https://doi.org/10.37955/cs.v6i1.243
Received July 23, 2021 / Approved December 03, 2021 Pages: 98-115
eISSN: 2600-5743
Language and racial discrimination
of Afro-Ecuadorians
Lenguaje y discrimianción racial del afroecuatoriano
Marianela Cruel Preciado
Abogada de los Tribunales y Juzgados de la Repùblica, Especialista en Derecho Penal.
cruelpreciado24@gmail.com, Esmeraldas, Ecuador. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3193-3511
Girard D. Vernaza Arroyo
Post Doctor en Estudios Legales, PhD en Estudios Legales, Univerisdad “Luis Vargas Torres” de
Esmeraldas, girardvernaza@gemail.com. Esmeraldas, Ecuador. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6154
ABSTRACT
This article analyzes the language of racial discrimination against the
Afro-Ecuadorian people in Ecuador, which violates the right to
equality and non-discrimination. The objective of the study is to
analyze the regulatory framework that seeks to prevent and punish
racial discrimination against the Afro-Ecuadorian people and how this
phenomenon is manifested at the level of language in Ecuador. A
documentary type study was carried out, where the materials used are
books, scientific journal articles, institutional reports and current
Ecuadorian legislation related to the subject, analyzed according to
their nature through the methods of documentary analysis, deductive
of legal norms. The result is a characterization of the current
regulatory regime to prevent and punish the manifestations of
disbelief expressed through language, which allowed concluding that
beyond the current legal norms, racial discrimination against the Afro-
Ecuadorian people has cultural roots that merit a comprehensive
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response within the framework of the principles of interculturality and
plurinationality.
RESUMEN
En este artículo se realiza un análisis del lenguaje la discriminación
racial contra el pueblo afroecuatoriano en el Ecuador, lo cual atenta
contra el derecho a la igualdad y no discriminación. El objetivo del
estudio es analizar el marco regulatorio que busca prevenir y sancionar
la discriminación racial contra el pueblo afroecuatoriano y cómo ese
fenómeno se manifiesta a nivel del lenguaje en el Ecuador. Se realizó
un estudio de tipo documental, donde los materiales utilizados son
libros, artículos de revistas científicas, informes institucionales y la
legislación ecuatoriana vigente relacionada con el tema, analizados
según su naturaleza a través de los métodos de análisis documental,
deductivo de las normas jurídicas. El resultado es una caracterización
del régimen regulatorio vigente para prevenir y sancionar las
manifestaciones de descremación que se expresan a través del
lenguaje, lo que permitió concluir que más allá de las normas legales
vigentes, la discriminación racial contra el pueblo afroecuatoriano
tiene raíces culturales que amerita una respuesta integral en le marco
de los principios de interculturalidad y plurinacionalidad.
Keywords/ Palabras clave
Waves, fractality, change
Ondas, fractalidad, cambio
Introduction
I would like to begin by pointing out a truism: the complex
relationships arising from the recognition of different peoples,
cultures, nationalities and communities in Ecuador make any
approach to racial discrimination from a unitary point of view highly
inadequate. In fact, a study of this nature should cover various aspects,
from individual and group self-identification to the political, social,
media or linguistic perception of the specific ways in which people
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belonging to different social sectors or groups are treated or perceived
by the rest of society.
This is more complex when it comes to social groups that are
distinguished from each other by some physical or genetic trait, as in
the case of Afro-Ecuadorians who, in addition to their peculiar
traditions, their way of dressing, their cultural manifestations and
their ways of interacting with the rest of society, are differentiated
from the rest of Ecuadorians by the color of their skin and their ethnic
origin; The same distinction can be applied to differentiate, in general,
members of indigenous peoples from the rest of Ecuadorian society,
with the difference that the latter have become an important political
and social actor since the 1990s, comparatively more active and
cohesive than Afro-Ecuadorians.
However, the constitution of indigenous movements into first-order
political actors has not substantially improved their social situation, at
least not in a way that is correlated with the expansive force with which
they are able to challenge the established order and influence the
course of political events in the country; Afro-Ecuadorians, with less
strength and capacity to influence the national political order or the
course of public policies that may affect them, surely bear the brunt in
the distribution of social inequalities present in Ecuadorian society.
