WORKING GROUP ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT TO VISIT BELGIUM

10 June 2005


The United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent will visit Belgium from 13 to 17 June 2005 at the invitation of the Government.

The Working Group will meet with, among others, officials of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Equal Opportunities, Justice, Employment and Interior, as well as with Members of Parliament and law enforcement personnel.

Meetings are also scheduled with several authorities of the French and Flemish Regions and Communities.

The delegation will interact with representatives of local authorities, the Centre for the Equality of Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, various non-governmental organizations and with persons of African descent living in Belgium.

The delegation, headed by Peter Lesa Kasanda (Zambia), the Working Group's Chairperson, will include the following Working Group experts: Joe Frans (Sweden), George Nicolas Jabbour (Syria) and Irina Zlatescu (Romania). They will visit Brussels, Liege, Namur and Mechelen.

The Working Group will report on the visit to the sixty-second session of the Commission on Human Rights, to be held next March and April. The Commission established the Working Group in 2002 to study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the Diaspora; propose measures to ensure full and effective access to the justice system by people of African descent; submit recommendations on the design, implementation and enforcement of effective measures to eliminate racial profiling of people of African descent; elaborate short, medium and long-term proposals for the elimination of racial discrimination against people of African descent, make proposals on the elimination of racial discrimination against Africans and people of African descent in all parts of the world; and to address all the issues concerning the well-being of Africans and people of African descent contained in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.

The five members of the Working Group are appointed on the basis of equitable geographic representation. Roberto Borges Martins (Brazil) is also a member.

For further information on the Working Group's mandate, please visit http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/racism/groups/african/4african.htm

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For use of the information media; not an official record