 I'm Eric Bracken from the Norwegian Embassy. I'm Cristina Spinell from the Columbia Human Rights Committee, Washington, D.C. My reverse, Brighas Internacionales de Paz, Peace Brigades International. I'm Dan Cavalliq from the United Steelworkers Union. I'm Vladimir Baikir from the National Embassy. Alicia Greenwich, Creative Associates International. Andres Brito, Embajada, Colombia. Phil Schraver, Retired International Healthcare Worker. Jessica Wyndham, Asociación Americana para el Avance de la Ciencia, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Teresa Harris, also from AAAS. Amanda Monaco, de la Agencia de la Investigación Ambiental, the Environmental Investigation Agency. Aiman Libo, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. Katherine Wensia, Two Processes of Law Foundation. Claire Bukes, Cmonix International. Bronwyn Schimmel, Embassy of Canada. Jacqueline Boulos, OAS. Samia Hawkson, Embajada de Nicaragua. Marginal Paparritas, National Endowment for Democracy. Dr. Shadeuddin. Buenos tardes, entre 10 de la Embajada de Colombia. David Loudon, Independent Policy Analysis and Conflict Resolution. Carlos Rosero, Founder of the Black Community Process and National Authorities of Afro-Colombians. Aura Dalias Aice de Valencia, National Network of Afro-Colombian Women. Javier Marrugo, Port Workers Union of Colombia. Marino Cordova, International Coordinator of CONPA and Chair of AFRODIS. Richard Moreno Rodriguez, Coordinator of the Choco Interethnic Solidarity Forum and Coordinator of CONPA. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here today. And thank you also for those that are connecting with us through the Internet. We are webcasting this event in Spanish. And thank you, thanks to Ithia Argomet, who is the interpreter and will be simultaneously interpreting into English. If you need headphones, they are outside the room. If you don't have them, please go and pick them. Welcome. Welcome to the U.S. Institute of Peace. My name is Jeannie Bouvier, Senior Associate for Latin America here at the Institute. The U.S. Institute of Peace was founded by the U.S. Congress 30 years ago in order to contribute to the prevention, resolution and management of international conflict. In our work to support the resolution of internal armed conflict in Colombia, we've maintained or we've been holding a peace forum in Colombia for two years and a half as in space to educate the public about the peace process that was launched in Norway at the end of 2012 and that has continued in Havana, Cuba. We're very pleased to host today's event on how to open the peace process to Afro-descendants or Afro-Colombians. Co-hosting this event are different organizations that work on human rights and peace in Colombia. I would like to express my thanks to Sebastian Bernal, Bernal from Huala, Marino Cordova from Afrodis International, Carlos Quezada from the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights and Pedro León Cortes Ruiz from the Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network as well as the people working for the different organizations that I just mentioned and that are facilitating this event. I would like to express special thanks to Maria Antonia Montes from USIP. The issue of inclusion and the role by civil society in peace processes is a very timely topic. Recent polls show a decrease in the support for the conversations between the Colombian government and the FARC EP in Havana. Therefore, it is an important moment to deepen partnerships with civil society in order to support the process. An important group that has been excluded so far, the Afro-Colombian population, wants to play a main role in this process through a new organization, COMPA, which seeks to channel proposals and needs by Afro-Colombians to the negotiations in Havana. COMPA's representatives are here today in order to share their ideas and we would like to give them a warm welcome. In all the academic research that have been done so far on peace processes and civil society's participation, there is evidence that the participation by civil society in peace processes strengthen negotiations and facilitate or make reaching an agreement easier and they contribute to the implementation and more efficient implementation of the peace agreement with a more sustainable peace. You study by Tania Paffenholz from the Graduate Institute of International Development Studies Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, studies peace processes between 1990 and 2013 and she reached very relevant conclusions for today's topic. In particular, she found evidence that shows that it's not only the number of civil society participants that matter, but also the quality of their interventions and what is heard matters. When actors of civil society have managed to influence agreements that face the causes of conflict and support the implementation of an agreement, more peace agreements were reached and the implementation of them was more rigorous and the peace more sustainable. With the participation of women's organizations in particular, success in this regard increased. Where are we in terms of the negotiations in Havana? The negotiations table in Havana has just finished 36 cycles of negotiations and the representatives of the Colombian government as well as the FARC just started the 37th round on the 21st of May this week. A demining process started in Antioquia that was agreed upon on the 7th of March as a joint operation by the FARC and the Colombian government, in particular the Colombian Army with the support of an Norwegian NGO. The stakeholders reaffirmed their will to continue to negotiate in spite of very difficult weeks that led the government of Colombia to renew military airstrikes on campgrounds and the FARC to suspend the unilateral ceasefire that had been maintained since last December. In Colombia, violence continues as it was agreed upon when it was decided that conversations or negotiations would take place with the bilateral ceasefire and right now skepticism is growing. It's important to underscore that stakeholders are still seated at the table looking for a solution. Many of our very distinguished speakers today come from the most conflictive areas in Colombia. They're maybe the most affected ones by the war and maybe the ones that are seeking peace the most. Today we offer them the floor so that they can share their perspectives