A/HRC/30/56 development faced by African asylum seekers in Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia, and people of African descent in Japan. Mr. Sunga gave a number of examples as to how the rights to health, education, housing and employment in the above-mentioned countries were being compromised, or were at risk of being violated. Given the diversity of the continent of Asia, Mr. Sunga said that States in Asia, in spite of their own struggles with a colonial past and the experiences of their own nationals as asylum seekers and migrants, had shown different levels of limited understanding of the African diaspora in Asia. He emphasized the need to surface the truth about racism in that region, and recommended positive measures and awareness-raising in the different sectors to remove obstacles to the development of people of African descent, including appropriate steps to remedy violations of their rights. 35. During the interactive session, a number of representatives of Member States and NGOs participated in the discussion. In particular, Ms. Fanon Mendès-France raised the issue of increasing further collaboration with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. She also spoke of the situation of the Jarawa people in India, while Ms. Shepherd mentioned the situation of people of African descent in the Philippines, about which Mr. Sunga provided additional information. The respective presenters responded with further information on the issues raised. 36. The fifth and final panel discussion of the session focused on gender, African descent and development. The first speaker was Biancamaria Pomeranzi, member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and focal point on development, who presented the topic of “Twenty years after Beijing: the role of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in assessing the impact of the Beijing Platform for Action on women of African descent”. Ms. Pomeranzi said that the Beijing Platform acknowledged that gender subordination might be informed and heightened by race discrimination, xenophobia and other experiences and, because racial discrimination might exist or had intensified owing to its intersection with gender, attempts to address the persistence of racism required incorporating a gender analysis on the concept of interdependence especially within the context of anti-discrimination law, treaties and treaty bodies. She explained how general recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women sought to call upon State parties to report on discrimination at the intersection of race and gender, offering a guide to constructive dialogue with State parties in order to eliminate specific forms of violence and discrimination faced by women of African descent, and to concretize the interdependence and intersectionality of human rights of women of African descendent. 37. The Secretary General of the Young Women’s Christian Association, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, shared her personal reflections on developments since the Beijing Platform for Action. She spoke in particular about the need to carry out collective efforts in a number of different areas, such as gender equality and access to education and health services for girls and women of African descent. She emphasized the importance of strengthening linkages between Africa and the diaspora. Ms. Gumbonzvanda recommended that the Working Group further discuss issues of the rights of women of African descent, focusing on specific areas such as child marriage, among others. 38. Suzanne Charles-Watson, from the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, delivered a video statement on the topic of “Men, masculinities and the project of development”. She provided a Caribbean perspective on how issues of gender and understanding masculinities influence Caribbean development paradigms. Ms. Charles-Watson stated that, with high unemployment rates, susceptibility to the impact of climate change and migration, as well as inadequate and overburdened social protection systems, the region was currently confronted with the need to develop new paradigms of development. In that regard, she pointed out that the study of the impact of 9