Professor Verene Shepherd, University Director, Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) will speak during the tenth session of the UN Human Rights Council´s Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. The meeting will take place from March 28 to April 1, 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland.

As the Caribbean and Latin America representative to the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, Professor Shepherd will share on the topic, “Obstacles to the Creation of Afrocentric Societies in the Commonwealth Caribbean”. She will discuss the reasons behind this resistance to the African culture and tradition in the West and the consequences for the people of the Caribbean.

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April 2002 to examine the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent. Some of the goals of the Group are to propose measures for the elimination of racial discrimination against people of African Descent and to ensure their access to justice.