on how we can move forward building a long-standing peace for Colombia and for everyone. Thank you very much. Some housekeeping announcements. We will have to empty the room at 3.30 on the dot, so if we are very strict in terms of rules and timing it's for that very same reason that we need to empty the room and we want to make sure we have time for the Q&A. There's also evaluation forms. I believe Maria Antonia will distribute them or she has already done so. If you want to follow us on Twitter, the hashtag for today's event is hashtag Colombia Peace Forum. This program is on the record. Therefore you can quote using people's names and we are live streaming it in Spanish but the English version will also be available on our website next week. You've already practiced with the microphones therefore I believe we already know how to use them and now please allow me to introduce you to the speakers here today. You have their bios in a document that we've already distributed. I believe Richard Moreno will be the first one talking today. He is the coordinator of CONPA and the Choco Interethnic Solidarity Forum. Richard, you have the floor. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. First of all I would like to thank Dr. Genie and Maria Antonia as well as Wola for allowing us to celebrate this event here today. Also thank you for being here today. Those of us who are here today are convinced that Peace in Colombia will be attained through negotiations and dialogue. That is why we have supported from the get-go that the end to the Colombian conflict had to be a political one and a negotiated one. Today in that regard we see a new organization which is the National African Colombian Council, CONPA, which seeks an alternative in order to bring our proposals as Afro-Colombians to the negotiation table in Havana and to any process that takes place in order to overcome the conflict in Colombia. Who are we? We are a group of national and regional organizations that are working on the process, in the context of the peace process. And we're working on the Afro-Colombian situation. Different organizations decided to create this space or forum in an autonomous manner. Who are part of it? The Interethnic Solidarity Forum, the Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians, AFRODES, the PCL, an AFRO, Concejo Laboral Afro-Colombiano, PLAF, National Conference of Afro-Colombian Organizations, CNOA, Afro-Colombian Pastoral Organization, as well as Afro-Colombian Women. Who are part of each one of these different groups? The Choco Interethnic Solidarity Forum is made up of 68 organizations, 500,000 people in the departments of Choco and parts of Antioquia. And we have 3,075 hectares under collective titles and together 3,075,000 hectares under collective rights for the communities. The Association of Displaced Afro-Descendants has 96 organizations with more than 100,000 victims that are represented and they work throughout the whole country. The process of Black Communities PCN includes 120 organizations in the Department of Cauca, Valle, Marino, Bolívar, Atlántico, Cesar, Santander, Guajira, Cundinamarca, and these community councils have 250,000 hectares under community titles. The National Afro-Colombian Authority in Afro represents 3,000 organizations and community councils throughout the country and these community councils have more than 5 million hectares with collective and private titles for the communities. The Workers' Council has 11 branches in the Cundinamarca department as well as in Valle, Antioquia, Bolívar, Atlántico, Cesar, Magdalena, and more than 200,000 people affiliated to their labor union. The National Conference of Afro-Colombian Associations has representatives in Antioquia, Chaco, Valle, Cauca, Bolívar, Magdalena, and Cordoba and more than 120 organizations are part of it. The Afro-Colombian Pastoral works throughout the whole country and they focus or there is special commitment by the Diocese of Quito in Chaco. Afro-Colombian women work in 23 departments, 54 municipalities, 460 organizations, and 110,000 women that participate in the processes. What is the National Council, the Afro-Colombian National Council? It is a coordinating body of actions taken among all those that are part of Afro-Colombian organizations that share the interest and commitment to contribute in a positive manner, as well as ethnic to the building and consolidation of a long-standing peace in Colombia. They also want to participate in the peace negotiations in Havana, as well as in all the different processes that will take place in the country. Above all, it's an autonomous organization of participatory processes and compass legitimacy based on agreements that were achieved between the different organizations that are part of it. The basic objective, the basic and exclusive objective of this organization is building collective proposals between the different organizations and participatory processes. Their decisions will be shared through different channels that were developed through the peace framework and during the post-conflict area. Our principle is respect of autonomy, representation, plurality, support to national and international processes to build peace and legitimacy. In terms of lines of action or courses of action, CONPA focuses on land, work with victims addressing the humanitarian crisis, reparation, peace with social justice, strengthening of organizations, taking into account the autonomy as well as the participation and governance of organizations, identity, racism, and special approaches, economic development and labor rights. But why do we want and why do we think we actually have the right to participate in the negotiations table in Havana or in any space, peace-building space by the national government? First of all, because we represent 30% of Colombia's population, that is more than 12 million people, even if other figures say the opposite. We have specific rights that we acquired and that can be violated during the negotiations. Afro-Colombians have a law since 1993 that is law 70 that acknowledges or recognizes special rights to this population that even though it hasn't been enacted, the rights are there in order to be implemented. We have 5,300,000 hectares that have collective titles that are private poverty of the communities and that gives us a very important territorial representation as well as a very large