Peritaje antropológico y elementos probatorios en el caso de las comunidades afrodescendientes desplazadas de la cuenca del río Cacarica

Abstract

The Colombian armed conflict caused specific Afro-descendant communities to sustain multiple and generalized human rights violations. The Inter-American system for the protection of human rights, of which Colombia is a part, recognized the damages caused in ethnic/ancestral territories, in order to guarantee adequate reparations to the victims. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the differential ethnic impact of the armed conflict. To do so, we use an intersectional perspective that includes the way in which anthropological expertise is integrated into the appraisal conducted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “IACHR Court”). The paper is intended to contribute to victim recognition and reparation. Using a qualitative approach, the theoretical framework is based on the case study of the Afro-descendant communities displaced from the Cacarica river basin. The case illustrates how the rights of victims to truth, justice, and reparation appeal to social and forensic anthropology to ensure the recognition of the damages caused and to vindicate the victims’ and their families’ right to memory. In view of the multiplicity of affectations that characterize forced displacement in Colombia, we present a pioneer case in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (an example par excellence of how to understand the affectation of rights from an ethnic/ancestral and gender perspective): That of the communities of Cacarica, which recognize themselves as tribal. The case study demonstrates that social and forensic anthropology are necessary for the redress of victims’ rights in this context. At the same time, it highlights that identifying Afro-Colombian people as victims in both their individual and collective facets reveals a complex reality, in light of the coexistence in ethnic/ancestral territories resulting from the differential impact of the armed conflict.