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Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, and Cuba. Three Meetings for Afro-Descendant Parliamentarians in the Americas and Caribbean have been held since 2003. The last one was celebrated in 2005, in Costa Rica. It was there that the recently formed Black Parliament of the Americas established an essential network, for Afro-Descendant Legislators. This organized, Afro-descendant movement won a great, symbolic victory when 2011 was declared the International Year for People of African Descent (UN General Assembly Resolution No. 64/169). In 2015, the UN approved the start of the International Decade of People of African Descent (Resolution No. 6/237), with a view to the Durban Action Plan and in an attempt to reinforce the protection and promotion of Afro-descendants’ rights. Critical view If the launching of the aforementioned Decade could mark the beginning of real change regarding our search for state affirmative actions, the regional panorama in 2015 is noteworthy for the similarity of all its news and national realities, in this regard. The World Forum for Afro-Descendants and Human Rights should take place in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in November, but it was postponed until mid January. Meanwhile, a little covered (without so many cameras) Summit of Afro-Descendants was held in Harlem (NY) at the same time the UN General Assembly’s 70th session was taking place. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro attended the first, and ended his talk by saying that he would include objectives approved there in his government’s plan. Among the outstanding regional events, some that stand out are the First Latin American Summit for Afro-Descendant Women Leaders (in Managua, Nicaragua). Its final declaration requested the social inclusion of Afro-descendant women. On the subject of culture, the regional efforts of 15 countries to preserve Latin America’s Afro-Descendant Patrimony became a reality. Their meeting took place in Arica, Chile, and produced documentaries about music and dance. Their distribution will begin in March 2016. Regarding culture, UNESCO declared the marimba instrument an intangible patrimony for humanity, in early December 2015, as well as songs and dances of the Colombian South Pacific and Esmeraldas, Ecuador, and the Colombian vallenato. The issue of “Afro reparations” is a sensitive one for Afro-descendants. The most outstanding thing that took place along those lines in 2015 is, perhaps, was the call for reinforced justice, with the arrival of the International Decade and a will to compensate slave descendants for 500 years of slavery and disgrace. CARICOM’s campaign was promoted as of 2013, which took place over most of the year, but without great success. Even so, there is talk of new opportunities with the two world summits that will take place in the Caribbean (2016) and Europe (2017). More visible progress Perhaps Ecuador is the country where the most progress has taken place regarding affirmative action in 2015. In 61