Carlos Quesada, Regional Director for Latin America, Global Rights & Noelia Maciel of the Afro-Uruguayan Movement UBUNTU/Afro-descendant Assembly. Photo by Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS (March 25, 2011).
Participants: Global Rights, State of Uruguay, Formación para la Transformación Social Afrodescendiente, Agrupación Salvador Betervide , Asamblea Afrodescendiente, Centro Umbandista “Reina da Mata”
Commissioners: Felipe González of Chile, María Silvia Guillén of El Salvador, José de Jesús Orozco of Mexico acting as President
Countries: Uruguay
Topics: Rights of Afro-Descendents / Against Racial Discrimination
On Friday, March 25, the situation of Afro-Descendant in Urguay was discussed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Global Rights, Formación para la Transformación Social Afrodescendiente, Agrupación Salvador Betervide, Centro Umbandista “Reina da Mata,” Asamblea Afrodescendiente and state representatives from Uruguay spoke to the issue.
The petitioners identified two major problems that civil society members in Uruguay believe are hampering progress in the fight against racial discrimination: 1) the State’s denial of the existence of structurally ingrained discrimination, and 2) the lack of visibility of the individuals who suffer from such racial discrimination. According Global Rights, in Uruguay, 10.6% of the 3 million person population is of African descent. Nevertheless, Afro-descendants suffer from racial discrimination in all social spheres, low proportional representation in government, large wage disparities, and higher school drop-out rates.
The petitioners cited a series of criticisms offered by several treaty monitoring committees. For example, in 2008, the monitoring committee of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was concerned by the absence of official Uruguayan government information on the socio-economic situation of women of African descent. The committee believed that these women “are disproportionately affected by the poverty and endure multiple forms of discrimination.” In December 2010, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights voice similar concerns about Afro-descendants generally. Lastly, in February of 2011, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) observed a worrying persistent discrimination, through social and economic alienation, of minority groups, like Afro-descendants; especially with regard to access to health, education, employment and fair housing.
The State responded with an assertion of their dedication to eliminating discrimination and spoke about the changes and improvements they have been actively working on. The State pointed to its demonstrated commitment to ending intolerance and racism by ratifying some of the first instruments meant to promote universal human rights, and their open invitation to outside human rights organizations, including the U.N. and IAHCR to come in and monitor. The State believes that these invitations demonstrate serious collaboration efforts to advance the human rights obligations upon them.
Speaking very generally, the State representative said, “this administration has developed resources to ensure that vulnerable groups can enjoy a dignified life. As a whole the administration has sought to promote equality, eliminate poverty, and promote basic education.” The Uruguayan Constitution establishes the requirement of equality among all people. However, the Constitution does not make specific reference to racial or gender equality. The State stated that a law created in 2004 to eliminate xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination, established a commission with the objective of combating racism. The commission consists of representatives from the government and NGOs. The State further explained that in 2007 the commission received 64 complaints regarding discrimination and took measures to address each of those complaints.
