Contact:
Diana Duarte, MADRE, 1-212-627-0444, media@madre.org
Charo Mina Rojas, Proceso de Comunidades Negras, charominarojas@gmail.com
Afro-Colombian Organization, Proceso de Comunidades Negras, Wins Peacebuilding Prize
Today, PCN’s Charo Mina Rojas to Address UN Security Council on Children Born of Wartime Rape
Friday, October 26, 2018 – New York, NY – Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia (PCN), an Afro-descendant rights organization, has received the Tomorrow’s Peacebuilders award – one of only three organizations worldwide to be granted the honor.
PCN is a MADRE partner organization and a collective of more than 120 grassroots organizations and individuals, which seeks to combat discrimination and exclusion and to defend the rights of Afro-descendant people. This award recognizes their work to advance women-led peacebuilding in Afro-Colombian communities. It commends in particular their efforts to ensure the protection of the rights of women and girls in the implementation of their country’s landmark peace agreement, signed in 2016 after decades of war.
Charo Mina Rojas of PCN received the award at a ceremony yesterday. “I accept this honor on behalf of all the members of PCN and Black people who contribute to sustained peace in Colombia and who refuse to accept anything less than a true, inclusive peace that protects every person in all of our communities,” she said. “I highlight especially Afro-descendant women, disproportionally targeted and yet totally invisible as victims and as significant peacebuilders. Building real peace depends on protecting our rights and including our voices.”
“MADRE congratulates our partners at PCN for this honor, well-deserved for their years of tireless work for peace and for the rights of Afro-Colombians and other marginalized people,” said J. M. Kirby, MADRE Human Rights Advocacy Director.
MADRE and PCN are partnering in a joint advocacy effort to gather testimonies and document abuses, in order to hold national and international policymakers accountable.
Last year, Charo Mina Rojas became the first Afro-Colombian woman to ever address the UN Security Council, where she spotlighted the need to incorporate rights protections for Afro-Colombian people in the peace implementation plan. These protections, many of which are contained in the Peace Accord’s Ethnic Chapter, were secured thanks to the advocacy of Indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations.
Today, Charo will once again address the Security Council on the topic of children born of rape, in a session starting at 10am. While Colombia is the only country to legally recognize children born of wartime rape as victims of the conflict, significant gaps in actual rights protections and reparations remain for both survivors of rape and children born of rape.
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Available for interviews:
Charo Mina Rojas is an Afro-Colombian human rights defender and member of Proceso de Comunidades Negras in Colombia (PCN), a grassroots nation-wide movement comprised of over 120 local Afro-descendant grassroots organizations and community councils.
J. M. Kirby Esq., MADRE Human Rights Advocacy Director, provides strategic advocacy services and support for grassroots women’s organizations in Latin America and the Middle East.
