WASHINGTON (US), Aug 11 (NNN-ANDINA) — Afro-Peruvian citizen and activist Oswaldo Bilbao Lobaton was honored in the United States at the 2023 Secretary’s Award for Global Anti-Racism Champions event held in Washington, D.C.
The recognition was awarded by the Chief of U.S. diplomacy, Antony Blinken. Thus, the official gave the first annual Secretary’s Global Anti-Racism Champions Awards.
“For a quarter century, Oswaldo Bilbao Lobaton and his Center for Ethnic Development have promoted the rights and the visibility of Afro-Peruvians,” Secretary Blinken noted during the ceremony held on Wednesday.
The high-ranking official stressed that Bilbao Lobaton’s work has significantly increased how many Afro-Peruvians identify themselves in Peru’s census.
“Now, this may sound like a matter of detail. It is fundamental. Critical data comes from this that policymakers use to design more inclusive programs,” Blinken indicated.
“If you are not counted, you don’t exist. And so he has made an extraordinary difference in making sure that people are identified and actually counted. Perhaps most importantly, Oswaldo has spent a lifetime mentoring young Afro-Peruvian leaders, basically the next generation of Oswaldos,” he underscored.
Activist Oswaldo Bilbao Lobaton has spent more than four decades fighting for the recognition and rights for Afro-Peruvian citizens —one of Peru’s least visible and most disadvantaged populations.
He was part of the committee that organized the first meeting of Black communities in Peru in 1992, bringing together for the first time in its history more than 100 Afro-Peruvian representatives from around the country.
He is currently a member of the International Coalition for the Defense, Conservation, Protection of Territories, Environment, Land Use, and Climate Change of Afro-descendant Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
This group of global civil society leaders has courageously advanced the human rights of members of marginalized racial, ethnic, and Indigenous communities. It has also combatted systemic racism, discrimination, and xenophobia worldwide.
Other awardees are: Kari Guajajara (Brazil), Rani Yan Yan (Bangladesh), Saadia Mosbah (Tunisia), Sarswati Nepali (Nepal), and Victorina Luca (Moldova). — NNN-ANDINA
