A/HRC/49/46/Add.1 (c) Establishing an inter-agency federal body responsible for implementation and follow-up to United Nations human rights mechanisms; (d) Inviting the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent for a follow-up meeting to its 2016 country mission. 71. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that the global community is at a pivotal moment in history and that it is time for comprehensive national human rights legislation. Minorities are particularly vulnerable to the gaps and omissions of a patchwork federal and State human rights legislation and protections. Most federal human rights protections date to the era of the 1960s civil rights movement. Sixty years later, the country is faced with the modern challenges of hate speech, misinformation and disinformation in social media, the recrudescence of antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as the growing threats of hate crimes, xenophobia and racism targeting other minorities. To this can be added the pandemic of intolerance and growing extreme right-wing nationalism, violence and attacks, usually against minorities. The Special Rapporteur therefore recommends that the Government: (a) Launch a strategic campaign for the adoption of comprehensive national human rights legislation to include the international human rights obligations, particularly on the recognition of the right to equality without discrimination on grounds such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status; (b) Create a national human rights institution in line with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Paris Principles) on the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights. 72. With regard to the need to protect democracy and guarantee the equal right to vote and to political participation and representation, the Special Rapporteur observes that it is discriminatory that millions of American citizens, overwhelmingly minorities, cannot vote. The increasing number of barriers to the right and the opportunity without any discrimination to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections by universal and equal suffrage are inconsistent with the obligations of the Government of the United States under international law. It also constitutes a direct and immediate danger to democracy in the country. More broadly, the Government needs to pursue a campaign to update federal guarantees to the equal right of citizens, including by: (a) Revising and updating federal and other legislation to lift the denial of the right of citizens of the United States and nationals of overseas territories to vote in federal and presidential elections; (b) Continuing efforts for the eventual adoption of the Freedom to Vote and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act: in addition, a campaign to completely revamp the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is needed to address contemporary forms of disenfranchisement, such as, inter alia, onerous identification requirements, gerrymandering, felony convictions and the imposition of related debts and limited access to poll stations or drop-boxes. 73. With regard to the use of native languages and the education of minorities, the Special Rapporteur recommends: (a) Recognition of the American Sign Language as an official language of the United States and that it also be identified in federal and other legislation as a language for its use as a language of instruction; (b) Expansion of the Native American Languages Act and similar legislation to directly include indigenous languages from overseas territories, including the language of the Chamorro peoples in Guam, as well as funding for sustained revitalization initiatives of indigenous languages, and particularly for the development of their use as languages of instruction; (c) Preservation, revitalization and promotion of historical linguistic minorities such as the Cajun minority in order to renormalize and strengthen their 17