International Decade. The key question was to understand how to overcome the structurally and institutionally organized invisibility of people of African descent by analysing the interrelatedness of the three pillars, and how to develop responses in relation to the expectations of people who were daily victims of 1 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16047&LangID=E and www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=17000&LangID=E. 5