We had the pleasure of representing ICAE and GEO in the working group Nº 3 which is functioning in the Regional Workshop on "Strategies for the Adoption and Implementation of Policies of Affirmative Action for People of African descent of the Latin American and Caribbean regions", convened by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is taking place in Montevideo, Uruguay, May 7-9,2003.

We have registered in the group that addresses the issue of Promotion of specific economic, social and cultural rights access to health, housing, education and the promotion of cultural identity". We have coordinated our work with Iliana Pereyra, REPEM, who participated in the working group Nº1 on the issue of Poverty reduction and promotion of the right to development", in order to highlight the role of adult education in the different spheres.

From the moment of the workshop's opening, the role of education as preventive tool for all kind of discrimination, including ethnic and racial discrimination, as well as a privileged tool of affirmative action, was brought forward by the speakers.

ICAE-GEO-REPEM maintained the leitmotifs of the Campaign launched in the preparatory process of the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, and in the World Education Forum, Porto Alegre, by all adult education networks "Campaign for the Right to Learn Throughout Life" and "Education without discrimination"

A clear objective for the working groups was to promote and evaluate the adoption and implementation of affirmative action policies proposals in order to counteract the ethnic and racial discrimination.

What is affirmative action?

Cristina Torres, PHO/WHO expert in charge of the working group Nº 3 - Access to Health with specific emphasis on the HIV/AIDS problem- during the first afternoon, defines "affirmative action" as a public policy that finds its expression through a juridical regulation, a juridical decision or an official decision that intends to improve the opportunities for those groups segregated in society on account of their status of disadvantage before the dominant groups.

Other meanings of the term are "positive action" or "positive discrimination", however, beyond terminology, it is intended to acknowledge the existence of inequality.

In her report she also establishes a typology of the affirmative actions, identifying 3 types

Compensatory oriented to compensate for the harms suffered in the past

Corrective used to guarantee the cessation of discriminatory practices and which have an effect on the future, applied basically in areas such as education, health, labor and housing.

Redistributive the objective is to end the wrong distribution of goods.

The methodology used in the dynamics of the Working Groups allowed for the fluent participation of the NGOs together with the governmental representatives; several recommendations were proposed within this framework

*It is not possible to work in affirmative actions if there is no database that disaggregate the information in the different areas such as health, education or ethnic-racial group.

Most countries do not have disaggregated information. Therefore, this is a fundamental previous requirement.

* To link affirmative actions in health with the 3 Millennium Goals referred to reduction of maternal mortality, infant mortality and the reduction of diseases such as malaria and HIV/SIDA

ACCOMPLISH THE GOALS WITH EQUITY!

We do not want to perpetuate the current discriminatory gaps, but at the same time we want to incorporate ethnic-racial and gender perspective.

* To speak seriously about adoption of policies of affirmative action implies to speak about monitoring.

* The implementation of affirmative actions requires the formation of people responsible for its implementation and the dissemination of information if in effect there is the will of generating a real change in relation to the situation of the present injustice and inequity.

Doudou Diene, Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Commission on the contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, made an introduction to the discussion of this issue.

In his speech, and referring to the silence in relation to the history of African descendants in the Latin American region and the denial of their humanity, he expresses that African descendants are victims of a double crime, and quoting the Nobel prize Elie Wiesel he says that " the executioner always kills twice, the second time through silence".

Juan de Dios Mosquera, member of a Colombian NGO, pointed out that we were taught that " black people came from Africa" as part of History, and this is a lie African persons came, with a name and an identity, and they were transformed into "black people" which signified no person, animal, without soul, in short, black objects.

* We cannot keep on speaking and naming ourselves in those terms, LANGUAGE must be useful to give visibility and dignity to all, particularly within the education and learning process, and in this sense there is a long way ahead.

Women's movement knows of this invisibility through language and the distortion of reality through this means.

* Affirmative actions must have an approach that takes into account the multiple discrimination, as correcting ethnic and racial discrimination cannot perpetuate the existing discriminatory gap between men and women; we must advance with equity.

* " The right to equality is concretized while recognizing inequality". The access to education, particularly at tertiary level, is posed with force through the different possible positive action, among them quotas for African descendant students, men and women

Regional Workshop on "Strategies for the Adoption and Implementation of Policies of Affirmative Action for People of African descent of the Latin American and Caribbean regions"

The above-mentioned representatives adopted the conclusions and recommendations existing within the framework of the consolidation process of the achievements reached in the Declaration and Plan of Action of the Regional Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and related intolerance held in Santiago, Chile, December 2000, as well as in the Declaration and Plan of Action adopted in the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa, September 2001.

