Summary

The present report, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 69/16, is focused on the collection and use of disaggregated data in efforts to promote and protect the human rights of people of African descent. As the starting point for the report, the Secretary-General takes international human rights standards and good practices related to data collection, analysis, dissemination and publication. He draws on the observations and recommendations of international human rights mechanisms and on contributions from stakeholders.

In the report, the Secretary-General recommends that States apply a human rights-based approach to data in order to understand and combat the discrimination experienced by people of African descent. The approach is based, inter alia, on respecting the self-identification of rights-holders as people of African descent. The human rights-based approach also promotes participatory and transparent data - gathering exercises, as well as privacy and security safeguards that would mitigate the risk of violations in the process of data management.