African Descent

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June 11, 2008

African Descendent Women Host US Delegation in Rio de Janeiro By Janvieve Williams, Latin American and Caribbean Community Center [email protected]

Articulo en Espanol

On June 8th, a delegation from the United States comprised of activists and students arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as part of the US Durban Process 2009. The delegation was organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center and Cidadao Global. This past Monday, the delegation met with local organizers that represented 18 Afro Brazilian women’s organization, and a media justice coalition. The Baobab Institute (Instituto Baobab), which is a network of Afro Brazilian women’s organizations in anticipation of the delegation, called upon its network to share strategies, organizational struggles and success as well as personal stories that have impacted their participation in a racial justice movement in Brazil. Women shared their stories of political involment in the Afro descendent Movement movement. “As African women we have to be active politically in both our community and in formal political processes since public policies do not favor African descendents and small accomplishments are never prioritized so there is no long term change”, said Mara Ribeiro fom the Association of Black Women. Youths also had a very visible impact and voice in the meeting, they shared organizational stories of the principles of organizing that they follow within a black movement. “As youths we have to respect the militant activity of our elders, they laid a strong foundation for us, many times we see that youths want to re-invent the wheel when our elders fought hard to build it, we have to learn from them in order to move forward” said Jama Gimond, one of the youth represent an Afro Brazilian Youth Media Collective. The meeting ended with the screening of a series of television commercials that were made by the Association in partnership with the Organizations of Race and Media Justice, an organization of concerned journalists that does media monitoring to ensure that journalists cover racial policies and

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issues in Brazil. “These spots are a big accomplishment, the fact that people can see black faces talking about issues that are plaguing our community is unheard of in Brazil,” said Angelica Bashti. The delegation was also hosted by Instituto dos Palmares, Afro Brazilian Incubators Project. This project is a pilot project that has as its mission to provide Afro Brazilians organizations and individual’s opportunities to own businesses and to receive skills that are transferable to their entrepreneurial initiates. The delegation will be traveling to Brasilia to participate of the Preparatory Meeting of the Americas as part of the Durban Process 2009. If you would like more information on the Durban Process, please visit www.durban2009.wikispaces.com or www.lacccenter.org The delegation will be traveling to Brasilia to participate of the Preparatory Meeting of the Americas as part of the Durban Process 2009. If you would like more information on the Durban Process, please visit www.durban2009.wikispaces.com or www.lacccenter.org Upon the delegations return from Brasilia, there will be a US report back on June 20th at 1:00pm EST. For more information about the US process, to sign up for the conference call, please visit http://durban2009.wikispaces.com/.

Please review the Summary of the Durban Process Meeting that took place on May 8th, The Themes and Objectives of the upcoming Prep Meeting.

Latin American and Caribbean Community Center is a U.S.-based organizations committed to the application of the human rights framework in the United States while addressing issues such as racist and discriminatory practices and legislation, class and gender. For more information please visit www.lacccenter.org

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