population. As I said in Colombia, the Constitutional Court stated that the territory and prior consultation are fundamental rights for ethnic groups. Therefore, we believe that we have a right to be heard at the Havana negotiations table as an ethnic group, as Afro-Colombians. Another point is that most of the non-renewable and renewable natural resources are in our land. Development of the country is going to be addressed and negotiated without us sitting at the table, even though these resources are actually in our land. But why else do we have to be part of the negotiations table? Well, official figures by the national government show that Afro-Colombians are approximately 4,300,000 people. These are figures from 2005. But in 1996 we were 12 million according to the same figures and the development plan of that year. So, either they are excluding us intentionally or they committed the largest genocide in the country. Let's assume that we are 4,300,000 people. If that is right, almost 50% of the Afro-Colombian population has been a victim of displacement because in Colombia we have more than 2 million Afro-Colombian victims. What are other reasons why we have to be part of the negotiation process? Collective lands are being occupied. They are being seized by external actors to the communities. Natural resources, renewable and non-renewable resources are being granted to national and multinational companies without a prior consultation with the communities. Special acquired rights by Afro-Colombians are being violated and threatened the conflict today. And this has happened ever since the beginning, but the conflict right now is more intense in our land than in the rest of the country. A minute to explain this. The most difficult moments that the peace processes had between FARC and the government have been due to acts that have occurred in the territories and near the populations were Afro-Colombian slaves, which is where the conflict is most acute. The first event that happened was the kidnapping of General Alsate. And that was in Chaco. After that, the assassination of soldiers in Cauca. And after that, the confrontation and the bombardment in Cauca. The bombardment to FARC. And those three moments or events that have happened in territories of Afro-Colombian territories where collective territories exist and that's where conflict is most acute. And they are not listening to us in Havana. And the last element of why we need to be there is that labor sectors where the majority of workers are Afro-Colombians are not given their rights and their opportunities are not being guaranteed. The conflict continues to escalate and increase in the territories and violations to human rights, cultural and social continue to exist. We had some maps to show so you could see how in the territory of in the Pacific territory, which is a collective territory where many projects, mega projects, infrastructure projects are being developed are where the most natural resources exist. And there's also where there's the largest number of displaced, number of people. What do we expect from you in the international community? First, that the guarantors and guaranteeing governments who are supporting the peace process facilitate a commission, a special commission of the Afro-Colombian people so that they can go and talk about those issues in a representative and autonomous way. The second, or secondly, that guarantor countries insist that proposals of the Afro-Colombian population are integrated to the negotiations that are taking place in Havana. And thirdly, and that these organizations that believe in the peace process can be present in the negotiations and can be there in the implementation of the accords. Because what is being mentioned between government and FARC is that they're negotiating ending the conflict. But what is also need to be talked about is the implementation of the process. Fourth, our princess needs to be granted as an element of prior consultation. Prior consultation is a key right of the Afro-Colombian population. If you're making decisions without the presence of the Afro-Colombian population, all right, it's being violated. The Afro-Colombian population is saying that let us participate, if not from the beginning, but at this time. Additionally, it's important to have a conversation for the Colombian government of the rights of the Afro-Colombian community. Currently right now, the government is developing a national development plan which was not consulted with the Afro-Colombian community and it wasn't consulted with the Afro-Colombian community. We additionally want the Colombian government to develop or to work on the labor action plan that Javier will talk about. Javier Marugo of the Port Union Workers Union in Colombia. Good afternoon to all. The government of the United States and Colombia in April of 2011 agreed to an accord to the labor action plan which facilitates or would facilitate the approval of the free trade agreement between Colombia and the United States. In that plan, there are five labor sectors, ports, sugar cane, palm oil, flowers, and miners. Out of those five labor sectors, four of those are Afro-descendant sectors. The implementation of what was established in those four labor sectors, has been acknowledged that it hasn't been agreed on or worked on at all by any side. Tomorrow there will be an audience in the Colombian government where this will be talked about. One of the goals agreed on was that more labor inspectors would be in several labor sectors. In 2005 in Buenaventura there's been three inspectors, labor inspectors, and today three inspectors continue to be there. These are three inspectors that inspect 150,000 workers which leads to a high level of impunity because it's practically impossible to look after this population. Secondly, the policies that have to do with social policy in those four labor sectors have not been fulfilled. And again, I'm going to refer to Buenaventura. Us in the African-Columbian labor union don't doubt that the social crisis in Buenaventura is a humanitarian crisis that originates to labor problems. As long as the labor problems in Buenaventura are not overcome, this social problems will continue to exist. In Buenaventura there are 3,000 workers, poor workers, who don't have any kind of social protection or contracts. Daily there's thousands of labor workers without a contract, without