Dissemination activities

Participation of the Department of International Law in the First World Summit of African Descendants

The First World Summit of African Descendants was held from August 18 through 20 in La Ceiba, Honduras, bringing together representatives from 44 countries of the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia – more than 1,000 people, among them delegates, heads of mission, aid workers, diplomats, representatives of international organizations such as the UN, OAS, European Union, African Union, and the Central American Integration System, government officials, and villagers in Honduran communities of African descendants.

President Porfirio Lobo Sosa of Honduras and President Alvaro Colom Cerezo of Guatemala attended the opening ceremony.

The Department of International Law, through its "People of African Descent in the Americas: Legal Protection, Development, and Inclusion" Program, was represented by its Director, who delivered a presentation on the inter-American system, human rights, and people of African descent.

The Summit participants supported initiatives to improve living conditions for all people of African descent worldwide; to end racial discrimination; to ensure there is justice; and to ensure that the youth have access to quality education and health.

The First Summit adopted a Declaration and an Action Plan, key documents that seek to chart a course towards sustainable integral development with the identity of group of African descendants in the world. These instruments call for the declaration of a decade for people of African descent, the establishment of a development fund for people of African descent, and the establishment of a forum or parliament for African descendant affairs within the UN, among others.

The Second World Summit of African Descendants will be held in Spain in 2014.