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External sources (not reviewed)

The concrete measures recommended by the Working Group include the adoption of specific legislation on non-discrimination; the development of a national campaign to promote multiculturalism and respect for the dignity of the Afro-Ecuadorian people; the adoption of measures to reduce the educational gap that exists between Afro-Ecuadorians and the wider population; the introduction of ethno-education for people of African descent; the strengthening of Afro-Ecuadorian civil society; measures to eliminate racism and discrimination in the media; further efforts to encourage participation of persons of African descent in public administration; the establishment of a centre for Afro-Ecuadorian studies; the further development of free legal aid services; the creation within the office of the Ombudsman of a sub-unit dedicated to issues related to people of African descent and the creation of special programmes to promote the education of women of African descent.

At its sixty-third session, the General Assembly took note of the appointment by the Secretary-General of a new Coordinator for Multilingualism; requested the Secretary-General to ensure equal treatment for all language services and effective multilingual communication among representatives of Member States, including through simultaneous distribution of documents in all official languages; requested the Department of Public Information to improve actions taken to achieve parity among the six official languages on the United Nations website; and requested the Secretary-General to submit to it at its sixty-fifth session a comprehensive report on the full implementation of its resolutions on multilingualism (resolution 63/306).

Specific activities that assisted countries in relation to terrorism targeted at food products included: (a) capacity-building (training courses, projects) concerning food safety, animal and plant health, including promotion of risk analyses and developing base-level capacity to ensure national ability to monitor, diagnose, report and respond to pest and disease outbreaks; (b) the standard setting work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the International Plant Protection Convention; (c) the establishment of a Food Chain Crisis Management Framework for prevention, early warning, preparedness and response to food chain crises caused by transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases, food safety threats and emergencies, as well as nuclear and radiological threats and emergencies; and the organization of international forums to discuss biological risk management in relation to food and agriculture.