In this context, one of the most complex forms of racial discrimination
is analyzed, precisely that which is manifested in the use of language
that often conceals or discovers a reality present in Ecuador, despite
the fact that the Constitution itself prohibits and criminalizes any type
of discrimination, which has not had a significant practical influence
in the case of racial discrimination against the Afro-Ecuadorian
people. The research question is as follows: How is racial
discrimination against the Afro-Ecuadorian people in Ecuador
manifested at the language level? The objective of the study is to
analyze the regulatory framework that seeks to prevent and punish
racial discrimination against the Afro-Ecuadorian people and how this
phenomenon manifests itself at the level of language in Ecuador.
The article is developed under six headings. The first is entitled Afro-
Ecuadorians, the most discriminated against; the second, the
international decade for Afro-descendants, about which nothing has
been done in the country; the third, entitled language and racial
discrimination, in which it is pointed out how language plays its role
in discrimination; the fourth discusses the prohibition of
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discrimination in Ecuador; the fifth deals with the obligation to
guarantee non-discrimination and, finally, the sixth section points out
that discrimination is a crime and, at the end, some conclusions and
the bibliography that has served as support and points of reference for
the analysis of the article are noted.
Materials and Methods
In order to achieve the mentioned objective, a documentary type study
was carried out, where the materials used are books, scientific journal
articles, institutional reports and the Ecuadorian legislation in force
related to the subject. Its analysis was carried out through the methods
of documentary analysis, induction and deduction, analysis and
synthesis and the method of exegetical analysis of legal norms. All this
made it possible to respond to the research problem and the objectives
formulated.
Results
Afro-Ecuadorians would be, in this context, more discriminated
against than indigenous people, which is expressed in a harsh but
sufficiently expressive word for the phenomenon we are dealing with:
negrophobia.
Negrophobia in Ecuador is lacerating. It hurts, burns, scorches the
nerves and puts us in the condition of perverse beings, for accepting it
as part of our coexistence. Without underestimating the racist
problem, being cholo or Indian is now a little more 'profitable'. Some
go to Europe to exploit this condition, often folklorically or sexually.
Blacks just by setting foot in the Embassies of the European Union or
the United States are already suspects or, at least, subject to double
investigation? What will happen if a black person enters a bank, a
supermarket, a church, or if he walks down the street, stands in a park
or tries to take a cab? Being black is scary.
Although it can be said with certainty that cases of explicit racial
discrimination against Afro-Ecuadorians are isolated, some have
drawn the attention of Ecuadorian society and the press, such as the
lynching of Juan Pablo Pavón in 2004: "The fate of being black was
harsh. The young man was lynched, burned, his limbs cut off,
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mutilated and accused of being a delinquent. There was no justice. It
was a lynching." Apparently, the determining cause of the attack of
which he was a victim was his being of African descent. Another
emblematic case, openly racist, was the arrest of "23 black citizens in
La Carolina Park, in Quito"; according to what transpired, the cause of
their arrest was due to "a suspicious attitude" and "public vagrancy."
These facts, isolated but representative of a deeper social
phenomenon, show a daily reality that is not openly expressed in all
cases but that in any case underlies social relations involving Afro-
Ecuadorians in different contexts of national life, and with respect to
whom two radically different positions are usually assumed: on the
one hand, condescension, attempts at assimilation or overprotection
due to their ancestral social disadvantage, and on the other, rejection
and discrimination that distinguishes and separates them because of
their own condition of having a different ethnic origin, and being the
bearer of a culture that does not conform to the canons of what is
considered "normal" for the majority society.
Both attitudes are reflected in various aspects of the country's political,
social and cultural life; However, in order to reduce the limits of this
paper and adapt to the length of the work, we are interested in
reflecting on the concrete ways in which both attitudes are expressed
in academic, institutional and media language, with the purpose of
systematizing the main linguistic expressions, positive and negative,
used in specialized studies to refer to Afro-Ecuadorians in the context
of the International Decade for People of African Descent, and the
ways, also linguistic, that are proposed to overcome racial
discrimination in Ecuador.