any kind of protection. On April 24th, almost a month ago, a worker died in a ship, an emergency ship. He fell and he died 25 years of working at the port. No protection. If he had worked 25 years at the port, he should have had 1200 weeks of work. He only had two years of accumulated work for retirement. We have asked the government for 18 inspectors for each port. For Buenaventura, for Uruguay, for Cartagena, because we have knowledge of that area. We can also talk about Uruguay, where there's a lot of port work. In Uruguay there's exports of 3 million tons to the United States through different multinationals such as Chiquita. But at this port there isn't a labor day or a work day. The work days happen as they traditionally happen in Uruguay. They're not paid overtime, they're not paid for night work. As Compa, we want to mention the aspect of labor rights, although labor issues are not mentioned a lot. We are asking that what is already agreed on in 2011 is fulfilled. I am very happy that we have proposed on different issues in the aspect of contracting. In Uruguay contracts are only 13 weeks. There are workers who have worked for 25 years with contracts, 13-week contracts. Obviously the Port Union affiliated 80 workers and each week workers were fired. But we were told that the contracts had been fulfilled at the 13th week. There needs to be a legislative development in terms of rights as well as a legislative development in terms of contracts. There was a decree 1398 where there was an effort to do this, however business did not allow this to pass. Just to highlight that we have lost two generations of Port workers, some of them with more than 60 years old. Without their labor contracts to be fulfilled. And we would like some sectors of the international community that tries to create a fund for those people who have provided so much for Buenaventura, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Nura, La. Can't reach an older age in misery and being poor. That's the situation in the ports. But the situation of palm oil in Santa Marta who are largely Afro-Colombians or the sugar cane cutters in Baguio del Cauca. All of them Afro-Colombians or the situation of miners requires larger attention. Tomorrow we'll be traveling because there is a negotiation with a petition in Buenaventura and Nura. And I am consulting those negotiations and we haven't had a good reception or business have not been receptive of our petitions. And these are humanitarian crises that in the case of Buenaventura. I have to highlight that Buenaventura is the largest port in Colombia but it's also the poorest city in Colombia. But it also Nura, which is also smaller but the impact is larger. But the impact is larger as well in Santa Marta. But surely less in Cartagena or Barranquilla because they are smaller cities. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm going to ask Aura Dalia Caicedo. She belongs to the National Network of Afro-Colombian Women. Thank you very much. Firstly, I would like to recognize the U.S. Institute of Peace for allowing this moment and this space so that we can share the initiatives. This new initiative, a platform of black communities because the war and pain that is being left and what's being put in place for the future is scary. And that's not the future that we want to build for our sons and daughters and for our grandsons. And we want life to continue. And in that continuity, we want responsibilities and we have historical responsibilities. And in that context, we want to put what is being built now. Talking about what's being asked is how can we move forward in the construction of a long-lasting peace? So from the social organizations, we believe that needs to be involved in several parts. For example, the Ministry of Education needs to be involved in this issue. And students and the future is extremely important. There needs to be important thought about primary school, secondary school, college. In other words, how are the youth looking at this situation? How are they reading the current issues that are happening? And the youth needs to be provided alternatives because they are the easy targets of the war that's happening in our territory. Therefore, it's important to create preventing problems. In that preventing, we have to include or fulfill values of our communities and historical values. There are values that exist and we have to grasp them. And precisely, this is where social organizations play an important role. Such as corporations, organizations and allies can help us strengthen this initiative. But also the organizational efforts that we are hoping can continue to strengthen peace. And that peace also has to do with the peaceful resistance that exists in their territory. It's not easy to leave in rural areas. It's not easy to leave today in that Pacific zone that's hidden without opportunities. But yet, we still want life and there's people who want to remain in that territory. That's why the autonomy and the cultural identity of that development needs to be part of every vision that we have. And when we talk about development, there are very poor territories and poverty territories and that has a face, has a name. And that poverty has a body and a face and that is a woman, a black woman. And retaking the point of what sectors need to be impacted. We need to look into this following element which involves organizational initiatives which is ethno education. Ethno or ethnic education looking at traditional medicine and from traditional medicine with that legacy that we have with our valleys, with our heritage and looking for an alternative for a post-conflict alternative for an alternative for health, for life. Signing peace makes us wonder how life is going to be like, what the future is going to be like. People who have been impacted by the conflict, by the horror and the death that is happening. And this is where women can play a significant role. Our hands are healing. Our voices heal when those voices are full of energy, are full of ancestry and wise knowledge that goes beyond academia. Those are components that are extremely important to have, not only now but also after. That's why we have to support every initiative that has to do with the peace process and what happens after that. Initiatives that can support how to make the jump from poverty and misery and the misery over people and our