Ecuador Congratulated by Advances in Fighting Discrimination PDF Print E-mail

Geneva, Aug 8.- Experts from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination congratulated Ecuador for its progress in this area in recent years, said today the minister of Heritage Coordinator, Maria Fernanda Espinosa in Geneva.

In an interview to Prensa Latina, the Espinosa said the panel of 18 specialists welcomed the Ecuadorian initiative to have a multinational plan to eliminate ethnic and cultural exclusion.

The Minister described as successful, the report of his country to the 81st session of the committee, which summarizes the actions taken by the government of President Rafael Correa to eliminate that flagellum.

One of the most convincing advances, she said, is that in the last five years, more than a million people got rid of poverty and this has benefited the traditionally excluded groups, which are precisely the indigenous, Afro-descendants and Montubio people.

These advances were also recognized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, which in its report in 2011 placed Ecuador as the second country of the region with a greater decrease in poverty rate.

Another major step was the allocation of nearly half a million hectares in favor to peoples and indigenous nationalities and African descendants to guarantee their fundamental right to the territory.

According to the last census, from more than 14, 400, 000 inhabitants in the South American country, the seven percent are indigenous, 7.4 are from Montubio people and the 7.2 are Afro-Ecuadorians.

"We believe that racism and discrimination cannot be eradicated, if there is not a face to face struggle against poverty," Espinosa noted.

She informed that the government has multiplied eight times the investment on priority issues such as health and education. (Radio Cadena Agramonte).