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Organizations File a Complaint with the IACHR Regarding the Expansion of Extractive Policies in Nicaragua and Their Impact on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and People of African Descent

Organizations File a Complaint with the IACHR Regarding the Expansion of Extractive Policies in Nicaragua and Their Impact on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and People of African Descent

Washington, D.C., August 4, 2026. As part of the 196th Session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a public hearing was held on August 3, during which human rights and environmental organizations presented the main impacts resulting from the expansion of the extractive model in Nicaragua.

Participants in the hearing included the Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race and Equality), the Fundación del Río (FdR), and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), which presented findings and testimonies on the territorial, environmental, and social consequences of mining activity in Nicaragua.

The organizations emphasized that this situation stems from a historical failure on the part of the Nicaraguan government to complete the process of regularizing the territories titled under the Law on the Communal Property Regime of Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities (Law 445), as well as the absence of a legal framework that recognizes and protects the territorial rights of indigenous peoples in the Pacific, Central, and Northern regions of the country.

They noted that the constitutional and legal reforms promoted in recent years by the Nicaraguan government have further eroded the autonomy of the Caribbean Coast and reduced the decision-making capacity of indigenous and Afro-descendant authorities over their own territories. For these organizations, the expansion of mining represents the continuation of an extractivist model that prioritizes the exploitation of natural resources over the collective and individual rights of the peoples.

Carlos Quesada, executive director of Race and Equality, stated that the lack of land titling has allowed non-indigenous settlers to encroach on indigenous lands, leaving the communities completely unprotected.

“Far from addressing this historical debt, the State has further eroded territorial guarantees. Recent constitutional and legal reforms have dismantled the Caribbean Coast’s autonomy regime, subordinating the Regional Councils and communal and territorial authorities to the central government and stripping indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of their mechanisms for participation and decision-making regarding their own territories,” said Quesada.

He added that this process is taking place against a backdrop of the complete closure of civic space and repression, which translates into “the persecution and criminalization of their leaders. Furthermore, invasions by settlers subject these communities to systematic violence, including sexual violence and murders.”

For his part, Amaru Ruiz, president of Fundación del Río, reiterated that the state’s extractivist policy has progressively dismantled safeguards for the protection of indigenous and Afro-descendant territories, such as the elimination of environmental and territorial controls—including prior environmental impact assessments for mining projects and mandatory public consultation—and the modification of the institutional structure to concentrate control over mining.

Ruiz warned that the expansion of the extractive model has intensified the use of mercury and cyanide in mining operations, in addition to contributing to the persistence of child labor in mining areas. He also noted that, for the first time, legislation allows mining activities to take place within protected natural areas.

As a result of this model, Ruiz noted that currently 75 mining concessions affect 19 protected areas and two biosphere reserves, compromising more than 900,000 hectares. Among the impacted areas are the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve and the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, two of the country’s main remaining forest areas.

Alejandra Manavella, of CEJIL, explained that the consequences of mining expansion are reflected in the transformation of these territories, as well as in the impact on the ecosystems on which these communities depend. She noted that there are currently 62 mining concessions affecting 18 indigenous and Afro-descendant territories, compromising 25.5% of communal lands. In addition, she noted that these concessions impact 163 rivers, 80 streams, and 1,900 km of waterways, and affect the Bosawas and Río San Juan.

Manavella warned that this extractivist model is linked to forced displacement, violence, and the criminalization of those who defend their territories. Between 2013 and 2024, at least 69 Indigenous people were murdered in this context. He also cited the cases of Brooklyn Rivera, Nancy Henríquez, Steadman Fagoth, and the eight Mayangna forest rangers as examples of persecution against Indigenous leaders.

This is compounded by the expansion of the agricultural frontier, invasions by settlers, and environmental migration, which particularly affect Indigenous and Afro-descendant women.

As part of the hearing, Lee Bell, a technical and policy advisor for the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), presented virtually the results of a pilot study on mercury concentrations in Nicaraguan indigenous women of childbearing age living in an area where small-scale mining takes place in the country’s northern Caribbean region. The video of the presentation, with Spanish subtitles, can be viewed here.

On behalf of the IACHR, Commissioner Rosa María Payá, Rapporteur for Nicaragua, recalled that the Commission has repeatedly documented that, in the context of the consolidation of the authoritarian regime, indigenous peoples and people of African descent face a pattern of territorial dispossession, violence, erosion of their autonomy, and persecution of their leaders—a situation exacerbated by the expansion of extractive activities that disregard the guarantees of free, prior, and informed consent.

Commissioner Marion Bethel, Rapporteur on Women’s Rights, called for a more in-depth examination of the effects of mercury use in mining and its impact on health, particularly that of women, girls, and boys. She also expressed concern about the consequences this activity has on the increase in gender-based violence in affected communities.

The Commissioner also inquired about the impact of the sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries on Nicaragua’s mining sector, and how these sanctions affect the well-being and rights of indigenous peoples and people of African descent, given that some of the mined minerals continue to reach international markets. Finally, she requested clarification on the use and extraction of water by mining companies, particularly regarding the authorizations and concessions granted by the National Water Authority for these activities.

For his part, Javier Palummo, Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (Redesca), stated that the discussion is not limited to mining operations and environmental impacts, but rather encompasses an issue of territorial governance and the distribution of power.