territories. Despite being, despite sitting in large and vast natural resources that can serve as enrichment for multinationals but don't provide a better life, a better life conditions for the natives. And what my colleague has already mentioned which is collective titles. The rights of the people as declared by the international organization. And the perspective of gender needs to be included in that the horror and terror are lived by women. Our sisters, our colleagues were widowed. Mothers who have had to face the death of their children. Mothers who have had to flee with what they have sometimes with one son or several children or simply by themselves. The voice of woman and the black woman has to be present. It has to be present and the state has to be present understanding their structure of power. And in this we have to refer to democracy and social justice. And so that it's not only left in the rhetoric of peace but that all the elements can be involved or taken part. And in this initiative of the Afro-Columbian Peace Council what we're also doing is strengthening leadership. We're asking of empowering and economic development. And this has to do with levels of participation with politics or policies. And lastly with a power to serve, a power to be able to change conditions of life. And additionally lastly a point that's a bit neutral with its symbolic. The symbolic gestures with empowerment, with collective identity, with public policy that can favor our development in different areas. And lastly a way to fact check what is accorded in Havana. Lastly the ability to involve art and cultures. Sometimes we talked as groups of women. We asked ourselves how we could dream of certain kind of days where songs can be created and related to peace. In all areas salsa, urbano, making youth think to create different scenarios of peace. How would that be? In other words an important issue that becomes important and central to what's happening in their life. Painting and concerts that become a calling for peace. But a calling with hope. And lastly to end. And something that's not being mentioned but I deeply believe in which is spirituality. And I talk about spirituality of our centers. I speak of that spirituality that accompanied us in the past of the strength that was able to survive all of the massacre of slavery and that today us. We take part of that legacy and we take that strength to be able to generate those process of liberty. And that's what I call spirituality. And that spirituality has to be an ingredient, extremely important ingredient in the peace process. In our territories and in our sensual territories. Once again thank you to the US Institute of Peace. Carlos Rosero. I would like to thank you for being here today. 25 years ago in Colombia we discussed the National Assembly and black people were not represented. There was only one article with regards to the black population that was addressed. The last day at the very last moment when the assembly was actually closing was article 55, transitional article of the constitution. Law 70 was approved 23 years ago. Chapters 4, 5th and 6th of the law have not been implemented in spite of the fact that they come from a mandate that is constitutional. Four years ago we were part of an agreement with the Colombian government. That had to do with prior consultation in the national development plan. Hundreds of commitments were agreed upon and my colleagues that were involved in these processes told me that 85% of those commitments have not been fulfilled. Such as Richard said we have just witnessed the whole development and approval process of the national development plan for 2014-2018. And specifically in our case as black people we must underscore that the plan violates three very important rights. The right to participation, the right to free, prior and informed consent that comes from an article in the constitution and right to equality and non-discrimination. All this just to say that in spite of the fact that our rights are recognized in the constitution of 1991 in that single article that I mentioned we have experienced a situation through which the implementation of these rights has been extremely difficult. There are five, almost six million hectares that have collective rights and my people have suffered something that could be called a silent counter-reform. On the one hand it meant enormous massacres, displacement such as what happened to Marina and also a significant number of black people like I say were displaced in Colombia due to this counter-reform. 25 years ago one of the arguments on the table that were against a comprehensive discussion on rights of black people was that we did not have enough dead people among ourselves. 25 years later that argument is not valid anymore. We believe that an end to the armed conflict is your responsibility for both parties, insurgents and government. But building peace is a right that we all have, all Colombians. They have the responsibility that bring the armed confrontation to an end but the building of the peace is something that affects all Colombians and is their right and the right of everyone who wants justice. We are here because given the past that we've suffered we believe that if our voices and interests as well as rights are not taken into account in the agreements and the implementation of such agreements we will suffer from a very difficult situation such as the one that we've had to suffer throughout the last 25 years. Even though we have rights that have been recognized, those rights are just in writing and have not been respected by the government at all levels. This is why it is so important for us to have our voice heard. Finally I would like to say that in November last year we sent a letter to the different stakeholders where we requested two things. Richard has already mentioned them but I will repeat them. Number one, to receive a delegation of Afro-Colombians so that my colleagues as part of the Colombian people can express their opinions and their perspectives. And second, to create a commission with stakeholders that jointly study with indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians the situation of ethnic groups with rights and specific situations that are recognized in Colombia. We have a mirror that we can look ourselves at right now which is a Central American situation in the case of Guatemala