Rather, it is a study that uses content analysis as a research technique,
applied to different sources related to the topic and in which the
different linguistic forms of referring to Afro-descendants, their
customs, their culture, their way of defining themselves and their
social stereotypes to point out the individuals that integrate this social
group in Ecuador are reflected. It also analyzes those linguistic forms
through which it is proposed to overcome the discriminatory barriers
and repair the historical damages caused to the Afro-Ecuadorian
people from different national and international instances.
In 2015, the United Nations proclaimed the International Decade for
People of African Descent, the celebration of which foresees a plan of
activities around three thematic axes: Recognition, Justice and
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Development; this implies recognizing that this social group has so far
suffered invisibility and lack of recognition, injustices and lack of
integration into the general development of society, from which they
have been largely marginalized, despite the great contributions they
have made to civilization.
In this regard, the UN proclamation of the Decade sees it as "an
opportunity to compensate them", while urging "an end to racial
discrimination and the systematic exclusion of people of African
descent" throughout the world. Several actions are envisaged to be
carried out by States within the framework of the decade, with the aim
of strengthening laws prohibiting racial discrimination and helping to
ensure their enforcement, and promoting greater awareness of the
cultural heritage of people of African descent and their many
fundamental contributions to the advancement of humanity. In the
same vein, it is envisioned to "foster greater knowledge, value and
respect regarding the achievements of people of African descent and
their contributions to humanity."
This declaration is preceded by many other international instruments,
binding or not, which together define the position of the international
community with respect to racial discrimination against people of
African descent, its causes, consequences and concrete ways in which
States should act through laws and public policies to reduce or
eliminate this social phenomenon that condemns a considerable part
of humanity to a life marked by misery and lack of access to basic rights
that are considered universal and inherent to every human being.
And such a general position is naturally expressed through language
that qualifies, classifies, divides and separates people into races,
ethnicities, peoples or cultures and, like any classification, draws a
dividing line between people of different social groups, to the
detriment of those historically vulnerable for whom the international
community has adopted the aforementioned instruments, without the
good wishes having been effectively translated into equal treatment
and a just social position for Afro-descendants to date.
In the following section we make an inventory of the main derogatory
expressions or terms used to refer to Afro-descendants in international
documents, academic writings and periodical publications, with the
purpose of confirming that discrimination is expressed both in the
facts and in the ways of referring to them or the people who are
involved in them. The analysis is divided into two parts: on the one
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hand, the denigrating expressions used to refer to them, and on the
other, the positive expressions used to try to make amends for the
injustices committed.
Much has been written about racial discrimination and the
contributions of Afro-descendants to the development of humanity,
although this has not been enough to eliminate the discrimination to
which they are subjected, at least at the linguistic level, which is what
interests us here. It has also been written about the ways in which they
are represented through different media, the overt or covert ways in
which discrimination is expressed in public institutions or at the social
level. For the following analysis, these three aspects of social life are
used to classify the expressions used to refer to Afro-descendants.
It should also be clarified that, being a content analysis, the research
consulted documents of different academic, scientific or journalistic
value related to the topic, highlighting from them only the key words
that indicate the specific ways of referring to Afro-descendants; for this
reason, not all terms or expressions were extracted from documents
that are discriminatory in themselves, but from those that refer to
these subjects in the third person or as victims of discrimination. The
sources consulted but not cited are listed at the end of the text,
although those cited at the foot of the page were also used for the
content analysis.
The thesis underlying the study is that expressed by Héctor Islas Azaïs,
a researcher on the relationship between language and racial
discrimination; in his opinion, "the language of discrimination feeds
on the flesh and blood of people historically placed in a situation of
vulnerability". The ultimate presupposition of racial discrimination is
the idea of "race," which was "imposed as a basic criterion of universal
social classification of the world's population, according to which the
world's major new social and geo-cultural identities were distributed."
Racial discrimination is an ideology that is based on the differences of
"races", and assumes that there are inferior races and superior races,
and at that level it does not matter if the distinction is scientifically
correct, because it works for the purposes it is used for, and because
like any ideology it is not interested in the scientific veracity of its
theses, but in the functionality to justify its ends or the means it uses
to impose itself.
