Chairs:

• Filipo Burgos Guzmán filipo.burgos@uexternado.edu.co
• Marcela Gutiérrez marcela.gutierrez@uexternado.edu.co
• Soraya Pérez soraya.perez@uexternado.edu.co
• Juan Muelas juan.muelas@uexternado.edu.co

SPEAKERS

CLARA INÉS	SANCHEZ ARCINIEGAS
Luis Abel	Zarate-meriles

This workshop will foster reflection on how the recognition of ethnic and cultural identity entails the granting of collective rights. Their existence and implementation have generated tensions at various levels: in relation to the individual rights of members within each group, in the interplay between the collective and individual rights of different peoples, and in the ways the State recognizes and regulates them within a plural constitutional framework. The workshop is conceived as a space for interdisciplinary dialogue and analysis that will address the importance, evolution, scope, and challenges of the rights of peasants, Roma communities, Black communities, and Indigenous peoples in Colombia. These collective subjects, with diverse historical trajectories, share a common demand for effective guarantees to exercise their autonomy, preserve their ways of life, and ensure respect for their territories.

The discussion will be structured around three central axes: identity and belonging, territory and property, and conflict resolution. It will examine how these dimensions are fundamental to the strengthening of community life and to addressing the tensions that arise both within these groups and in their relations with other social actors and with the State. The workshop will also analyze interethnic disputes that emerge in contexts where the rights recognized for one collective may come into conflict with those of another, and how these tensions find (or fail to find) responses within the current legal framework. Colombia’s constitutional order, in its commitment to a pluriethnic and multicultural State, has created normative and jurisprudential spaces aimed at responding to these challenges. However, significant difficulties persist in the implementation of public policies, in the equitable distribution of resources, and in the construction of effective mechanisms for intercultural dialogue. This workshop invites a critical examination of the solutions that constitutional law has proposed, as well as the identification of gaps and opportunities for greater protection and guarantee of collective rights.

Beyond legal analysis, the workshop seeks to open a space for listening and mutual recognition, where researchers, social leaders, representatives of ethnic and peasant communities, and institutional actors can share their experiences and perspectives. In doing so, it aims to contribute to a broader understanding of the challenges posed by coexistence in a plural State, and to the search for pathways that strengthen social justice, respect for cultural diversity, and the construction of peace.