Situation regarding racial equality in the world

Background

At its seventy-second session in December 2017, the General Assembly adopted its resolution 72/157, entitled “A global call for concrete action for the total elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action”, and requested the Human Rights Council to continue to pay attention to the situation regarding racial equality in the world, and in this regard requested the Council, through its Advisory Committee, to prepare a study on appropriate ways and means of assessing the situation, while identifying possible gaps and overlaps. The Secretary-General, through resolution 72/157, is requested to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-third session a report on the implementation of that resolution.

Furthermore, at its seventy-third session in December 2018, the General Assembly adopted resolution 73/262 on a global call for concrete action for the total elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and requested the Human Rights Council to continue to pay attention to the situation regarding racial equality in the world, and in that regard requested the Council, through its Advisory Committee, to prepare a study on appropriate ways and means of assessing the situation, while identifying possible gaps and overlaps. In resolution 73/262, the Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session a report on the implementation of that resolution.

The Advisory Committee commenced its work on this study at its twenty-first session, in August 2018. A drafting group was established and discussions were held as from the twenty-second session.

Drafting group

At the time of finalization of the report, the members of the drafting group were:

• Buhm-Suk Baek
• Milena Costas Trascasas (Rapporteur)
• Iurii Alexandrovich Kolesnikov
• José Augusto Lindgren Alves
• Ajai Malhotra
• Itsuko Nakai
• Mona Omar
• Elizabeth Salmón
• Patrycja Sasnal
• Dheerujlall Seetulsingh (Chair)
• Catherine Van de Heyning

The final report of the Advisory Committee was submitted to the forty-eighth session (September 2021) of the Human Rights Council, see Moving towards racial equality: study of the Advisory Committee on appropriate ways and means of assessing the situation (2021) - A/HRC/48/72.