In order to systematize the expressions and terms that underlie any
form of racial discrimination against Afro-descendants, we use the
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three criteria already suggested: expressions that refer to individuals,
expressions that refer to the group and expressions linked to public
institutions or the vision that these institutions have of them. These
are arbitrary criteria valid only in the context of this paper, but they
work for the purposes that follow and allow us to account for the
different expressions most commonly used in these three spheres. For
a better exposition of the subject, a correlation is made between the
negative expressions and the positive ones that are suggested as a way
of linguistic overcoming racial discrimination against Afro-
descendants.
Table 1. Racial discrimination
Criteria
Negative view
Comments
Individuals
Incapable, lazy,
violent, incitement to
violence, limited
access to the labor
market, lack of
education,
delinquency,
promiscuity,
savagery, intolerance,
life imprisonment,
limited access to
employment,
education and
security, persecution,
threat to security,
distrust, fear and
resentment, threat to
democracy and
cultural identity, the
vicious circle between
racism-exclusion-
poverty.
These would be the
basic characteristics
that in the texts
consulted are attributed
in a pejorative manner,
the actions that should
be taken to avoid
discrimination and
ensure the right to
equality among
individuals considered
in isolation. The former
are structural
limitations of society or
attributes that are
assumed to be proper to
Afro-descendants as
individuals, and in both
cases they limit or
prevent them from
exercising the rights to
which they are entitled,
but which they cannot
fully exercise because of
the negative aspects that
society attributes to
them. The latter, on the
other hand, refer to the
measures or actions that
should be adopted to
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avoid or eliminate racial
discrimination.
Groups
Marginalization,
hatred, segregation,
slavery, poverty,
misery, disease, most
vulnerable groups,
lack of access to
justice, racial
superiority, anti-
black racism, anti-
black violence,
racialized subjects,
crime-prone race,
unequal distribution
of assets, poor social
recognition of their
histories, heritage
and culture,
xenophobic attitudes,
social stigmatization.
Unlike the former, these
characteristics are
attributed to the social
group of Afro-
descendants; having
been victims of the
former, it is assumed
that the actions
envisaged in the latter
will contribute to
diminishing or
eliminating racial
discrimination among
different social groups.
In the first case, it is a
question of the
stereotypes that have
been historically
constructed at the social
level as attributes of
Afro-descendants,
without their empirical
confirmation or the
degree to which each of
the negative
characteristics
attributed to them is
manifested being
relevant. In the second
case, it is considered
that the proposed
actions would make an
important contribution
against racial
discrimination, while
allowing the revaluation
of the Afro-descendant
social group for its
contributions to the
culture and national
identity.
Institutional
Racism, racial or
ethnic
discrimination,
stereotypes, unequal
protection under the
This point summarizes
the main manifestations
of racial discrimination
that are considered to be
practiced by public
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law, deprivation of
rights,
stigmatization,
exclusion, racial
profiling, persistent
inequalities, harm,
injustice, mockery
because of their skin
color, structural
racism, historical
genocide, invisibility,
precarious labor
insertion, living in
precarious areas, lack
of access to housing,
forced displacement,
lack of judicial
guarantees, prejudice
by public officials,
impunity, racist bias,
police violence, death
penalty, crime.
institutions, or the
stereotypes that have
been constructed by
those in power to
separate, segregate and
discriminate against
Afro-descendants,
which limits or prevents
their access to public
services, to the benefits
that each person should
receive from the State
and the effective
enjoyment of their
rights before public
institutions. In order to
eliminate or reduce
institutional racial
discrimination,
systematized actions are
suggested as ways to
overcome racial
discrimination or the
violation of the right to
equality among people.
It can be stated with certainty that in current Ecuadorian legal
language, or more precisely, in the legal language used in the country,
it is not possible to find any of the expressions systematized in the
previous section, at least not in their pejorative and discriminatory
sense with respect to Afro-descendants. This contrasts, for example,
with the 1998 Constitution, where collective rights were recognized for
indigenous and black or Afro-Ecuadorian peoples, without noting the
negative ideological charge of the term "black".