even though there was a specific point addressed in terms of the rights of the indigenous peoples the situation in Guatemala and actually the indigenous peoples participated and there was a round table, the situation of the indigenous peoples in Guatemala is critical, is difficult. What is going to happen in Colombia? No one doubts that we have been affected by the armed conflict but there is not a single article that takes into account the situation of Afro-Colombians. What will happen in the future? This is a question that we would like to address and we are focused on it. We want to have the support of all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Carlos. Marino. Okay, let's now move on to the Q&A session then. Please say your name first and your affiliation. Good afternoon, Andrés Barona, Global Consulting. Apart from the peace process, what other obstacles do you see to the participation of your communities in other processes? The peace issue is in Havana but in terms of the commercial potential we are talking about the Pacific area so if we talk about processes such as the Pacific partnership what type of challenges will Afro-descendants face in this regard? Let's hear some questions first and then we will offer the floor to our speakers. Another question? Are there any other questions? Well, then I have a question. I have actually several questions, Ricardo. Thank you very much for the overview that you offered on COMPA. I believe that you mentioned the power in numbers. The number of Afro-Colombians as well as the lands, the number of hectares, the special rights that you have. So my question is the following. It has to do with the transitional agenda or temporary agreements that have been reached. What are the most important issues for you in terms of inputs from your communities? And also could you talk a little bit more about what you said about spirituality? This is for Aura. What do you think about spirituality and how could that bring something to the peace process as well as to the implementation of the peace agreement during the last stage? Carlos, you talked about the urgency of the moment and how historic exclusion of Afro-Colombians has taught us that it is necessary for Afro-Colombians to be visible, to be part of the process, to be actively involved. My question has to do about the ethnic commission that you mentioned. How do you visualize it? What is it? Where does it take place and how does it work? And Marina, since you haven't talked, I don't have any questions for you. Those are my questions. And then one more question here in the audience. Microphone, please. Independent policy analyst, and I focus on conflict resolution. And 30% of the population of any country is so significant. So first question briefly is what is the state of elected representation of the Afro-Colombian community in the country of Colombia? And secondly is... The first question was given the population of the Afro-Colombian community, what is the status of the elected representation in government of the Afro-Colombian people? And then I would greatly appreciate any comments on your thoughts on confidence-building measures that could be taken that would contribute to moving the overall process forward. Thank you. Gracias. Bueno, a los panelistas. Quien quiere comenzar? Who wants to begin? With regards to the first question, in terms of our participation in other processes on top of the one that is taking place in Havana, well, the first one has to do with the fact that we are in marginalized lands. There's lack of access to public services and lack of education. Here, I forgot to mention that in the territory of Afro-Colombians, we find the highest percentage of lack of... or of needs that are not met. For example, basic needs. Access to education is an example. For the rest of the country, this is 87%, more or less. But when we talk about Afro-Colombians, it's 65%. Quality of life in the rest of the country is 67%. For Afro-Colombians, 37%. The official statistics say that there are Afro-Families that live on $2 a day. Afro-Colombian families that live on $2 a day. And that's our main obstacle, the lack of opportunities. The second obstacle has to do with the fact that there is a lack of control from the government on multinationals. And therefore, the multinationals are free to use our land however they want and to exploit it however they want because of this lack of control. And the third obstacle is that there is no process to implement the law number 70, which is the one that guarantees the rights of Afro-Colombians. Section 70 of the law says that it talks about social and economic development and planning. There is a process in Havana right now, but 27 years ago the Colombian government passed this law and they have not been able to implement it in order to foster economic and social development of Afro-Colombians. Section number five of law 70 talks about mining resources. Our lands are the richest ones in terms of mining resources. And the law has not been implemented. There are mining codes called by the government legal security. And chapter six talks about education. And it has not been implemented either. And if you don't educate your people, it is a people that is condemned to disappear or live completely marginalized. Our main obstacle is the lack of opportunities and guarantees by the government. That's our main obstacle. With regards to the second question posed by Ginny, with regards to the different elements of concern in the agreement, what I'm going to say here is something that I shared with the high peace commissioner in different meetings that we held. So it's not a secret. We agree with the peace process. We will support the agreements that will be reached in Havana. But we've already said in different newsletters that we do not agree with certain elements or points in the agreement. First of all, agreement number one, comprehensive agrarian development. It establishes the famous campesino reform, rather, areas. And we do not disagree with this. We do believe that these lands have to be created and handed to farmers. But when we map the land in Colombia and when you focus on the collective lands of Afro-Colombians on the Pacific, we see that we have an institution called the Community Council. And we are private and collective owners of this land. And we will not accept any agrarian areas here or farm lands. The