The general recommendations are the following

1.- To establish mechanisms for exchange of information, learning experiences and good practices on human rights in the countries of the region, with the participation of all social actors.

2.- Promote the creation of national human rights organizations, such as the ombusdsman in those countries where they do not still have legal existence, while facilitating the creation of sub-commissions aimed at receiving denunciations on racial discrimination, including the possibility of submitting collective actions on behalf of groups of discriminated persons.

3.- Urge the states to establish permanent programs to monitor the progress of the implementation of affirmative action policies, including the elaboration of valid and trustworthy indicators of the advances, such as the creation of a social watch around this issue.

Conclusions were made in relation to the following issues

Poverty reduction and promotion of the right to development, ownership of the land and access to employment and the participation in public life; discrimination and law; torture, physical abuse and the excessive use of force; health; education and cultural identity; religion; housing; follow up.

These recommendations are addressed to the states, the governments, the civil society and the international bodies.

Some recommendations on Education as follows

EDUCATION AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

To the governments

. To apply effectively the paragraphs related to education, public information, media and the internet that appear in the final documents of the conferences of Santiago and Durban.

. To promote the collection of education-related information, disaggregated by ethnos/race, as this constitutes a tool for the definition of the diagnosis of the situation of relative disadvantage of the African descendant populations, in order to design the specific programs of Affirmative Action Policies (AAP), as well as a fundamental basis for monitoring and impact evaluation.

. To develop formal and non formal education programs that guarantee literacy for African descendant children and adolescent boys and girls in school age, corresponding to primary and secondary education.

. To eliminate the existing barriers and promote actions focused on the access to all levels of education for people of African descent, paying special attention to children, girls and women's situation, as well as to other victims of multiple or aggravated discrimination.

. To eliminate the obstacles and favor actions that facilitate the access and permanence of African descendants in tertiary education.

. To promote the revision of programs and texts on African History and African descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean at all formal education levels, while taking into account their own national specificities and consulting the organized civil society.

. To establish Chairs of African History and Culture in the universities of Latin America and the Caribbean.

. To promote Human Rights education at all levels of the educational system with emphasis on the fight against all forms of discrimination, while strengthening the concept of respect and enjoyment of diversity, as well as on the formation of inclusive societies for all.

. To promote actions so that the cultural and intellectual production of the African descendants would be supported and have the same possibilities as the rest of the cultural producers in the promotion of their work.

. To promote studies for the revalorization of oral tradition, "memory boxes", and African descendants' communities' heritage and values.

. To establish programs for the formation of educators in relation to researches, studies and formulations referred to African descendants' communities' history and culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as education in Human Rights and in the fight against all forms of discrimination.

. To carry out campaigns for sensitization, information and dissemination of the African history and culture, and of the African descendants' communities in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as of Human Rights and the fight against all forms of discrimination.

. Develop campaigns for establishing a watch on the media in order to identify and denounce those information networks or independent journalists that promote negative stereotypes of the African descendants.

. To implement the different education measures in a coordinated manner at primary, secondary and tertiary education levels.

. To favor the consultation with civil society in the formulation and design of education programs referred to African descendants.

. To strengthen non formal education, fostering the work of those organizations that carry out activities promoting the cultural identity and which develop training programs for the insertion of African descendants in the labor market.

. To conduct studies on African descendants dropping out of the formal educational system, disaggregated by gender.

. To take measures for monitoring, in order to guarantee them in an equalitarian manner, the access, continuation and good conclusion of the education cycles on the part of African descendants.

. To evaluate the possibility of establishing quotas for African descendants in the universities, taking into account the special characteristics of the different systems existing in each country.

. To carry out actions to foster a wide promotion of African descendants' communities' values and culture, while eliminating the obstacles which may exist in this matter.

. To conduct specific studies, when pertinent, on the language of African descendants' communities.

. To develop programs of integral care in the first infancy with African-centered focus in order to affirm the cultural identity through the patterns of traditional raising.

TO INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES

. UNESCO should provide cooperation for the research and design of a Program for the Americas on studies on African descendants' history and culture, with the participation of experts from the African descendants' communities in order to be implemented in Latin American school systems.

. UNESCO should cooperate in the organization of a meeting of rectors of Americas' universities in order to analyze the Declaration and Programs of Action in Santiago and Durban, and identify affirmative actions in favor of African descendants and the access, sustainability and permanence in tertiary education, and how to educate in order not to instill discrimination, with the participation of the civil society.