“When concessions overlap with collective territories and protected areas, and when mechanisms for environmental assessment, transparency, and participation are weakened—especially in contexts where civic space is being restricted— these types of circumstances give rise to violence against human rights defenders, displacement, and violence against communities, and not only are collective property, self-determination, the right to a healthy environment, water, health, and food compromised, but so too are communities’ opportunities to develop with dignity,” said Palummo.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the organizations requested that the IACHR strengthen its monitoring of the situation in Nicaragua, specifically incorporating the impacts of mining expansion on indigenous and Afro-descendant territories; coordinate this monitoring with oversight of compliance with the Awas Tingni judgment before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; and strengthen coordination with the mechanisms of the United Nations Universal System to reinforce international scrutiny of Nicaragua. They also asked the Commission to urge OAS member states involved in the mining industry—whether as sources of capital or destinations for minerals—to ensure that companies comply with their human rights obligations.

July 25: Women of African Descent Nurture Life, Protect Their Communities, and Build the Future

Rio de Janeiro, July 25, 2026.—July 25 marks the International Day of Afro-Latin, Afro-Caribbean, and Diaspora Women. It is a day to recognize, name, and highlight the strength of millions of women of African descent who, in Latin America and the Caribbean, nurture life, protect their territories, and build, with their own hands, alternatives for a more just future.

This commemoration arises from a context of profound exploitation and oppression. Women of African descent continue to face the intersection of racism and gender-based violence in a region where societies in Latin America and the Caribbean still grapple with deep-seated structural challenges regarding racial and gender equality. This violence manifests itself in multiple spheres: in unequal access to education, health care, decent work, and political participation; in the physical and symbolic violence that affects their bodies—including domestic violence, femicide, sexual, obstetric, political, and police violence, as well as hate speech; in threats directed at their leaders when they decide to defend their territories, their communities, and their rights; and in the unpaid exploitation of care work.

These inequalities are the direct result of centuries of colonialism, racial exclusion, and a social pact that, in most countries in the region, never fully recognized women of African descent as rights-holders. To speak of July 25 is, therefore, also to speak of history: of the resistance that spanned the colonial period, enslavement, and the decades of exclusion following abolition; but it is also to speak of the present, recognizing that these inequalities continue to shape the living conditions of millions of women of African descent. Race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social class, and territory are factors that significantly intensify experiences of violence and the impact of the loss of rights and the defunding of public policies. In this regard, it is essential to recognize the specific forms of subordination and exploitation to which women of African descent have been and continue to be subjected in Latin America and the Caribbean, where colonial and imperialist power relations persist.

Agency and Resilience

However, and this is the central point this text seeks to affirm, women of African descent cannot be described solely as victims of these forms of violence. They are, above all, agents of change: human rights defenders, caregivers, community leaders, guardians of collective memory, and everyday builders of more just and democratic societies. It is this aspect that the Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights aims to place at the center of the conversation on July 25.

Care work is historically invisible and unpaid labor that forms the foundation upon which families, local economies, and entire cultures are sustained. In households, neighborhoods, and rural and urban communities, it is predominantly women of African descent who provide care for children and the elderly; who feed, heal, and teach.

This care must be understood as a political tool for cultivating and promoting collective life, a practice that ensures the continuity of communities of African descent in the face of adverse circumstances. In this sense, caring is an act of resistance, but also of building: it is the most daily and constant way of keeping families, traditions, and community bonds alive.

Furthermore, women of African descent drive grassroots economies, informal trade networks, agricultural production, and the solidarity economy that sustain entire communities. They also play leading roles in occupying positions of power, in the production of knowledge, and in decision-making. In many cases, they are heads of households and the primary breadwinners for their families, shouldering this responsibility while facing multiple shifts of precarious work and a wage gap that penalizes them doubly, for being women and for being of African descent.

Memory and Advocacy

This cultivation of life also takes place through culture. Women of African descent pass down ancestral knowledge and constantly recover, reinterpret, and update that knowledge in the face of present-day challenges. This intergenerational transmission of knowledge constitutes, in and of itself, a form of collective resistance: a heritage that resists oblivion and becomes a tool for protection and for building the future.

If cultivating life is a daily and often unseen task, protecting communities is an exercise in public leadership. Women of African descent lead community organizations, grassroots movements, human rights groups, and territorial resistance efforts throughout the region. It is they who, often on the front lines, denounce human rights violations, support victims, build protection networks, and bring their demands to national and international policy-making forums.

This leadership is not without reprisals from the cis-heteropatriarchal system. Women of African descent who decide to defend their territories, whether rural, quilombola, urban, or peripheral, face threats, stigmatization, and, in many countries in the region, a real risk to their own lives. Political and gender-based violence against women leaders of African descent remains one of the most serious manifestations of racial inequality in the Americas. Even so, these women remain standing, at the forefront, leading efforts to defend rights and protect their territories.

Protection also means preserving memory. Women of African descent are guardians of histories that structural racism has sought to erase: memories of resistance, ancestry, and collective struggle. In this sense, peacebuilding in territories of African descent necessarily rests in the hands of these women, who sustain community-based processes of coexistence, reparations, and collective care even in contexts of persistent violence.

This protection also has a collective and organizational dimension. It is women of African descent who often coordinate mutual support networks among organizations, create safe spaces for other women and girls, and build bridges between their communities and national and international human rights protection mechanisms. It is work that demands perseverance and strategy and that, in many cases, involves directly confronting power structures that seek to silence these voices.

