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INSIGHTi
Afro-descendants of Latin America: Selected
Resources
Updated September 27, 2023
The United Nations (U.N.) estimates that approximately “200 million people identifying themselves as
being of African descent live in the Americas.” Congress has long demonstrated interest in the status of
Afro-descendants abroad as seen in legislation and hearings. Since 1993, the Department of State submits
an annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that includes a section on “National/Racial/Ethnic
Minorities.” This CRS Insight focuses on global resources that relate to the human rights of Afro-
descendants of Latin America, including connections to socioeconomics, international organizations, and
international declarations and conventions. The resource titles link to English-language resources while
links to other languages are listed in the column “resource type.”
This CRS Insight uses the umbrella term “Afro-descendant” rather than country-specific terms such as
“Afro-Cuban” or “Afro-Colombian,” or foreign language terms such as moreno or pardo. The World
Bank’s 2018 report Afro-descendants in Latin America: Toward a Framework of Inclusion details that the
term “Afro-descendant” was “first adopted by regional Afro-descendant organizations in the early 2000s,
and describes people united by a common ancestry but living in very dissimilar conditions.”
For Afro-descendants of Latin America, human rights challenges are intertwined with socioeconomics.
The 2002 U.N. Durban Declaration emphasized “poverty, underdevelopment, marginalization, social
exclusion and economic disparities are closely associated with racism, racial discrimination ... and
contribute to the persistence of racist attitudes and practices which in turn generate more poverty.” For
example, the World Bank’s LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) Equity Lab published 2021 data
illustrating that in the case studies of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay, a higher percentage
of Afro-descendants are poor (living on less than $5.50 per day in 2011 purchasing power parity terms) as
compared to the national average. In reverse chronological order and then alphabetically, Table 1 lists
resources related to the socioeconomic status of Afro-descendants in Latin America.
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Table 1. Resources on the Socioeconomics of Afro-descendants in Latin America
Title
Author
Resource Type
Afro-descendant Peoples’ Territories
Rights and Resources Initiative, Process Report examines the territorial
in Biodiversity Hotspots across Latin
of Black Communities, Pontifical
presence of Afro-descendants in 16
America and the Caribbean: Barriers
Universidad Javeriana's Observatory of
countries in Latin America. (Also
to Inclusion in Conservation policies
Ethnic and Campesino Territories, and
available in Spanish.)
(2023)
National Coordination of Articulation
of Rural Black Quilombola
Communities
LAC Equity Lab: Ethnicity (last updated
World Bank
Website with data on socio-
2023)
demographics, poverty, and access to
services. (Also available in Spanish.)
Maternal Health Analysis of Women
United Nations Population Fund,
Report compares data across the
and Girls of African Descent in the
United Nations Children’s Fund, U.N.
Americas about Afro-descendant
Americas (2023)
Women, Pan American Health
women’s maternal health and provides
Organization, and National Birth Equity analysis and recommendations. (Also
Col aborative
available in Spanish, Portuguese, and
French.)
Afro-descendant Inclusion in
Freire et al., World Bank Group
Report examines educational
Education: An Anti-racist Agenda for
disparities across several countries and
Latin America (2022)
its relationship to sustainable growth in
the region. (Also available in Spanish
and Portuguese.)
Economic, Social, Cultural and
Inter-American Commission on Human Report covers the challenges of
Environmental Rights of Persons of
Rights
statistical visibility, Coronavirus
African Descent: Inter-American
Disease 2019 (COVID-19) context,
Standards to Prevent, Combat and
and violence, as well as Inter-American
Eradicate Structural Racial
standards to combat racial
Discrimination (2021)
discrimination. (Also available in
Spanish.)
Health of Afro-descendant People in
Pan American Health Organization
Report builds on previous work,
Latin America (2021)
identifies key data gaps on Afro-
descendent health in the region, and
makes recommendations. (Also
available in Spanish and Portuguese.)
