A/HRC/14/18 I. Introduction 1. The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent held its ninth session from 12 to 16 April 2010 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. 2. The Director of the Research and Right to Development Division, Marcia V.J. Kran, opened the session. The Working Group elected Mirjana Najcevska as its ChairpersonRapporteur. 3. II. The present report reflects the general course of the debate. Organization of the session 4. During the ninth session, the Working Group held nine public meetings and one private meeting. It was attended by the following members: Ms. Najcevska, Maya Sahli, Linos-Alexander Sicilianos and Verene Shepherd, as well as observers from 68 Member States and 1 non-Member State; 15 non-governmental organizations; 3 intergovernmental organizations and 5 invited panellists.1 A. Opening of the session 5. The Director of the Research and Right to Development Division, Ms. Kran, delivered the opening address. She paid tribute to the work of Rex Nettleford, who had passed away while participating in a country visit by the Working Group to the United States of America in January 2010. The Director also paid tribute to Joe Frans, the previous Chair of the Working Group whose term as a member had expired the previous year. Ms. Kran welcomed the new members of the Working Group: Mr. Sicilianos and Ms. Shepherd. 6. The Director reported that the Working Group had carried out two country visits since its last session in January 2009: to Ecuador and to the United States of America. She applauded the two Governments for extending invitations and encouraged other Member States to do the same. 7. The Director noted that people of African descent were still victims of racism in all corners of the world. That was borne out by the unacceptable living conditions that many had to endure, inadequate access to fundamental services, and societal attitudes, as often represented in, and exacerbated by, the media. She pointed out that racist attitudes reduced vibrant communities to crude stereotypes. Racism reduced opportunities for education, employment and health. 8. Ms. Kran stated that because of its covert nature, structural discrimination was not easily identified and was often detectable only by its nefarious consequences. She noted that disproportionate rates of incarceration, infant mortality, illiteracy and other indicators might result from a problem that was structural in nature. 1 All working papers submitted by the experts and participants are available at the Secretariat or can be found on the OHCHR website: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/racism/groups/african/4african.htm. 3