Future

The leading role of women of African descent is also firmly projected toward the future. This projection is expressed, first and foremost, through education, especially through the access they seek and achieve by breaking down structural barriers of racial and gender exclusion. It is also evident in political participation: women of African descent are increasingly occupying positions of representation in parliaments, councils, international human rights bodies, and multilateral forums, bringing the specific demands of their communities to these arenas. Although their presence remains a minority due to the historical underrepresentation of women of African descent in positions of power, it represents a profound transformation, the result of centuries of resistance.

Finally, this leading role is reflected in the education of new generations, especially through the transmission of a vision for the future. By educating, organizing, and occupying decision-making spaces, women of African descent are actively building alternatives, new forms of community life, new leadership models, and new paths so that future generations may live with greater dignity, more rights, and less violence.

Commitment

It is precisely this leading role of women of African descent that forms the foundation of the work of Race and Equality, an organization that benefits from the contributions of numerous women of African descent who are part of our team and who drive concrete strategies to combat racism, sexism, and LGBTQIAPN+phobia. We work alongside activists and organizations of women of African descent throughout Latin America, supporting the documentation and recording of human rights violations and strengthening their capacity to advocate in national and international decision-making forums. We promote the effective participation of these women leaders before the Organization of American States (OAS), maintain an ongoing dialogue with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and contribute reports and recommendations to the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and the International Mechanism of Independent Experts to Promote Justice and Racial Equality in Law Enforcement.

This advocacy work has already resulted in reports analyzing the political participation of women of African descent in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Honduras, shedding light on both the political violence they face—which is even more acute in the case of trans women—and the strategies they themselves develop to occupy positions of power and decision-making. We also promote regional and international dialogues that connect the experiences of women of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean with the struggles of the African diaspora in other contexts, strengthening networks of solidarity and mutual learning among women leaders from different countries. This is the commitment that Race & Equality reaffirms on July 25: to continue standing alongside organizations of women of African descent, strengthening their struggles to transform the reality of their communities and our societies.

Recognizing and celebrating the capacity for action of women of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean is essential to making real progress toward racial and gender equality. Because women of African descent nurture life every day, caring for their families and communities; they protect their territories, their leadership, and their collective memory; they organize politically and occupy positions of power; and they build, with determination and courage, the paths toward a more just, democratic, and dignified future for themselves, for all of society, and for future generations.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: From Prison to Forced Exile

Washington, D.C., July 18, 2026. The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) welcomes the release of Cuban artist and political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara after he unjustly served a five-year prison sentence for peacefully exercising his fundamental rights. However, the Institute condemns the fact that his freedom was only made possible through his departure from Cuba under the humanitarian parole program. Otero Alcántara’s arrival in Miami, Florida, on Saturday, July 18, marks yet another episode in the Cuban regime’s systematic use of forced exile against those who exercise their right to freedom of expression and defend human rights. His departure from the island does not represent an act of full freedom, but rather the continuation of a repressive policy aimed at silencing critical voices through banishment.

For years, Otero Alcántara established himself as one of Cuba’s leading voices for independent art and human rights. He co-founded the San Isidro Movement, a collective of artists, intellectuals, and activists that promotes artistic freedom and fundamental freedoms on the island. Following the historic protests of July 11, 2021, he was arbitrarily detained. Even after completing his sentence in full, the Cuban authorities kept his whereabouts secret for several days, prolonging uncertainty about his situation before ultimately facilitating his departure from the country.

Just days ago, Otero Alcántara’s works were featured in the exhibition The Invisible Prison: Imprisoned Artists in Cuba, presented at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C., in collaboration with Race and Equality and other partner organizations. The exhibition brought together works by artists imprisoned for political reasons to expose the impact of repression on freedom of artistic creation and expression in Cuba while reaffirming the role of art as a form of resistance against authoritarianism.

“We welcome Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara’s release after five years of unjust imprisonment. However, no one should be forced to leave their country in order to regain their freedom. The forced exile imposed by the Cuban regime demonstrates that banishment remains a tool of repression against those who peacefully exercise their fundamental rights. This case once again highlights the absence of fundamental freedoms and the closure of civic space in Cuba,” said Carlos Quesada, Executive Director of Race and Equality.

What happened to Otero Alcántara reflects a systematic pattern of repression documented by Cuban and international human rights organizations. The criminalization of dissent, arbitrary detention, harassment, surveillance, and forced exile are mechanisms used to restrict civic space and silence those who exercise and defend their fundamental rights.

Race and Equality welcomes Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara’s release while condemning forced exile as a repressive practice that is incompatible with international human rights obligations. We call on the Cuban authoritarian regime to immediately and unconditionally release all individuals arbitrarily detained for political reasons. We also urge the international community to denounce forced exile as a mechanism of political persecution and to maintain its attention on the profound human rights crisis in Cuba, demanding an end to the systematic violations committed against those who peacefully defend democracy, fundamental freedoms, and human dignity.



Afro-Colombian Day Is Not Just A Commemoration; It Is A Call For The Recognition Of Rights

Bogotá, May 21, 2026 – There is a way of being in the world that cannot be learned in a classroom or decreed by an institution. It is learned by living in community, by caring for one another. 

In Colombia, Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal, and Palenquero communities have always lived this way; not because they had no other choice, but because they understood something that has taken others centuries to grasp: that life alone is not enough, that the land is cared for by all, and that dignity is not an individual achievement, but a collective endeavor.

Today, May 21, Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal, and Palenquero communities commemorate Afro-Colombian identity from this very place: from the organizational processes that have been shaping the agenda for decades; from the community councils that govern the territory with their wisdom; from the women’s organizations that have sustained daily life at times when everything else was falling apart. From the youth who received an enormous legacy and are carrying it forward with commitment and pride. 

