Language
According to the Universal Human Rights System (SUDH), there are currently more than 5 thousand Indigenous Peoples, to which 476 million people belong (approximately 6.2% of the world's population), live in more than 90 countries in all regions and speak more than 4,000 languages.
On the other hand, one in four people in Latin America and the Caribbean identifies themselves as Afro-descendant, making up the most invisible minority in the region with around 133 million people, of which 34 million are of school age.
Among the problems faced by people of African descent are the police violence And the criminalization and imprisonment disproportionate; your limited access to a quality education, medical care and other social services; and violations by States and private actors of the collective property rights of tribal peoples.
Historical discrimination against communities belonging to Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples It's a History of struggle: it initially meant their denial as human beings and subjects of rights. Later, in the process of forming States, they were excluded from the definition and materialization of laws and policies related to their individual and collective rights as ethnic peoples.
More recently, they were victims of armed conflicts and today they continue to face the consequences of the extractive activities imposed on their territories.
This historical vulnerability process has resulted in the dispossession of ancestral territories, in the lack of participation, consultation and representation in democratic institutions, together with the absence of an intercultural perspective of state institutions that considers the worldviews of indigenous and Afro-descendant tribal peoples.
The bodies of the IACHR have highlighted the special connection that Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples have with their territories and natural resources; a The bond that conditions their own existence and through which various practices and traditions that shape the worldviews of these groups are forged and reproduced. This link requires special protective measures and should be taken into account when analyzing other rights, such as economic, social, cultural and environmental rights
