This section is contributive
by NGO's and other institutions.
Non-governmental
Organizations
"Cimarrón",
National Movement for the Human Rights of Afro-Colombian Communities
“Cimarrón” is a movement of a national level, with presence in over 35 Afro-Colombian areas and towns. It has more than 3,500 members belonging to grass-root organizations and groups throughout the nation. It was founded in Buenaventura in 1982 by the Society for the Study of Issues Concerning Afro-Colombian Communities, SOWETO, established in 1976 by Afro-Colombian students from several regions of the country.
The movement has the following aims: To present government agencies and private institutions with policies and programs in favor of Afro-Colombian Communities and in favor of the implementation and observance of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. To promote community organization, awareness and mobilization at national and local levels to defend the right to decent living conditions, the right to develop Afro-Colombian identity and the right to independent political participation. To promote programs and actions aimed at eliminating racism and racial discrimination. To exalt and spread the ethnic, historical and cultural identity and the self-esteem of African, Afro-American and Afro-Colombian societies. To promote the right of the Afro-Colombian people to independent political participation, and to assert their right to be properly represented in national society. To promote unity among Afro-Colombian, Afro-American and African peoples and organizations.
The Cimarrón movement is carrying
out the following programs: training program on organization and participation
strategies for Afro-Colombian Communities; training programs on the elimination
of all forms of racial discrimination in Colombia.; program of dissemination
and implementation of Afro-Colombian ethno-education; program of communication
and training to strengthen organization processes among Afro-Colombian
women; program of dissemination and promotion of the human and constitutional
rights of Afro-Colombian communities, Law 70 of 1993 on black communities.