That legacy goes back a long way. And to understand what we are commemorating today, we must understand what they have resisted in order to get this far. Because the struggle of Black people in this country did not begin in 1851, when slavery was abolished. It began when the first Africans were brought to these lands, torn from their families, their languages, their names, and their identity. And from that moment on, the struggle was to reclaim the humanity that had been taken from them. 

The palenques were the most visible expression of that resolve; entire communities that said no, that built their own territory. San Basilio de Palenque, a town in the Colombian Caribbean, survived. It defended its autonomy, preserved its language, and maintained its memory. And today it still stands.

Freedom arrived in 1851 without land, without resources, without the actual conditions to exercise it. And the communities had to keep fighting. For their territory. For education. For the right to participate, to decide, to be recognized. 

That struggle found its way into the 1991 Constitution. Black community organizations didn’t wait to be given a space; they built it themselves. They arrived with their own agenda and succeeded in having ethnic and cultural diversity recognized. They secured Law 70 of 1993, which recognized collective territories and the right to prior consultation. That was no gift. It was the result of decades of organizing, of people who dedicated their lives to making possible what seemed impossible.

And yet, the gap between what the law says and what reality shows remains enormous. Between May 4 and 14 of this year, for example, the United Nations Mechanism of Independent Experts to Promote Justice and Racial Equality in Law Enforcement (EMLER) heard from communities, organizations, and state institutions. And upon concluding, it stated what communities have been saying for decades: that racism in Colombia is not a collection of isolated incidents, but a structural, historical, and sustained system. One that manifests itself in health indicators, in maps of violence, in unprotected territories, and in bodies that do not generate the same sense of urgency when they disappear.

Over the centuries, Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal, and Palenquero communities have demonstrated that identity is neither decreed nor granted. It is built, defended, and passed down. And that is precisely what this country holds in its hands: a living, organizational, cultural, and political heritage that continues to grow, that continues to shape leaders, that continues to care for territories, and that remains, after all that has been thrown in its path, a transformative force.

That is why this day is not just a commemoration; it is also a call for this country to honor with deeds what it has recognized with words, and for the rights that took centuries of struggle to achieve to be exercised without anyone having to pay with their life to defend them.

At the Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights, we echo Alomía’s words and join in commemorating this date to remind everyone that racism affects millions of Afro-Colombians; at the same time, we demand that the Colombian government provide guarantees for the recognition of the rights of the Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal, and Palenquero communities in this country.

Dayana Alomía, Legal Consultant on Race and Equality in Colombia



Afro-descendant organizations brief UN experts on the structural challenges faced by the Afro-descendant population in Mexico

Washington, D.C., May 20, 2026. – During the official visit to Mexico by the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, civil society organizations, community leaders, and representatives of African descent from different regions of the country shared with the international experts their main concerns, challenges, and demands regarding human rights, recognition, political participation, racial justice, and sustainable development.

The official visit, which began on May 11 and will conclude on May 20, is led by Isabelle Mamadou, chair of the Working Group, and Catherine Namakula, a member of the mechanism. During their stay in the country, the experts have examined the human rights situation of people of African descent in Mexico, gathering information on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related forms of intolerance, as well as promoting the implementation of the Second International Decade for People of African Descent (2025–2034).

The delegation held meetings with government authorities, national institutions, representatives of the legislative and judicial branches, as well as with people of African descent, civil society organizations, and other actors working on issues of racial discrimination and human rights.

The Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) had the honor of supporting the coordination of dialogue spaces and meetings between experts and activists of African descent in the various regions visited. These spaces were made possible thanks to the commitment, leadership, and mobilization capacity of Afro-descendant community leaders who brought together organizations, community authorities, youth, women, human rights defenders, and representatives from various sectors of their communities to engage in dialogue with the United Nations experts. Race & Equality extends special thanks to Rosa María Hernández Fitta in Córdoba and Yanga (Veracruz); Teresa Mojica and the members of Afrocaracolas in Puerto Marqués (Guerrero); Sergio Peñaloza in Cuajinicuilapa (Guerrero); and Yolanda Camacho in El Azufre (Oaxaca), whose work in coordinating local efforts made possible the broad and diverse participation of the Afro-descendant population. Without their commitment and leadership, these meetings would not have been possible.

The activities began on May 13, 2026, with a meeting held at the Center for Constitutional Studies and Legal Knowledge of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, represented on this occasion by Dr. Gema Tabares.

During the meetings, the main concerns raised by Afro-descendant organizations and communities highlighted that:

Although there has been institutional progress aimed at the Afro-Mexican population, these efforts remain insufficient due to budgetary constraints, a lack of political will, and a predominantly indigenous-focused approach that does not fully address the realities, identities, and specific needs of Afro-descendant peoples and communities.

In this regard, the need was reiterated to create an institution dedicated exclusively to the Afro-descendant population, with adequate resources, trained staff, and the capacity to implement comprehensive and sustainable public policies.

Likewise, the organizations emphasized the urgency of strengthening affirmative action and ensuring genuine political representation for people of African descent in decision-making spaces. They expressed concern over the constant attempts to seize candidacies intended for Afro-Mexicans and over the use of the census as the sole mechanism for verifying Afro-descendant status, despite the low level of self-identification resulting from centuries of historical invisibility and racial discrimination.

The organizations also highlighted the need to advance the recognition of the autonomy and self-determination of Afro-descendant peoples and communities, as well as their own normative systems, forms of organization, and self-governance.