second point, I don't think the land bank will be in the lands in the hands of the president, when the lands were, or rather in the country we have more than five million hectares that are in the hands of people or businesses that acquire them illegally. And this has been going on for ten years. The land restitution law has not had not even at least five percent progress. So where will they get the land to get this land bank? And when you see the agreement, they're talking about those that are seized and so on and so forth. And this is very dangerous. The law, that agreement actually establishes under the civil code the famous unofficial lands. In other words, lands that are not grown according to the civil code is called unofficial land. But basically those lands could be seized in order to be handed to the land bank. And if you go to the Pacific areas, we see that there's a lot of people and not a lot of land. Or rather, the other way around, there's a lot of land for not that many people. That's what they think. But if you think this from an ethnic standpoint, we don't have enough land. For us, our land is part of life, of life itself. And while in the rest of the country they're using chemical products to grow different crops, we let the land rest in order to produce through clean means. And what the state calls unofficial lands, which are basically lands that are not being grown, for us, those lands are resting and there is political pressure. And we're being told that congressmen will be picked from the most affected territories by the conflict. And that's the Pacific area. There are other territories obviously in the country, but the most affected one is the Pacific area. But they don't say what they're going to do. And we are concerned that this congressman will represent, or rather this congressman will be people that don't represent us. If we're here today, if we're sitting here today asking for solidarity, for support, is because the FARC does not represent us. If the FARC represented the Pacific people's Afro-Colombians, we wouldn't be here. If the proposals by the government represented us, or if the government showed any type of responsibility towards Afro-Colombians, we wouldn't be here. We are here precisely because our interests could be severely affected in these negotiations and our proposal to overcome the social and armed conflict in our territory is not on the table. I have several comments with regards to the issue of participation since October of 2012. There is a crisis in Colombia that has to do with the participation of black people. It could have been solved through a case T823 of 2011. The government solved this. It could be solved with another case that we won with regards to previous consultation T576 of 2014. But everything is stagnant right now. And under this logic there are many things that are very difficult. The development plan has to be implemented by the government. Every issue that has to do with the Pacific Partnership Alliance, there is no representation of the Afro-Colombians to negotiate with the government. We hope the situation to be solved in the coming months. But like we have said, the movement has had a lot of will to negotiate, but we don't have anyone to negotiate with or there is no willingness to negotiate with us. The other question was the one regarding what we think in terms of our proposals. The first one is a number of delegates, Afro-Colombian delegates that represent different organizations of different industries in the country that will travel to Havana to talk about their perspectives and about the things that are happening in Afro-Colombian territories that are not being taken into consideration in the negotiation process but that have a great impact on us. And the other issue has to do with the commission that works on ethnic issues. We believe this commission represents a number of stakeholders, government as well as insurgents, that are knowledgeable in order to discuss issues deeply. They will have to review agreements reached so far and they will also have to monitor the implementation of some of them in particular from the standpoint of each one of the ethnic groups. And this could be used as backdrop to many of the things that my colleague Richard mentioned. I'll mention just one of them. The agreement on eradication and illegal crab replacement. An institution was created at a local, state and national level and that institution does not take into account the fact that there are collective lands with councils that rule these lands. Therefore this institution does not take into account what is already in place. We have a situation that is not taking advantage of what we already have in place or what was created over the last years and I think this can pose more obstacles to solving the problem. Something or things that could help. We don't have a very long list. We don't know exactly how to develop or build trust between the government and insurgents but we have addressed different issues in my group for example. All indigenous black women's organizations could come together and we could make official statements with regards to the fulfillment of certain agreements. Agreements that are being analyzed in Havana and that have an impact on our land. We could do this very easily. We have the information. We could actually contribute to it if the parties decided to create a joint committee so that each part can provide the information that they have available. For example, I spent a week in an area where later on the 11 soldiers were killed. I know what was happening right before that incident. Had I been consulted, I could have helped solve the situation before such a massacre happened. Therefore, we have information. We could contribute to the process. We could have an active participation to the process and we could make great contributions to the process actually. With regards to the question on spirituality and how this one will play a role I would like to share first of all a very small experience that we had in 29, 2010. A group of 50 women from 10 different municipalities participated in a project with the Ministry of Culture when Paula was the minister. This group was called Ethno-Cultural and Political and Gender Group. It was comprised of women that were victims of displacement. We as a women's network have always been interested in working on this issue with