A/HRC/51/54 about funding disparities in schools, recommended the development of measures on combating racism against children, noted the prevalence of outdated curricula and called for a post-colonial syllabus that was regularly reviewed and updated. Mr. Wright noted the importance of teaching children how to learn at the earliest stages of education. 29. The third panel, on the theme “Existential threats to the Black family: racialized interpretations of the best interests of the child”, was chaired by Ms. Day. The Chair of the Working Group stated that the theme was inspired by the experiences that people of African descent had shared with the Working Group over a number of years. Ms. Day analysed how international instruments, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, offered clear guidance with respect to the racial discrimination faced by children of African descent. She explained that the Working Group had become involved in a notable case in the Netherlands, through direct negotiations and the submission of an amicus filing to the court, involving refugee children from Uganda being involuntarily removed from their parents in the Netherlands on the basis of allegations of past corporal punishment. No supervised or unsupervised visits by the parents with their children, sibling visits or clear reunification efforts had been made in four years. She also discussed a case in which six children, removed from their birth families following allegations of child neglect, had died in a well-known murder-suicide by their adoptive parents in the United States. She noted that the United States remained the only country that had not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 30. Dorothy E. Roberts, author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families – and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World and Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, discussed how the United States family policing system stigmatized and controlled Black families, abusing its authority to leverage accusations and investigations in the name of protecting children, noting that even the term “child welfare” masked the system’s function to police families of African descent, and the harm it inflicted on Black children and family caregivers, often at the expense of its stated goals of permanency, safety and strengthened families. She highlighted the global relevance of the historical context, noting that foundational ideologies of anti-Black racism, white supremacy and devalued Black family bonds had structured legal and social systems around the world. Violent supervision of Black families was traceable to the legal authority that enslavers had had over enslaved families, including absolute control over the relationships that parents had with their children and the forcible separation of enslaved families that routinely took place on auction blocks when enslavers found it economically expedient to sell or purchase enslaved persons, often separating family members. 31. In the United States, the current foster care population and its dramatically increased government funding, was fuelled by systematic, involuntary removals of Black children. Black and indigenous children were significantly more likely to experience investigations, foster care and involuntary removal. Identifying children as “at risk” for abuse or neglect gave a licence for intrusion into every aspect of family life, far beyond the authority that police had in criminal investigations. Ms. Roberts noted that the policing of Black families reflected a global pattern in how States identified who was an appropriate target of scrutiny, investigation and violation of children’s human rights. However, despite human rights commitments and compelling evidence of racial targeting and harms caused by familypolicing systems, states remained reluctant to confront oppression against Black children and their families, perpetuating human rights violations that hurt instead of protected children. 32. Stephen Dradenya, a former fellow of the OHCHR Fellowship programme for people of African descent and a human rights activist from the Netherlands, discussed the case involving the separation of seven children from their parents in the country. Mr. Dradenya noted how policies and programmes that failed to include people of African descent in their design or implementation effectively portrayed them as inferior and irresponsible. He recommended implementing ongoing awareness-raising programmes about the childcare system and differing norms, including around discipline and parenting, for asylum-seekers, refugee families and migrants. 33. Salome Mbugua, Chief Executive Officer of AkiDwA, a non-governmental organization focused on migrant women in Ireland, noted that people of African descent had 8