Children of African descent in Latin
U.N. Economic Commission for Latin
Briefing note on population, childhood
America (2019)
America and the Caribbean
inequalities, health, and education
indicators. (Also available in Spanish.)
Afro-descendants in Latin America:
Freire et al., World Bank
Report covering terms, population
Toward a Framework of Inclusion
distribution, poverty, and education.
(2018)
(Also available in Portuguese.)
Afrodescendent women in Latin
U.N. Economic Commission for Latin
Report on Afro-descendant women’s
America and the Caribbean: Debts of
America and the Caribbean
economic, physical, and decision-
equality (2018)
making autonomy. (Also available in
Spanish and Portuguese.)
Source: Compiled by CRS.
Several international organizations have expressed concern about the human rights of Afro-descendants.
In 1966, the U.N. proclaimed March 21st as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination. In August 2021, a unanimously adopted resolution established the U.N. Permanent Forum
of People of African Descent, a 10-member advisory body that works with the U.N. Human Rights
Council; the Forum held its second session in May 2023. The U.N. and the Organization of American
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States (OAS) also have rapporteurs, established in 1993 and 2005, respectively, which work to combat
racial discrimination through various means. The OAS.’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
holds hearings, some categorized under the Rights of Afro-Descendants/Against Racial Discrimination. In
some instances, the Commission may recommend cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Table 2 lists resources alphabetically from international organizations regarding the rights of Afro-
descendants of Latin America.
Table 2. Resources from International Organizations on the Rights of Afro-descendants in
Latin America
Title
Author
Resource Type
International Decade for People of
United Nations
Website with resources, events,
African Descent 2015-2024
regional meeting information and
more. (Also available in six other U.N.
languages.)
Rapporteurship on the Rights of
Organization of American States
Website with reports, hearings, and
Persons of African Descent and against
press releases. (Also available in
Racial Discrimination
Spanish.)
Special Rapporteur on contemporary
United Nations
Website with thematic reports and
forms of racism
country reports. (Also available in five
other U.N. languages.)
Working Group of Experts on People
United Nations
Website with thematic reports and
of African Descent
country reports. (Also available in five
other U.N. languages.)
Source: Compiled by CRS.
Various international organizations have also issued a number of declarations and conventions concerning
the human rights of Afro-descendants. For example, since 2017, several U.N. groups are working on a
draft “Declaration on the Promotion and Full Respect of Human Rights of People of African Descent.”
Table 3 lists, in reverse chronological order, select international declarations that relate to the human
rights of Afro-descendants in Latin American.
Table 3. International Declarations and Conventions regarding Human Rights of Afro-
descendants of Latin America
Date adopted
Title
Author
Date of entry into force
Inter-American Convention Against All
Organization of American States
June 5, 2013
Forms of Discrimination and
February 20, 2020
Intolerance
(Also available in Spanish.)
Inter-American Convention Against
Organization of American States
June 5, 2013
Racism, Racial Discrimination and
November 11, 2017
Related Forms of Intolerance
(Also available in Spanish.)
World Conference Against Racism,
United Nations
2002
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
(Related webpage is available in six
Related Intolerance: Declaration and
U.N. languages.)
Programme of Action (also known as
the Durban Conference)
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Declaration on Race and Racial
United Nations Educational, Scientific
November 27, 1978
Prejudice
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
(Also available in five other U.N.
languages.)
International Convention on the
United Nations
December 21, 1965
Elimination of All Forms of Racial
January 4, 1969
Discrimination
(Also available in five other U.N.
languages.)
Source: Compiled by CRS.
Additionally, CRS Reports discussing Afro-descendant populations include the following products:
• CRS Insight IN12180, Colombia: Issues for the 118th Congress, by June S. Beittel and
Ramon Miro
• CRS Report R46236, Brazil: Background and U.S. Relations, by Peter J. Meyer
Author Information
Carla Y. Davis-Castro
Senior Research Librarian
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