– Members felt that this is a great opportunity for the Chilean State progress in the formal recognition of this human group, as a people, with their corresponding social and cultural rights.
By the unanimity of 104 votes in favor, The Chamber of Deputies approved draft resolution No. 530, through which the director of the National Institute of Statistics is requested (OTHER) that incorporates the Afro -descendant variable in the next census that will be carried out in the country and that will have its first phase (pre -census) in the coming weeks.
The initiative was originally presented to the Chamber on 5 last January by deputies Vlado Mirosevic (PL), Alejandra Sepulveda (IND), Cristina Girardi (PPD), Maya Fernández (PS) and Roberto Poblete (IND).
As the legislators highlighted, There is abundant historical precedent that accounts for the arrival of Africans to Chile., since the time of the Conquest. They noted that, in some cases, The data points to the existence of between 10 a 12 thousand Afro-descendants in the country at that time, without prejudice to those existing in the current region of Arica and Parinacota, which was then part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
They affirmed that Afro-descendants in Chile identify themselves based on the social and cultural characteristics that differentiate them from other sectors of the national community and that they are governed totally or partially by their own customs or traditions., the ones that, in the opinion of the Court and the International Commission on Human Rights, constitutes a sufficient condition to accredit awareness of tribal identity; sufficient requirements to make the Convention fully applicable to them. 169 OIT.
Despite the above, they highlighted, Sebastián Piñera's administration rejected the request for a strategic alliance of Afro-descendant organizations in the Arica and Parinacota region, consisting of adding the Afro-descendant variable in the census of 2012.
The parliamentarians maintained that determining the number and situation of Afro-descendants is essential so that the State can design legitimate and effective public policies that consider them as a human group worthy of due and adequate consideration.. “Indeed, This allows us to know basic aspects for the effective exercise of the individual and collective rights that international instruments recognize.”, they will need.
They indicated that, the State of Chile, in any case, has already carried out some acts that represent the recognition of the Afro-descendant people, like the one held in February 2014, when the first survey to characterize the Afro-descendant population was carried out, which was applied in the region of Arica and Parinacota by the National Institute of Statistics (OTHER). Said work, they remarked, confirmed the existence 8.415 people (equivalent to a 4,7 % of the inhabitants of the region within a universe of 179.172 people).
Under these premises, The deputies considered that the next census is a great opportunity for the Chilean State to leave behind the sad record of being the only country in Latin America in which little has been carried out in terms of the formal recognition of this human group., as a people, with their corresponding social and cultural rights.
FUENTE: CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES (www.camara.cl)
