The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent is undertaking a fact-finding country visit to Australia from 12 to 20 December 2022. The Working Group’s visit is at the invitation of the Government and will be facilitated by OHCHR.

The programme of the visit will include meetings with Government officials, national institutions and civil society. The Working Group will begin its visit in the capital city and then continue with visits to other cities or towns of particular relevance to the role and situation of people of African descent.

The Working Group will gather the following types of information: any forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, Afrophobia and related intolerance faced by people of African descent; measures taken to prevent racial discrimination and protect victims of racism and hate crimes; mechanisms for the protection, integration and inclusion of migrants and refugees; responses to multiple forms of discrimination that specific groups of African descent may face and the efforts undertaken by the authorities to protect people of African descent from violations.

Objectives
The Working Group will examine in detail the situation of people of African descent in the country, to identify any problems and to make recommendations for how these could be resolved. By the nature of the mandate, the Working Group is required to look critically at the situation in the country and also identify good practices that could be replicated in other countries. The visits are intended to provide an independent and impartial assessment, which will then be of use to all actors.

Key questions and types of input sought
The Working Group invites all interested individuals and organizations including people of African descent, representatives of civil society organizations, experts and academics to provide information on the human rights situation of people of African descent in Australia.

The Working Group is particularly interested in learning more about the following topics:

• Key concerns including the most significant human rights violations that people of African descent in Australia experience.
• Emblematic cases of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in Australia;
• Racial bias and discrimination in the criminal justice system and law enforcement, including racial profiling and combating terrorism;
• Afrophobia, xenophobia, racially motivated acts of violence, hate crimes;
• Access to justice, protection of victims of racial discrimination and the legal aid system;
• Access to education, health, employment, housing and public services;
• Human rights of migrants and refugees, immigration laws, detention/probation centre; citizenship and deportation issues;
• Representation in the media, racist discourse, stigmatization and negative stereotyping; negative use of political platforms;
• Cultural Rights;
• Education, history curriculum-recognition and remembrance of past atrocities and legacies, teacher training;
• Racial equality and social cohesion;
• The situation of youth and children; women and girls; and multiple/intersecting forms of discrimination;
• Data collection/analysis and statistics on composition of the population including recent statistical information available on the demographics of Africans and people of African descent living in the country.
• Information on measures to prevent racial discrimination, protect victims of racism and improve the human rights situation of people of African descent (law, policies, action plans, special projects, programmes or other initiatives).

How inputs will be used

All input will be treated as confidential unless otherwise indicated. The input will be used to inform the Working Group’s country visit to Australia.

Media inquiries

At the end of the visit, the Working Group will hold a media conference and issue a press release with its preliminary findings and recommendations. The report on the visit to Australia will be presented by the Working Group to the United Nations Human Rights Council at its 54^th session in September 2023.