United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

On May 11, 2018, CERD issued concluding observations on the evaluation process to which Peru was submitted. Thebases on which CERD understands racial discrimination are race, color, lineage or national origin. According to the United Nations, racial discrimination is an obstacle to human rights, as it continues to be the cause of conflict, suffering and loss of life.

The results made CERD recognize that there was progress but stresses its concern about some issues. One of them is the lack of implementation of the National Plan for the Development of the Afro-Peruvian Population 2016-2020; the protection of human rights defenders and leaders of indigenous and Afro-Peruvian peoples. As we know from the news, many indigenous peoples' defenders have disappeared or been found dead under "rare" situations. In addition, the situation of migrants and especially that of the Venezuelan population; racial stereotypes conveyed in the media) as we discussed in a past publication).

The Institute of Democracy and Human Rights of the Pontifical Catholic University, during this report, has worked with CERD. Those who verified certain points at the critical level:

• The lack of timely application of prior consultation in activities of the mining sector.
• The absence of a third National Plan to Combat Forced Labor.
• The unspecific actions of the National Commission for the Fight against Forced Labour and the insufficient labor inspections.
• The lack of statistical information on forced labor.
• Difficulties in accessing education in rural areas.
• The problems in access to education and health faced by refugees, asylum seekers and Venezuelans with Temporary Permanence Permit (PTP).
• The small number of interpreters and defenders with knowledge of native languages.
• The slow process of ratification of the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerance, and the Inter-American Convention against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.

Source: IDEHPUCP.

These results were published in 2018, however, in 2022 we can still observe things that have not been fulfilled. Not to go that far, the deaths of indigenous leaders are very fashionable. In 2022, four indigenous leaders were killed. The difficulties of access to education in rural areas, in pandemics, were quite obvious. The state has always meant that it would give laptops and tablets in rural areas, but in pandemic it was obvious that they never complied and that affected the inhabitants. All these types of events show how the same state denigrates the indigenous and Afro-Peruvian populations. What can be expected of a population in which its own State discriminates and takes as its last priority those populations discriminated against.

REFERENCES:

ACNUDH. (s/f). OHCHR. Recuperado el 24 de junio de 2022, de https://www.ohchr.org/es/treaty-bodies/cerd

Aidesep: en lo que va del 2022 hay cuatro líderes indígenas asesinados. (2022, abril 25). TVPerú. https://www.tvperu.gob.pe/noticias/nacionales/aidesep-en-lo-que-va-del-2022-hay-cuatro-lideres-indigenas-asesinados

Discriminación racial en Perú: Estás son las observaciones del Comité para la Eliminación de la Discriminación Racial. (2018, mayo 17). IDEHPUCP. https://idehpucp.pucp.edu.pe/notas-informativas/discriminacion-racial-en-peru-a-proposito-de-las-observaciones-finales-del-comite-para-la-eliminacion-de-la-discriminacion-racial/