our colleagues. It's a very delicate subject matter. We're talking about lives that are affected by conflict and therefore at that point in this activity or project we had five modules. Each workshop was three days and at night we had different rituals. These rituals included drums and marimbas in order to have an ancestral connection. At the end of the activity I don't have time to describe each one of the workshops but what I can say is that the 50 women that came from 10 different municipalities in our territory were the same woman and at the same time they were different. We had very symbolic spaces, very symbolic activities and from our ancestry, from the African spirituality we expressed our anger, we expressed our fear, we expressed everything that had not been said before. That's where also their bodies received a lot. In the closing day we had a ceremony. We had women that were looking ahead, they were looking at the horizon. In 2009, 2010 we understood that there was a very important element of the process which is what we have kept inside of us that is not tangible and it's called spiritual and ancestral strength. The peace process has to be surrounded by good energy, positive energy. Beyond the agreement it is about working at all levels, at all levels of the human being. We're talking about our body, about our spirit, about us as a whole and as a whole we have to be healed, we have also to make sure that the environment, what is happening in Havana cannot take place only in Havana. It has to be strength that is being built in each one of our fora, of our spaces, of our territories. We have to be connected, we have to be harmonized. There are different elements that have to do with spirituality but I do not have enough time to talk about this any farther. Therefore I just want to say that it's important to take into account the strength that we feel, the strength we have inherited it from our ancestors. It's coming from warriors in a positive way, warriors that want to build, that want to build peace, that want to build life. Thank you very much. Javier, since you didn't have a chance to talk I would like to ask you something. The relation between workers' conditions, development and peace. It is necessary to harmonize or to bring harmony. Labor code has to be implemented in those areas where afro-descendants are a majority of the workers or represent a majority of the workers. We need what I would call labor peace and this work piece or labor peace is not the lack of conflict that is known as a strike. Now here I'm talking about respect for labor rights. We need to make sure that employers abide by the code and as my colleagues were saying we could reach a peace agreement in Havana and the workers, the poor workers' conditions, sugar cane cutters, palm oil workers could be even worse than before and that would be actually quite dangerous. That's why we believe we need to harmonize the different processes. We are very important actors. We represent four industries. Afro-descendants have presence in other sectors too in the country and our representation is actually represented in high numbers. Marina Cordoba has a floor. I think that it is important to listen to what each one of the speakers had to say here. That's why I did not want to participate because I had a chance to participate in other events. But two things, when you analyze what's happening to Afro-Colombians we could say that we have Afro-Colombians versus state policies or Afro-Colombians versus armed groups, Afro-Colombians versus development and in this regard I would like to highlight efforts by Santos and I've always said it. What motivated me to go to Colombia after being here under political asylum for so many years was what the president said. He recently stated it in a tweet. He said, let's not be pleased by the deaths that are being caused in the war. We need to put an end to the conflict and we have to all work together in this regard. It is also important to make sure that our proposals as Afro-Colombians are taken into account. They should strengthen peace agreements. We don't want the country to reach a peace agreement and that such peace agreement fails soon because most of the sectors did not agree with what was agreed upon. On the other hand, I would also say something else. When you analyze insurgency in the country and let's take it literally I know comparisons are not good but let's understand this literally. How many guerrilla members do we have in Colombia that are seated at the table talking about peace with the government and how many Afro-Colombians do we have that have been historically marginalized and that have never received any attention? Comparisons are never good but do Afro-Colombians need to do the same thing in order to get attention in the country? Do they need to do the same thing as guerrilla groups? That's not what we want, obviously, but peace process requires a population as a whole to be involved and that is the message that we would like to share with you. That is what we're working on and that is why we're here. Therefore, I would just like to wrap up my comment saying that we are moving forward as a national council on peace. We have been talking to the U.S. Embassy in Colombia, USAID as well as other sectors that are supporting this proposal because like Richard was saying, who is seated at the table representing this group? Afro-Colombians is a large group. We have displaced people, we have women, we have youths. So here in this forum we have a representation of most of the Afro-Colombian population in the country with recognized rights. That's our call, that's our spirit, that's what we want to foster and this week we will go back to Colombia and we will have regional fora held in order to draft a document that we will send to all of you and that we will bring to Havana too. Thank you very much. I would like to thank co-hostors Wala Afrodis, Human Rights Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network among others and I really hope that we can have a peace process that leads to greater inclusion of Afro-Colombians. We are here to support the process. Thank you very much. Good luck. Thank you Richard Morena, Moreno, Aura, Javier, Carlos. Thank you very much. Richard Moreno, Aura Dalia, Javier Marrugo, Carlos Rosario and Marino. Thank you so much for being here with us today and thank you to everyone who is here.