Likewise, they expressed concern over the lack of specific consultation protocols for Afro-Mexican peoples, the absence of numerous communities from the National Catalog of Afro-Mexican Communities, and the stalling of discussions regarding an Afro-Mexican regulatory law that would translate constitutionally recognized rights into public policies, protection mechanisms, and concrete guarantees.

The organizations denounced that the Afro-Mexican population continues to face significant barriers to accessing inclusive education free from discrimination. Among the main concerns highlighted was the absence of Afro-Mexican content and curricula in classrooms, a situation that contributes to the historical erasure of the contributions of the Afro-descendant population and perpetuates racial stereotypes.

Likewise, they pointed out the lack of effective access to technical and university education for many communities of African descent. Even when families make significant financial efforts to ensure their children can pursue higher education, obstacles to accessing decent jobs persist due to discriminatory practices and structural racism in the labor market.

The organizations also denounced that racial profiling remains a daily reality for many people of African descent, particularly when they leave their ancestral communities. They are frequently perceived as foreigners or migrants due to their physical characteristics, facing acts of discrimination, questions about their nationality, and differential treatment by authorities and private individuals.

The organizations underscored the importance of incorporating an intersectional approach in analyzing the human rights situation of the Afro-descendant population in Mexico. They highlighted that Afro-descendant women continue to face multiple forms of discrimination stemming from the intersection of racism and sexism, as well as higher levels of economic exclusion, violence, and barriers to accessing spaces for participation and leadership.

For their part, youth of African descent face specific obstacles related to access to quality education, employment, opportunities for social mobility, and political participation, in addition to frequently being affected by criminalization, stigmatization, and violence.

Likewise, the situation of Afro-descendant migrants was highlighted, as they face heightened forms of discrimination and vulnerability due to the convergence of factors such as race, nationality, immigration status, and socioeconomic exclusion.

Another issue addressed was the protection of Afro-descendant cultural heritage, particularly Afro-Seminole, an English-based creole language spoken by the Mascoga community in Coahuila and currently in danger of extinction.

The organizations also highlighted the need to strengthen and support community initiatives aimed at preserving Afro-descendant historical memory, including community museums such as the Afro-Mexican Museum of Huehuetán, cultural spaces, and artistic projects that play a fundamental role in building identity, collective self-esteem, and the fight against invisibility. However, they noted that these initiatives continue to receive scant institutional and financial support.

Afro-descendant communities in coastal areas also warned of the impacts of climate change, the state’s neglect, and economic projects that are affecting their territories and livelihoods, especially in places like Puerto Marqués, in Acapulco, and El Azufre, in Oaxaca.

In addition, they denounced the impacts of violence and organized crime, including disappearances, murders, intimidation, and lack of access to justice.

The activists also highlighted the urgent need for adequately equipped health centers with permanent staff. Currently, many people of African descent must travel long distances to access medical care or resort to high-cost private services, a situation that seriously limits the exercise of the right to health.

They also expressed concern that many government programs and support initiatives establish requirements that are inaccessible to Afro-descendant communities, organizations, and activists, thereby excluding precisely those who most need access to these resources.

The participating organizations emphasized the importance of the Working Group’s recommendations contributing to the strengthening of the recognition, protection, and effective guarantee of the rights of people of African descent in Mexico, from a perspective of historical reparations, racial justice, substantive equality, and effective community participation.

Today, May 20, 2026, the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent will present its preliminary observations and recommendations during a press conference at the conclusion of its official visit to Mexico. Subsequently, the final report on the mission is expected to be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council, possibly in September 2026.

Race & Equality reaffirms its commitment to continue accompanying and supporting the Afro-descendant population in Mexico, as it has done for many years, by promoting spaces for dialogue, strengthening the capacities of Afro-descendant organizations and leaders, advancing national and international advocacy processes, and contributing to the defense of their human rights.

We are confident that the conclusions and recommendations resulting from this visit will help shed light on the challenges that people, peoples, and communities of African descent in Mexico continue to face, as well as strengthen the actions necessary to advance toward racial equality, historical reparations, full recognition of their rights, and effective participation in the country’s political, economic, social, and cultural life.

 

We also spoke with the migrant community, but I changed the term to “Afri-Mexican”

 

The activists deserve recognition because, without financial support, they managed to organize the community and give the experts a warm welcome, covering the logistical costs.

 

I think it’s important to note these dates

The collective manifesto of six women activists from Latin America and the Caribbean

Washington, D.C., March 6, 2026—On February 19, six women activists from Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic gathered for a virtual meeting that we at Race and Equality called “When Women Create, Memory Endures.” For an hour and a half, they shared who they were, where they were fighting from, and the realities they were facing in their territories. From that exchange, a collective manifesto was born that takes on special meaning today in the context of March 8, International Women’s Day.

Participants in this space included Eva Rafaela Calça, from Rede Trans Assis in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Andrea Ceballos, from the Indigenous Organization of the Pasto Territory in Colombia; María Camila Zúñiga, from the Movement of United, Diverse, and Emancipated Women (Mude), also from Colombia; Lourdes Esquivel, member of the Damas de Blanco organization in Cuba; Daniela Islas, from the Afrocaracolas collective in Mexico; and Estefany Feliz Pérez, from the Reconoci.Do youth movement in the Dominican Republic. For many of them, it was the first time they had shared a common space among such diverse struggles, but all driven by the same urgency: dignity.

