A/HRC/45/44 I. Introduction 1. The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent held its twenty-fifth session from 9 to13 December 2019 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. Owing to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the twenty-sixth session of the Working Group will be held from 30 November to 4 December 2020. The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council in accordance with Council resolutions 9/14, 18/28, 27/25 and 36/23, in which the Council requested the Working Group to submit an annual report on all activities relating to its mandate. II. Activities of the Working Group (July 2019–July 2020) 2. During the period under review, the Working Group submitted its annual report to the General Assembly (A/74/274) and participated in an interactive dialogue with the Third Committee of the Assembly on 29 October 2019. The Working Group organized a side event on 31 October 2019 entitled “Addressing negative racial stereotypes and stereotyping of people of African descent”, based on its annual report. At its twenty-fifth session, the Working Group held a private session at which members prepared for upcoming country visits, considered communications, met with various stakeholders and adopted the theme for its twenty-sixth session, at which it will investigate human rights solutions to address environmental injustice, racial disparities, unequal protection and the unique impact of the climate crisis and environmental racism on people of African descent. A panel discussion will also be held on the midterm of the International Decade for People of African Descent. The Working Group decided that, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would postpone the session, originally scheduled for 30 March to 3 April 2020, to 30 November to 4 December 2020. In the light of the ongoing travel restrictions, it was also decided that the twentyseventh private session of the Working Group, initially rescheduled for 31 August to 4 September, would be held from 23 to 27 November 2020. The Working Group will submit a report on its twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh sessions to the Human Rights Council in 2021. 3. The Working Group conducted a visit to Ecuador, from 16 to 20 December 2019 (see A/HRC/45/44/Add.1), and to Peru, from 25 February to 4 March 2020 (see A/HRC/45/44/Add.2). After each visit, it released a media statement on its preliminary findings and recommendations.1 The Working Group thanks all Governments that have invited them to visit their countries, and encourages Governments in general to continue to cooperate with it. 4. The Working Group prepared operational guidelines on the inclusion of people of African descent as a tool for United Nations country teams, Member States, financial and development institutions and other stakeholders to assist them in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals with a specific focus on people of African descent. During the period under review, the Working Group held technical meetings in Quito (December 2019) and Lima (February 2020) with government departments, national human rights institutions, national mechanisms that address racial discrimination, financial and developmental institutions, operational programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations, people of African descent, and other stakeholders. The discussions gave the Working Group a clearer insight into work ongoing at the national level to address the situation of human rights of people of African descent, good practices and recommendations. The Working Group expresses its thanks to the organizers of the meetings, which allowed the Working Group to further revise its operational guidelines. A validation meeting is planned for September 2020, after which the guidelines will be publicly available on the webpage of the Working Group. 1 2 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25452&LangID=E and www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25659&LangID=E.