A/HRC/51/54 65. Across the diaspora, training and policy reform in family regulation and juvenile justice systems have failed to disrupt proven, systematic abuses and violations of the rights of children of African descent, instead escalating harms and risk. Training programmes are presumptively inadequate if they merely raise awareness rather than require confrontation and a measurable reduction of individual bias. 66. Juvenile legal systems incarcerate children of African descent disproportionately, ignoring evidence that adolescent misconduct is a predictable feature of childhood that should be navigated rather than punished. Research into neuroscience, adolescent behaviour and psychology shows that normal human development involves staggered and asymmetrical physical and emotional maturity in adolescents. 67. Recalling its discussions at its twenty-fourth session and its report on data for racial justice, 13 the Working Group notes that the limitations, biases and discriminations of artificial intelligence technology, including facial recognition technology for law enforcement, have a negative impact on children of African descent, in violation of their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 68. Important links exist between birth registrations, administration of justice and children of African descent. Age-determination processes that are non-conclusive and predictions on the basis of physical appearance lead to disproportionately arbitrary outcomes for children of African descent. 69. Although multiple literacies are a key factor in the successful development of children, children of African descent are too often socialized to acquire primarily literacies targeted to the status quo, a culture of dependency and lesser status in a racialized hierarchy. Education is one of the instruments of systemic racial discrimination that must be reimagined if systemic racism, prejudice and discrimination are to be dismantled. 70. Children of African descent are confronted with racialized barriers to their best interests, which constrain them from realizing their full potential. These barriers create, inter alia, intergenerational transmission of poverty and race-based traumatic stress, lack of access to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and criminalization of identity. For children of African descent, negative racial stereotypes often prevail over age, denying them systemic protections accorded to children. 71. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed gains made in children’s health, education and economic transformation, with a disproportionate impact on the rights and best interests of children of African descent. 72. Children of African descent face censorship of hairstyles, speech and accent, language, appearance and hobbies in spaces that are intended to foster and support their development, damaging their self-esteem and burdening their rights. Penalizing the distinct appearance, cultural mores and way of life of children of African descent constitutes racial discrimination. 73. Children of African descent are not monochromatic nor monolithic. In their diversity, they face discrimination on the basis of their multiple identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, class, caste, religion and other factors. For example, LGBTQI+ children and youth of African descent face multiple forms of discrimination in mainstream society and their immediate communities. 74. The distinct challenges of children of African descent are rendered invisible in States lacking racially disaggregated data. 75. The Working Group recognizes the indispensable role of agency and activism in their diverse forms in children of African descent. Children of African descent understand their own best interests. Through art, music, literature and leadership, children of African descent are rewriting the agenda for change. 13 A/HRC/42/59. 15