The exercise culminated in the writing of a manifesto that reflects their collective voice and their main demands:

We, the women of Latin America and the Caribbean, unite in a powerful cry to demand equality and justice. Love and strength are what sustain us in this daily struggle.

From yesterday and today, we recognize the strength and determination of our history. We are the driving force. We are treasures of the world.

We fight to feel safe and equal, to be recognized and treated with dignity, from an anti-racist and decolonial perspective.

Today and always, we demand respect and freedom in all spaces!”

This call does not come out of nowhere. Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be marked by structural violence against women. In the last five years, at least 19,254 femicides have been recorded in the region, according to ECLAC’s Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (OIG). In most cases, violent deaths are perpetrated by partners or ex-partners, demonstrating that gender-based violence continues to be present in everyday spaces.

Femicide Violence in the Region

Brazil tops the most alarming figures. In 2025, it recorded 1,470 femicides, the highest number in the last decade, an average of four women murdered per day, according to data from the Ministry of Justice. In this context, Eva Rafaela Calça insisted that violence is not limited to murder: it is also expressed in exclusion and overload. For her, there is an urgent need for “a public space that values childhood as a responsibility of society as a whole, and not just of the mother,” because often “the mother is overburdened,” as well as policies that expand job opportunities for trans women “beyond informality and prostitution.” Her reflection connects femicide violence with the lack of care policies and the structural marginalization of trans women.

In Colombia, where the Colombian Observatory on Femicide reported 973 cases in 2025, impunity remains an open wound. María Camila Zúñiga recalled that, in addition to demanding justice for the murders, it is essential that “the work that women do with children, from the territories, be recognized” and that their lives be dignified. “We know that when a woman is murdered, justice does not always come,” she added.

In Mexico, where the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System recorded 721 femicides in 2025, violence is intertwined with structural racism. Daniela Islas warned that for Afro-Mexican women, recognition is also urgent: “What we need most urgently is recognition of our rights, more public policies for Afro-Mexican women, where we are guaranteed medical care.” She also referred to what she most desires: “We imagine a world without racism, without discrimination, where our rights as Afro-Mexican women are recognized and protected.” Gender-based violence in her territory cannot be separated from racial discrimination.

In Cuba, independent organizations such as the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (OGAT) and Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba (YSTCC) recorded 48 femicides in 2025 and warn that these crimes are the result of prolonged violence. Lourdes Esquivel expressed it from the harshness of her reality: “In Cuba, all women’s rights are violated. They imprison our children, they kill them, they beat us. We go hungry. There are children who have nothing to eat.” Her testimony reminded us that violence also manifests itself in hunger, repression, and daily pain.

In the Dominican Republic, where 59 murders of women were recorded last year (according to the Vida Sin Violencia Foundation), these figures coexist with policies and practices that particularly affect migrant women and women of Haitian descent. Estefany Feliz Pérez reported that, without identity documents, “they do not receive health care, nor can they study,” and that there is “persecution against Haitian women and Dominican women of Haitian descent” that even involves arbitrary detentions and undue payments.

Globally, women have only 64% of the legal rights that men have, according to UN Women. At the current rate, closing the gaps could take centuries. Against this backdrop, the virtual meeting on February 19 was more than just a symbolic space: it was a commitment to regional coordination.

This manifesto is also proof that it is possible to build agreements amid diversity. Six women from different backgrounds, with their own stories and struggles, managed to come together without having met before, listen to each other attentively, and recognize each other in their differences. In this exercise in honest and respectful dialogue, they identified common needs and forged a collective voice. This virtual space not only allowed them to share complaints, but also to demonstrate that regional coordination is a powerful tool when it is based on listening, respect, and the awareness that no struggle is isolated.

At Race and Equality, we reaffirm our commitment to giving a voice to those who resist from the territories and to supporting their demands. Because when women create together, memory endures; and when memory endures, the future is also built.



Cuba’s independent civil society, ready for a democratic transition

For more than a decade, we have been fortunate to work with Cuba’s independent civil society. We have seen their commitment to human rights, their dedication to documenting the violations that happen in the country, and their courage in exposing them. We have witnessed—through urgent messages and calls that lead to reactions by our legal team—arbitrary detentions, summary trials, surveillance, harassment, raids, forced exile, and, more recently, blackouts and food and medicine shortages. We have also faced our own negative impacts from this work – personal and institutional attacks, as well as skepticism on the part of former allies who have questioned our human rights work in general because of our work exposing the Cuban reality.

As a capacity building organization, we have trained independent activists on and off the Island on civil society engagement with human rights protection mechanisms. Through systematic documentation of human rights violations – analyzed according to the international legal standards to which the Cuban State has adhered – we have supported them to denounce cases of torture, enforced disappearance, censorship, and discrimination before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and United Nations Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures. By advocating for Cuba’s compliance with its international human rights obligations, our partners have been laying the groundwork for democratic transition for years. Their work is not merely opposition; it is preparatory governance.

While Washington and Havana negotiate the future of the island nation, the work, dedication, and perseverance of independent activists, journalists, and artists on the Island and in exile to fight for human rights and promote democratic ideals should not go unrecognized. They are the ones who have been collecting and sharing the evidence of the Cuban regime’s atrocities and this documentation should serve as a key element of any future government transition. While the Cuban government has maintained a monolithic façade, a diverse and resilient independent civil society has been quietly building the architecture of a free society from the ground up. The future of Cuba cannot happen without them.

