Professor Verene A. Shepherd, University Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies joins other United Nations (UN) experts on a country mission to Portugal from May 16-20, 2011. The visit is at the invitation of the Government of Portugal and is in keeping with the responsibilities of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, of which she is a member.

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established by Commission on Human Rights resolution 2002/68 on April 25, 2002 and emerged out of the recommendation of The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban in 2001. In 2008, the Working Group's mandate was extended for a further three years by Human Rights Council resolution 9/14. Paragraph 7 of the Durban Programme of Action specifically "requests the Commission on Human Rights to consider establishing a working group or other mechanism of the United Nations to study the problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent living in the African Diaspora and make proposals for the elimination of racial discrimination against people of African descent".

In the discharge of the functions entrusted to it, The Working Group conducts country visits upon the invitation of Governments, in order to facilitate in-depth understanding of the situation of people of African descent in various regions of the world.