On the contrary, the principle of equality and the prohibition of
discrimination on any grounds, including discrimination on the
grounds of race, ethnicity or skin color, is a constant feature of the
entire legal system in force. Specifically, two attitudes can be noted
with respect to racial discrimination: on the one hand, the prohibition
in all its forms, and on the other, the requirement that affirmative
action or reverse discrimination measures be adopted in all areas of
society where racial discrimination may be present.
In what follows we systematize concrete cases at the constitutional
level of both attitudes, without pretending to exhaust all possible
examples, but emphasizing those that can be considered paradigmatic
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for the clarity with which they express the rejection of racial
discrimination. In the current Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador
of 2008, any form of discrimination is prohibited, and particularly that
which distinguishes people on the basis of their ethnic or cultural
origin: only on one occasion the constituent took as a possible cause of
discrimination the racial origin of persons in its article 46, referring to
the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents.
The legislative technique used by the constituent in the face of possible
acts of discrimination goes in two different, although complementary,
directions: in the first, in accordance with the guaranteeing conception
of the State defined as "of rights and justice, intercultural and
plurinational", the State is obliged to guarantee the application of laws
and public policies contrary to any form of discrimination, while in the
second it uses the imperative form to prohibit any form of
discrimination, ensure the application of sanctions to those who incur
in such attitudes and repair or compensate the affected persons or
groups. Let us look at concrete examples of both ways of dealing with
discrimination.
Non-discrimination among persons on the basis of their ethnic or
cultural origin is the most frequent among the techniques employed
by the Constituent Assembly; thus, the duties of the State are
established as "guaranteeing without any discrimination whatsoever
the effective enjoyment of the rights established in the Constitution
and in international instruments", guaranteeing access to education
"without any discrimination whatsoever"; the protection of children
and adolescents "against the influence of programs or messages,
disseminated through any media, that promote violence, or racial or
gender discrimination"; guarantee to communities, peoples and
nationalities the right "not to be subjected to racism and any form of
discrimination based on their origin, ethnic or cultural identity" and
the right to the "creation of their own social communication media in
their languages and access to others without any discrimination
whatsoever."
It also recognizes the right of all persons to "formal equality, material
equality and non-discrimination"; the training of the Armed Forces
and the National Police under the principle of respect "for the rights of
persons without any discrimination"; non-discrimination is also one
of the principles governing the national system of inclusion and social
equity; finally, the State is obliged to "promote a culture of peace and
prevent forms of violence and discrimination".
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These obligations of the State, however, do not guarantee that the
equality proclaimed as a principle is materialized in the spheres of its
competence, whether in the provision of public services, the effective
enjoyment of fundamental rights or access to public services under
equal conditions; For this reason, the constitutional text itself resorts
to the legal figure of affirmative action, through which reverse
discrimination measures can be applied, i.e., creating norms, public
policies, plans or programs where traditionally marginalized persons
or groups can benefit under favorable conditions compared to the rest
of society.
As a principle, affirmative action is provided for in several
constitutional norms; thus it is manifested in the obligation of the
State to adopt such measures to promote "real equality in favor of
rights holders who are in a situation of inequality;" in the access and
exercise of public positions of discriminated sectors; in the fulfillment
of the right of access to work of communities, peoples and
nationalities, where it must adopt specific measures so that their
members may have access to employment under equal conditions.
Finally, it is also an obligation of the State, with respect to traditionally
marginalized and discriminated groups, to repair and compensate the
damages they suffer as a result of racism or other related forms of
intolerance and discrimination.
The second technique employed by the constituent is to prohibit any
form of discrimination, without distinguishing whether it is based on
racial, ethnic or cultural criteria. In any case, the latter, which are the
object of our analysis, are implicitly or explicitly prohibited. In
particular, it is established as a general principle the prohibition and
sanction "of all forms of discrimination"; the media are prohibited
"from broadcasting advertising that induces violence, discrimination,
racism...and all that which violates rights"; it is also prohibited in the
exercise of public service to civil servants "actions of discrimination of
any kind."
