Activities

Activities

2023

Coming soon: WGEPAD public 32nd session on “Economic empowerment of people of African descent”
1-5 May 2023, PdN, Geneva

UK country visit 18-27 January 2023
End of mission statement, including its preliminary findings and recommendations, 27 January 2023
Press conference video recording, 27 January 2023, London

2022

End of mission statement by the WGEPAD - preliminary findings and recommendations, on the conclusion of its official country visit to Australia
12-20 December 2022

WGEPAD Chair statement to the 51st session of the HRC
3 October 2022

WGEPAD 30^th session on Children of African descent
New York, 23-27 May 2022
Flyer of the 30^th Session

2021

WGEPAD 28^th session on Environmental Justice, the Climate Crisis and people of African descent
Geneva, 24-26 March 2021

Mossville: When Great Trees Fall: UN Film Screening and Discussion
23 March 2021

WGEPAD Civil Society Consultation 5 March 2021

2019-2020

WGEPAD 27^th session "The Urgency of Now: Systemic Racism and the Lessons of 2020"
30 November to 3 December 2020

WGEPAD 26^th session Regional Meetings with civil society
23-25 November 2020

Comments on the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention
1 April 2019

Amicus Curiae and Expert Reports  

The Working Group of Experts on people of African Descent has followed several emblematic cases with relevance to its mandate and in some of them it has submitted Amicus Curiae and Expert Reports for consideration by Courts.

On 1 March 2023, its Amicus Curiae (Mumia Abu-Jamal) was filed before the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Court, in Pennsylvania, USA. In this matter, the Working Group seeks to contribute to the analysis of newly revealed evidence deliberately undisclosed at trial decades earlier, and the racialized implications of the underlying decision making, the withheld material, and the impact. The Working Group’s brief includes relevant international human rights instruments and analysis vis-à-vis recent research with respect to systemic racism, the legacies of colonialism and the trade and trafficking in enslaved Africans, and the ongoing urgency of efforts to redress these legacies.

On 27 May 2022, its Expert report (Brian Keller) on the role of systemic racism was submitted for consideration in this case in Switzerland, drafted by Dominique Day on behalf of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. The Working Group report to the Human Rights Council on its country visit to Switzerland in January 2022 also included analysis relating to this case.