Seminar Workshop of Representatives of Communities of African Descendants in the Andean Region
May 21 to 23, 2008

Declaration of the Palenque de San José
El Carmen-Chincha, Peru

We, African descendants living in the Andean region, gathered at the Seminar-Workshop of Representatives of organizations of Communities of African descendants convened by the Andean Community in Lima, Peru on May 21 to 23, at the San José Hacienda, a slave estate built by our African ancestors, who laid the foundations for the Republic of Peru and contributed to the country’s social, economic, political, environmental and cultural development, reaffirm our commitment to fight for the dignity and redress the rights of peoples of African descent and for improvements in their living conditions, hereby state the following:

Whereas:

1. The organizational processes of peoples of African descent have generated several different integration initiatives aimed at enhancing respect for and compliance with human rights. 

2. The decision by society to integrate should guarantee the participation of all the different ethnicities present in the Andean region. 

3. Integral regional integration should assume and consolidate a political, social, economic, cultural and environmental agenda based on, among other things, the values of African descendants; and 

4. Recognizing the invitation of the Andean Community General Secretariat to create a space for the dialogue and influence of peoples of African descent;   


Resolve:

1. To propose the creation of a Working Committee of African descendants in the Andean Region that would interact continuously with the States Parties to the Cartagena Agreement. 

2. The Working Committee is created for the purpose of reinforcing the dialogue between peoples of African descent and States in order to broaden our rights, boost public policy and promote economic, social, political and cultural inclusion that would facilitate participation, particularly by women of African descent in the Andean region, in all local, national and subregional decisions.    

3. To influence the programs being implemented by the Andean Community General Secretariat. 

4. To socialize, through South-South cooperation, public policy experiences in fighting racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all related forms of intolerance. 

5. To implement in the Andean region actions to follow up on the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action and for the application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

6. To urge the States and Heads of State of the Andean Community member countries to deepen subregional integration in order to promote the consolidation of an Andean peace zone and guarantee a good life to all its inhabitants. 

Signed at


The San José Hacienda, Chincha, Peru
May 23, 2008


PLAN OF AFRO-ANDEAN - CAN ACTIVITIES

1. Fight against Racism

  • Observatory on Racism in the Andean area
  • Comparative study of the legislation, treaties and other international instruments embodied in public Afro policies in the Andean region
  • Support for the review and application of the Durban Action Plan and the convention against discrimination
  • Participation of African descendants in the UN system, the Committee against Discrimination and the Working Group on African Descendants   
  • Use of racial profiles; guaranteed access to justice by the population
  • Acceptance of the existence of racism and racial discrimination within State structures
  • Affirmative action measures and reparations to peoples of African descent for racism and discrimination   
  • Consideration, among the Millennium Development Goals, of the variables of racism and discrimination and demonstration of our peoples’ living conditions   
  • Demand that States incorporate specific measures for the fulfillment of MDGs for African descendants
  • Demand that governments implement development plans for peoples of African descent, providing the resources for that purpose.
  • Implementation of reparations for the transatlantic trade in human beings and slavery  

2. Social and Political and Cultural Area

  • Insertion of the Afro issue in the Andean Social Charter
  • Insertion of a chapter on African descendants in the CAN Human Rights Charter
  • Strengthening of the participation and representation of African descendants in the CAN
  • Promotion of workshops for the formulation and evaluation of public policy for African descendants
  • Continuous social, political and cultural education for African descendants in the Andean region (UASB or within each country of the Andean region). Thinkers and experts of African descent would lead the process.
  • Promotion of education in political influence  
  • Creation of documentary and cultural funds on African descendants in the Andean region (Create a bibliographic bank)
  • Coordination of ethnoeducation processes in the Andean region to strengthen identity and exchange experiences in order to influence public government policy  
  • Development of indicators for Afro-Andean peoples  
  • Investigation and production, in penal codes, of laws penalizing racism  
  • Influencing of national legislation to produce environmental policy in each Andean country 
  • Work on the displacement and refuge of African descendants in the Andean region
  • Insistence on each country’s statistical data system

3. Environment

  • Promotion of progressive territorial rights, particularly the recognition and granting of titles to the collective lands and territories of our communities
  • Establishment of mechanisms to reinforce prior consultation/ free and informed prior consent, in order to guarantee environmental development and protection in our communities
  • Promotion of policies in each of the region’s countries that prioritize domestic consumption of quality foods in quantity, like that of food sovereignty.   
  • Fund for the investigation of environmental issues in Afro-Andean communities. The resources should be used for formulating and implementing resource management plans.   
  • Emphasizing of the follow-up on signed government commitments in the Andean region and of international agreements, conventions and treaties.   

General Activities

  1. Establishment of relations with Africa for the interlinkage of the peoples and
  2. Study of the impact of FTAs on the economic, political, cultural and social lives of peoples of African descent.