Unlike the obligations that the State must fulfill with respect to
guaranteeing non-discrimination, the prohibitions imposed, due to
their imperative nature, are generally accompanied by a criminal
sanction, as provided for in articles 176 and 177 of the Organic Integral
Criminal Code, which typify the crimes of discrimination and acts of
hatred, respectively. The first of these crimes punishes any person who
"propagates practices or incites any distinction, restriction, exclusion
or preference on the basis of" different criteria provided, among which
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are, as far as our object of analysis is concerned, membership to a
specific ethnicity or cultural identity; such actions must be carried out,
for the crime to be configured, "with the objective of nullifying or
impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of rights under
conditions of equality." The penalty provided for the crime, in its basic
figure, is deprivation of liberty for one to three years, and in its
aggravated figure (when the acts are carried out by a public official),
the penalty provided is three to five years.
The crime called acts of hate, on the other hand, provides for three
different sanctioning frameworks: the basic figure establishes a
penalty of deprivation of liberty of one to three years for any person
who "commits acts of physical or psychological violence of hate,
against one or more persons because of their...ethnicity... [or their]
cultural identity"; if such acts cause injury to the victim the penalty will
be higher, and in the event of death it will be deprivation of liberty of
twenty-two to twenty-six years.
The important thing with respect to the crime of discrimination is that
it is configured through the word, that is, through the use of any of the
pejorative expressions systematized above: in this sense,
discrimination as a crime under the COIP is configured when a person
uses any of the derogatory or pejorative expressions systematized, to
refer to any other person or group. This is, in short, the relationship
that can be established between language and racial discrimination in
Ecuador, the central theme of this paper.
Conclusions
Despite the progress achieved in today's societies, discrimination on
the basis of race continues to be a problem that must be addressed at
the international, national and local levels. This need was taken up by
the UN when in 2005 it proclaimed the International Decade for
People of African Descent as an opportunity to compensate for the
historical discrimination suffered by these peoples, to end racial
discrimination and the systematic exclusion of people of African
descent, and to promote greater knowledge, value and respect for the
achievements of people of African descent and their contributions to
humanity.
In Ecuador, Afro-Ecuadorians are one of the peoples most
discriminated against because of their racial origin; although this
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discrimination is not systematic, it exists and is manifested at the level
of language and also in attitudes or actions of public and private
institutions and citizens, who sometimes unconsciously or voluntarily
give unjustified differential treatment to members of these social
groups for the simple fact of having a different racial connotation, even
when the Constitution and laws recognize the right to formal equality,
material equality and non-discrimination.
The current regulatory framework uses different legislative techniques
to address racial discrimination against Afro-Ecuadorians. First, it
prohibits all forms of discrimination at the constitutional level,
considering it contrary to the right to equality. Secondly, it requires the
State to guarantee the legal, institutional and public policy conditions
necessary to prevent racial discrimination. Thirdly, it criminalizes acts
of discrimination or hatred based on racial or any other grounds.
Therefore, anyone who propagates, practices or incites any distinction,
restriction, exclusion or preference due to ethnic origin, nationality,
sex or any other personal or social condition is criminally punished.
From the analysis carried out, it can be concluded that although there
is a regulatory framework to prevent and punish racial discrimination
against the Afro-Ecuadorian people, it is necessary to complement it
with the creation and application of anti-discriminatory public policies
to promote cultural diversity and its historical values, and the creation
of social awareness at institutional and social levels to minimize and
progressively eliminate any act of discrimination that violates the
dignity of persons and is contrary to the right to equality of all persons
in Ecuador.
References
AA.VV. International Decade for People of African Descent, UN, 2015.
AA.VV. Latin America in Movement Magazine. The Afro-descendant
Decade No. 501/2015.
AECI. Cooperation program with Afro-descendants, Madrid, 2016.
AL HUSSEIN, Zeid Ra'ad, "Introduction" to the book International
Decade for People of African Descent, UN, 2015.
ANTÓN SÁNCHEZ, John, "La política del reconocimiento en el Decenio
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Internacional Afrodescendiente (2015-2024)," Boletín
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