THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE IN THE AFRICAN DESCENT OF LATIN AMERICA, A CHALLENGE FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW

Abstract

This article discusses the category of “peoples” to Afro-descendants in international law, in the same way as indigenous peoples. After 5 years of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), such recognition is still a challenge, especially in those scenarios where national legislation has not shown significant progress. In 2019 in Chile and Mexico, some reforms already distinguish Afro-descendants as “tribal people”. Previously, the constitutions of Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia were reformed to include Afro-descendants as a people or collective subject of law. Even in Guatemala and Nicaragua, Afrodescendants are considered indigenous, while the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization have pronounced themselves favorably as “tribal peoples”. Despite this, United Nations organizations and multilateral agencies still see Afro-descendants as “population”, “people”, or “individual subjects”. This is a worrying situation since, within the Decade framework, a declaration of rights of Afro-descendants is proposed, and it is not known whether this will be as “Afro-descendant peoples.” In this way, the article asks the legal and sociological meaning of recognizing Afro-descendants as a people or collective international subject of rights?