Afro-Descendant Peoples In Latin America Demand COP16 Prioritize Their Communities

Bogotá, Colombia, June 7, 2024 – Since the arrival of African peoples in Latin America five centuries ago, their contribution to all social, economic, political and environmental aspects of the region has been fundamental. Now, Afro-descendant political leaders, academic and civil society experts, activists from the Coalition for the Territorial and Environmental Rights of Afro-descendant Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, the convenor of the event, and the Office of the Vice President of Colombia will join forces in the Colombian capital to make the case for strengthening and enforcing the land rights of Afro-descendant Peoples as fundamental to efforts to protect a region that is among the world’s richest in biodiversity.

Entitled, “Securing Afro-descendant Peoples’ land tenure rights in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the four-day event will begin on June 11, marking a pivotal moment for Afro-descendant movements in the region and their decades-long struggle to be recognized as rights holders, much as Indigenous Peoples are.

The Coalition for the Territorial and Environmental Rights of Afro-descendant Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (which includes more than 25 Afro-descendant organizations, among them, Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN) from Colombia and the National Coordination of the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (CONAQ) from Brazil — in collaboration with the Rights and Resources Initiative and the Office of the Vice President of Colombia — will use their event to make visible the urgent need to recognize the land tenure rights of Afro-descendent Peoples and the crucial role of communities in the conservation of biomes that are central to mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss.

Comprising 21% of the population, Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean sustainably manage 168 million hectares of land, much of it rich in biodiversity, and yet they have recognized rights to only five percent of their territories.

In Latin America and across the globe, community collective land tenure rights are increasingly being recognized as a fundamental enabling condition to ensure effective strategies for conserving biodiversity, for avoiding deforestation and enhancing resilience and adaptation to climate change; however, advances in the legal security of community tenure continue to fall short.

The conference will open on June 11, with a welcoming ceremony and reports on the status of rights in their respective countries by Afro-descendant political leaders from Colombia, Brazil and Guyana and the Senegalese coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative.

The speakers will be followed by researchers with a network of civil society organizations, Afro-descendant groups and academic centers who will reveal the latest data on tenure rights in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the outcome of participatory mapping by communities in 16 Latin American countries, among which, Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Nicaragua that demonstrate the overlap between their territories and some of the region’s most biodiverse hotspots.

Sessions during the week of the conference will report on the role of women and on the economic and conservation value of the traditional agricultural practices of Afro-descendant communities and their nurturing of plants and animals that are central to the development and evolution of food systems and biodiversity in the Americas.

At a press briefing on June 14, organizers of the conference will release a series of science-based recommendations for making sure the COP16 goal of conserving the most biodiverse region of the planet is implemented with full respect for the rights and contributions of Afro-descendant communities.

Speakers at sessions during the week include:

José Luis Rengifo, Afro-descendant leader of Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN) and spokesperson of the Coalition for Territorial and Environmental Rights of Afro-descendant Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean

Francia Elena Márquez Mina, Vice President of Colombia, who will be in the closure of the international conference the morning of June 14, Securing Afro-descendant Peoples’ land tenure rights in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mauricio Cabrera Vice-Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia

Ronaldo dos Santos, Ministry of Racial Equality of Brazil

Carlos Rosero, Advisor to the Vice-Presidency of Colombia, co-founder of PCN

Barbara Reynolds, Chair of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, who is working to advocate for the adoption of a Declaration on the human rights of people of African descent. Reynolds recently reported on the status of Colombia’s Afro-descendant peoples as part of a delegation on a country visit last month.

Solange Bandiaky-Badji, Coordinator for the Rights and Resources Initiative

Maria Rosalina dos Santos, Executive Coordinator with Brazil’s Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ)

Johana Herrera, researcher, Universidad Javeriana

Omaira Bolaños, Director, Latin America and Gender Justice Programs, Rights and Resources Initiative

Gloria Monique de Mees,Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)

Hugo Jabini, Afro-descendant leader, Suriname

Givânia Maria da Silva, Afro-descendant educator and researcher, Brazil

Davi Pereira, Afro-descendant researcher, Tenure Facility, Brazil

Spokespersons from the Coalition for Territorial and Environmental Rights of Afro-descendant Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean:

John Anthon Sanchez, Professor, Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales IAEN (Ecuador)

Kátia Penha, Director Coordenação Nacional de Articulação de Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ), Brazil

Sonia Viveros, Afro-Ecuadorian Social Development Foundation (AZÚCAR), Ecuador

Darío Solano, Red Dominicana de Estudios y Empoderamiento Afrodescendiente (RedAfros), Dominican Republic

Oswaldo Bilbao, Center for Ethnic Development (CEDET), Peru

BACKGROUND

The event is expected to mark a historic moment for advancing the recognition of Afro-descendant Peoples’ territorial rights in Latin America and the Caribbean and is seen as pivotal for protecting the ability of Afro-descendant communities to resist legal and illegal activities that endanger their countries’ promised contributions to meeting the goals of the the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Known as the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the global agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet, was finalized at COP15 in Montreal. Decisions about how to implement the agreement will be made at COP16 in Cai in November, potentially affecting the lives, livelihoods and territories of Afro-descendant and other local communities worldwide.

Currently, neither national nor international legal frameworks fully guarantee the territorial rights of Afro-descendant communities, while the lack of government action increases the vulnerability of their territories, as a UN human rights delegation noted about Colombia after a country visit last month.

The event in Colombia is being released as the UN closes in on the end of the International Decade for People of African Descent. Proclaimed by the General Assembly to begin in 2014, its theme was meant to be "recognition, justice and development" for people of African descent.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently recognized the enormous contributions of Afro-descendant peoples in every area of human endeavor, while adding, “At the same time, we acknowledge the pervasive discrimination faced by people of African descent around the world, and the many obstacles they face to realizing their full human rights.” The lack of progress led the UN Human Rights Council to propose that the UN proclaim a second International Decade for People of African Descent, starting next year.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Registration form for the streaming of the Event

Open access cartographic viewer of the Afro-descendance territoriality in the region

Brochure: Afrodescendant territoriality in Latin America and the Caribbean and the recognition of their tenure rights

Report: Afro-descendant Peoples’ Territories in Biodiversity Hotspots across Latin America and the Caribbean: Barriers to Inclusion in Conservation policies

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