The international community has recognized that in any transitional justice process, five elements must be considered: truth, justice, memory, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition. It is not possible to achieve any of these without records of what has occurred during the undemocratic era and Cuban human rights defenders have been preparing already, as independent journalists break the state monopoly on information (truth); independent lawyers file habeas petitions before Cuban courts and cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (justice); activists document patterns of abuses committed by State actors (memory); community groups provide aid where the State fails (reparation); and organizations like ours provide the tools to foster civic dialogue and democratic norms (non-repetition).

The most profound preparation lies in the commitment to the historical record. By creating databases of human rights violations and preserving the testimony of victims, independent groups are preventing the “erasure” that often follows authoritarian regimes. They understand that you cannot have justice without a record of the crime, and you cannot guarantee non-repetition if the history of the past is allowed to vanish into state archives. This is not just protest; it is the fundamental administrative labor required to restore the rule of law.

The international community must stop viewing Cuba as a passive recipient of history. The groundwork for a democratic transition—the human capital, the legal theories, and the civic courage—is already in place. The transition will not be a gift from the top down; it will be the formal recognition of a reality that independent civil society has been living for decades. Cubans are not waiting for democracy to be handed to them; they have been building it, brick by brick, in the face of immense adversity. It is time the world starts paying attention to the foundation they have laid.

Statement written by:

Carlos Quesada, Executive Director

Christina M. Fetterhoff, Director of Programs

  • Learn more about our work in Cuba over more than a decade here.



Freedom with exile: the case of Cuban activist Aymara Nieto

Washington, D.C., November 11, 2025 – Three months ago today, Aymara Nieto Muñoz began rebuilding her life in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she has been living since August 11, 2025, after being released and exiled along with her husband, Ismael Boris, and two of her daughters. After more than seven years of political imprisonment in Cuba, the 49-year-old activist, a member of the Ladies in White and the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), is trying to adapt to a new reality far from the island.

“We have been very well received in Santo Domingo. I am very grateful. We (Aymara and her family) have already done a series of interviews to regularize our immigration status and be able to work. My daughters are already in school, thanks to the support of the Cuban Association in the Dominican Republic and the government of this country,“ says Nieto, who retains the optimism and faith that accompanied her during the hardest years of her imprisonment. ”My greatest treasure in prison was a Bible that my eldest daughter gave me. It gave me the strength to endure,” she confesses.

Aymara was arrested on May 6, 2018, as she was leaving her home to participate in a peaceful demonstration organized by the Todos Marchamos campaign, which demanded the release of people imprisoned for political reasons in Cuba. She was convicted of the alleged crimes of assault and damage to property and sentenced to four years in prison, which she began serving in the El Guatao women’s prison in Havana.

However, while she was serving that sentence, the authoritarian Cuban regime prosecuted her again, this time for allegedly leading a riot inside the prison. The new trial ended with a second sentence of five years and four months, imposed without judicial guarantees or the right to an effective defense. Thus, Aymara spent more than seven consecutive years in prison, enduring punishments, transfers, and degrading conditions.

Since 2013, Aymara Nieto has been the beneficiary of precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). At Race and Equality, we have consistently denounced the violations of her rights and the inhumane conditions of her imprisonment. Her story is part of the report “Voices in Freedom: Women Political Prisoners in Cuba” and the documentary “Dos Patrias” (Two Homelands), produced in collaboration with Producciones La Tiorba, which portrays the repression, imprisonment, and silencing of three Cuban activists.

From her new place of residence, where she arrived without being able to say goodbye to her eldest daughter because the authorities denied her a final visit, Aymara dreams of studying psychology. “I would like to be a psychologist and help other people. I also want my daughters to be good women,“ she adds. Although she is far from the island, she remains committed to the peaceful struggle. ”The situation in my country hurts me deeply, but I will continue working and fighting for Cuba’s freedom, even from a distance,” she says. 

The Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights celebrates Aymara Nieto’s freedom and recognizes her strength and dignity after years of repression. At the same time, we condemn her forced exile, a systematic practice of the Cuban regime to punish dissent and silence voices that defend human rights.

We demand that the Cuban government put an end to these practices that violate international law, and we call on international organizations and democratic states to demand respect for human rights in Cuba, including the immediate and unconditional release of Sissi Abascal, Felix Navarro, Saylí Navarro, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Lisandra Góngora, Maykel Castillo, and all those still imprisoned for political reasons.



Brazil’s misguided public security policy: The systemic racism behind the deadliest massacre in Rio de Janeiro’s history

Rio de Janeiro, October 29, 2025.– The police operation carried out on October 28, 2025 in the Alemão and Penha complexes, in Rio de Janeiro, with 64 people officially confirmed dead[1], was deemed the deadliest in the history of the state, surpassing in scale the Jacarezinho Massacre (2021), which resulted in 28 deaths and was, until then, the most violent action in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. The real number of victims may be even higher, with reports of locals collecting about 60 additional bodies (mostly of black people) that were not initially accounted for in the official toll.

Public security experts already classify the event as “the largest massacre in the history of Rio” and “something completely unprecedented,” which highlights the failure of a public security model based on violent confrontation. This episode is part of a tragic historical pattern of lethal violence in police operations in Brazil, which includes massacres such as those in Vigário Geral (1993, with 21 deaths) and Baixada Fluminense (2005, with 29 deaths), repeating cycles of brutality and impunity that victimize mostly young black people and residents of the peripheries.

Rio de Janeiro, in particular, has been the site of daily police operations and the impact on the city reaches all people, indiscriminately. However, it affects much more intensely the people living in the peripheries – mostly black, women and children – who are forced to cope with multiple forms of violence. The State does not have a plan to combat this violence;  the State itself is seen being one of the main protagonists in the generation of violence and deaths.

