Bogotá, April 28, 2022.- The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), the Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians (AFRODES), the Association of Leaders El Perfil, the Association of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers of the Valley of Cauca (ASOAGROVALLE), the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), the Independent Afro Women Vulnerable Victims Foundation (FUNVIMUFROIN), the ORIENTADOS Citizen Movement and the Afro-descendant Foundation for Social and Sexual Diversities (SOMOS IDENTIDAD) present this April 28th the report The Footprints of Racism: Voices of People Excluded Inside and Outside the Social Upheaval in Cali, in commemoration of the first anniversary of the social unrest.

The report presents the patterns and differential impacts of the violence perpetrated against people of African descent during the 2021 National Strike, mainly by the Police Force in Cali, a city that was the epicenter of human rights violations at the national level in the framework of the mobilizations. The report is presented in order to make visible the racist violence perpetrated by the Police Force and that has differentially affected people of African descent.

The analysis presented in the report was developed from documentation processes of 26 cases of people of African descent who were victims of this violence. Likewise, the analysis of the violence registered in the database of CODHES, the Commission for Life, and the Humanitarian and Social Table, with the technical support of Race and Equality, in which 488 cases were systematized, of which, 53.1% were committed by the police. Similarly, of the total number of cases, 13.3% were against people of African descent.

From this research process, the patterns of violence against people of African descent that are identified correspond to practices that the Police Force has historically perpetrated against people of African descent and that, in the framework of the National Strike, have been exacerbated: racial profiling, racist language , physical assaults, homicides, gender-based violence against women and Afro-LGBTI people, territorialization of the disproportionate use of violence where Afro-descendants mainly reside and in neighborhoods with socioeconomic classes one and two.

The report makes it possible to identify the differential impacts suffered by people of African descent: psychosocial, physical, economic, collective impacts, intra-urban displacement, and patterns of barriers to access justice in the context of State violence perpetrated by agents of the Police Force and civilians.

Considering the repeated human rights violations against participants in the National Strike, and the few guarantees to exercise the right to protest, the organizations ask the Colombian State to take action to eradicate all forms of racist police violence, guarantee transparent investigations into complaints against the Police Force in the framework of the National Strike and implement measures that promote comprehensive reparation for people of African descent who have been victims.

For this, it is important that the actions implemented by the State comply with international standards, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance (CIRDI), and the Durban Program of Action. Likewise, the State must implement the resolutions and mechanisms against racist police violence such as UN Human Rights Council Resolutions 43/15 and 47/21, and The Agenda towards a Transformative Change for Justice and Racial Equality of the Promotion and protection of human rights and the fundamental freedoms of Africans and people of African descent from excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers report developed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Access the report  http://oldrace.wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Informe-Huellas-del-Racismo-.pdf