After the new Constitution of 1991 and the Law 70 of 1993, the Colombian state defined and titled collective territories to Afrodescendants, mainly located at the Pacific Colombian coast. However, since 1996 the armed conflict arrived to this region, and violence has produced thousands of murdered and forcibly displaced populations. Those processes have produced social mobilizations at local, regional, national and trans-national scales, seeking the respect of cultural and territorial rights, although in recent years, they emphasize on human rights protection and IHL´ respect. The Inter-ethnical Solidarity Forum Chocó (FISCH) is a social organization which works at the Department of Chocó, tying more than 60 organizations mainly of Afrodescendants but also of indigenous and Mestizos. FISCH´s goal is to build a regional peace agenda linked to the respect of ethno-development and traditional authorities. FISCH have strengthened organizational capabilities of local organizations. However, several challenges are faced by them: i) they work in the midst of the armed conflict; ii) despite its power to gather organizations, lack of security and economic resources to facilitate transportation, make harder to have presence in every sub-region; and iii) there are conflicts among social organizations within and outside the region. The main goal of this proposal is to analyze the strategies of a social organization (the FISCH), to defend ethnic and territorial rights, working in the midst of those constraints. Those challenges are also related with the issue of how several actors fight for territorial control, within territories that legally belong to ethnic communities. This proposal is part of the doctoral thesis (Sociology) that I am carrying out in the frame of the Desigualdades.net network, on the topic of “the trans-nationalization of territorial defense by afrodescendants in Colombia”, with focus on Lower Atrato. Also, it is based on fieldwork trips to Chocó during 2011.
