Independent Expert Muluka Miti-Drummond's tenth anniversary report assesses a decade of progress and persistent gaps in the human rights of people with albinism globally.
In 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council created something that had never existed before: a dedicated mandate to monitor the human rights of people with albinism worldwide. The tenth anniversary of that mandate is now the subject of a formal review.
The report, submitted to the Human Rights Council as document A/HRC/58/57, was prepared by Muluka Miti-Drummond, the current Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
A decade of the mandate
The mandate was established in response to documented patterns of violence, discrimination, and exclusion affecting people with albinism — particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where ritual attacks linked to the trade in body parts have been recorded across multiple countries. OHCHR has reported on these abuses consistently since the mandate's creation.
Over ten years, Independent Experts have engaged governments, civil society organisations, and community representatives to document conditions on the ground. The mandate has produced thematic reports covering areas including access to healthcare, education, legal protection, and the specific situation of women and children with albinism.
The anniversary report, according to OHCHR, assesses what the mandate has achieved across that period and identifies where gaps remain. Specific findings and recommendations from the document were not publicly detailed in the available summary, and the full report is held within the UN Human Rights Council's official record.
Why the mandate still matters
For many people with albinism living in countries without dedicated legal protections, the Independent Expert's mandate has represented one of the few mechanisms applying international pressure at a governmental level. Civil society groups across Eastern and Southern Africa have used the mandate's reports as reference documents in domestic advocacy, according to previous OHCHR communications.
The renewal and continuation of the mandate — reviewed periodically by the Human Rights Council — has itself been a measure of international commitment to the issue. Each renewal has required member states to reaffirm that the rights of people with albinism remain a matter of international concern.
Miti-Drummond's tenth anniversary review arrives at a moment when the community continues to report both incremental legislative gains in some countries and persistent impunity for violence in others.
The full report is available through the OHCHR official document system.
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