Brazil has frequently received visits from experts from the UN and other multilateral mechanisms. These experts have issued concrete reports and recommendations, which indicate ways to combat violence and, at the same time, to establish structuring public policies that, in the medium and long term, can change this scenario of ongoing civil war.

The report issued by the International Mechanism of Independent Experts for the Advancement of Racial Equality and Justice in Law Enforcement – EMLER, in October 2024, highlighted that “police culture and a public security policy based on repression, violence, and hypertoxic masculinity. In the context of police operations that seek to eliminate the public enemy (criminals), people of African descent are often unfairly associated with criminality or as collateral damage operations. The Mechanism has observed symptomatic and widespread erosion and a profound lack of trust of people of African descent in police forces, especially among marginalized communities, mainly due to historical and ongoing police violence, which creates a sense of systemic oppression aggravated by long-standing impunity for these acts.”[2]

The numbers of the operation in the Alemão and Penha complexes show – and evidence – a mistaken policy that, over the last 20 years, has proven to be inefficient in the fight against crime and has generated many deaths, indiscriminately. The EMLER mechanism also considers that a human rights-based approach to policing should be part of the strategy to reverse these gaps. A human rights-based approach to policing is a comprehensive, systematic, and institutional approach to law enforcement that conforms to international human rights standards and practices and that promotes policy and action analysis through the tripartite obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill.

Another highlight of the report is the fact that the numbers and circumstances in which people are murdered by the police in Brazil are alarming. In the last ten years, 54,175 people have been killed by police officers in the country, with more than 6,000 individuals killed every year (17 per day) in the last six years. Deaths caused by police increased significantly: from 2,212 in 2013 to 6,393 in 2023. The most recent data represents 13% of the total intentional violent deaths in the country. Of the 6,393 people killed by police in 2023, 99.3% were men; 6.7% were children between 12 and 17 years old; and 65% were young adults: 41% were between 18 and 24 years old and 23.5% between 25 and 29 years old.

There is no way to dissociate this state of violence from structural and systemic racism in Brazil. The excessive use of force, which leads to thousands of deaths every year, and excessive incarceration, which disproportionately affect people of African descent, are a consequence of systemic racism which, combined with the current policies of “war on crime”, results in a process of social cleansing that serves to exterminate sectors of society considered undesirable,  dangerous and criminal. This is a pervasive systemic issue that requires a systemic and comprehensive response.

The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) renounces the operation carried out by the government of the State of Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday (28), which has resulted, so far, in 64 confirmed deaths, and reinforces that the fight against organized crime must be rethought, as it has only served to generate panic and various human rights violations in favela territories,  strongly affecting the most vulnerable people, who find themselves hostages of this mistaken security policy.

 

 

[1] Bodies are left in a square in Complexo da Penha after an operation that left dozens dead in Rio. Image: Flávia Fróes/Video playback… – See more at https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2025/10/29/atualizacao-corpos-mortos-rio-de-janeiro.htm?cmpid=copiaecola

 

[2] Microsoft Word – A-HRC-57-71-Add-1-unofficial-Portuguese-version.docx

MUDE, a shelter threatened for defending the rights of black women and children in Palmira, Colombia

Bogotá, October 20, 2025 – On July 15, 2024, members of the Movimiento de mujeres unidas, diversas y emancipadas (MUDE, by its initials in Spanish) reported that, in the early hours of the morning, several people violently entered the house where the organization’s headquarters were located, in the municipality of Palmira, Valle del Cauca. Through their social media accounts, they made public how computers were destroyed, along with the shelter of more than 300 people, including children, adolescents, and black and diverse women from this region of Colombia who are beneficiaries of MUDE. 

That day, the women of this organization felt that the “last straw had been drawn,” after years of threats, harassment, acts of racism, transphobia, and hate campaigns spread through social media. They were left with a clear message: if they continue to do this work, their lives are in danger.

A year after the raid, the events remain unpunished and the members of MUDE continue to denounce what happened and demand recognition and guarantees of their rights in this area of the Colombian Pacific. “We continue to call on the authorities and other organizations to listen to us and respond to our demands. We want to know that we have support, that our lives matter, that people care about what happens to MUDE, to children, and to diversity,” says María Camilia Saa, a member of the organization. 

The Movimiento de mujeres unidas, diversas y emancipadas was founded in 2019 and, since then, has accompanied and transformed the lives of more than 6,000 children, adolescents, women of African descent, and diverse women, along with their families, in Palmira and other municipalities in Valle del Cauca. Sady Carreazo, another member, affirms that MUDE is a space for “collectivization.” 

“Coming together guarantees the lives of Black people; it is another way in which we can be and live in freedom. It is another opportunity to study, work, be, and express ourselves,” adds Carreazo. The organization promotes advocacy, training, and visibility strategies with an ethnic and diverse focus through art and music. One example of this is MUDE’s Agojie group, whose songs address issues such as Afro hair, feminism, and sexual and gender dissidence.

Following the attack, MUDE was forced to relocate its headquarters to another area of Palmira, while its members continue to report ongoing threats and harassment due to their diverse identities and their work defending the rights of their communities.

From the Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race and Equality) expresses its support for MUDE and reiterates its urgent call on the competent authorities to act diligently, guarantee the protection of its members, and ensure that acts such as these do not go unpunished. Defending the lives, diversity, and leadership of Black and diverse women is an inescapable responsibility of the Colombian state.



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