Beyond the World Cup: A Retrospective of the Boycott Campaign

Beyond the World Cup: A Retrospective of the Boycott Campaign

“Release of the Boycott in Review”

By now, it’s clear that tightened coordination of our principled anti-imperialist resistance is required to effectively counter the state’s tactics to destabilize, divide, isolate, and intimidate our struggle for People(s)-Centered Human Rights. The recent Anti-Fascist Football Coalition Campaign to Boycott the 2026 World Cup not only led to deepened collaboration and unified efforts, but evidenced a trajectory of mass mobilization that, when politically grounded, broadened our base to reject the efforts of the U.S. state to normalize genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Now, with the Olympics slated to take place in Los Angeles in 2028, the reality of U.S.-led genocide, violence, and repression continues to be exposed with the settler state’s ongoing human rights violations across the globe, rejection of international law, and track record of targeting of athletes from oppressed and colonized nations who compete in events on U.S. soil. To strengthen the North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights’ ability to more effectively resist U.S. efforts to undermine human rights and international law domestically and globally with mechanisms like National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), the Project  has been engaging in retrospective and current analysis  to build on the momentum and coalitional work of the Campaign.

The “Boycott in Review” provides an overview of the Campaign’s political work that, when investigated, informs our next steps in collectively fighting back against U.S. rogue statism and toward efforts that advance People(s)-Centered Human Rights.

Share widely, initiate discussions, and get involved by joining the Global Network for the Advancement of People(s)-Centered Human Rights.

Give U.S. Fascism and War a Red Card: Refuse Acceptance of World Cup Trophy from Blood-Soaked Hands of U.S. Empire!

Give U.S. Fascism and War a Red Card!
Refuse Acceptance of World Cup Trophy from Blood-Soaked Hands of U.S. Empire!

The body count and war crimes of the fascist U.S. settler state mount with each passing day. On the first day of Operation Epic Fury launched against Iran, 168 Iranians, primarily children, in Minab were murdered in their classrooms by US missiles, and the slaughter of innocents by U.S. imperialist forces has continued unabated and unashamedly since.

From the lethal blockade on Cuba, the invasion of Venezuela, the renewed war on Iran, the U.S. occupation of Haiti, the forced extraction of resources in the Congo, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the blood of hundreds of thousands of victims of US imperialism covers the claws of the fascist U.S. regime.

Every week, the U.S. Gestapo, ICE, adds to the horrendous atrocities within the U.S.

As the World Cup entered the semifinals, ICE thugs murdered two immigrant fathers, Johan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, site of seven World Cup matches.

These crimes against humanity must have consequences, and the guilty must be brought to justice. We refuse impunity as a response to lawless U.S. war crimes and endless murders and aim to disrupt any and all normalization, complicity, and collusion with this blatantly fascist U.S. agenda for global domination.

To that end:

The Anti-Fascist Football Coalition (AFFC) urges the winner of the 2026 World Cup to refuse acceptance of the World Cup trophy from the blood-soaked hands of Trump and the U.S. state.

Do not let your historic victory be used to wash the image of the U.S. Empire.

If (and when) FIFA refuses to remove Trump from the Ceremony, AFFC urges the winners and runners-up to refuse a handshake from Trump, turn their backs on him, and not allow him to join them for the lifting of the trophy.

The Anti-Fascist Football Coalition insists that a moment of silence, a memorial tribute, be held before the final match kickoff for the 168 Iranians of Minab slaughtered by US forces and the two immigrant fathers murdered this week by ICE.

Six moments of silence have been held and broadcast so far within the tournament, to honor the Venezuelan earthquake victims, the death of South African footballer Jayden Adams, and the victims of the wildfires in southern Spain.

The U.S. and FIFA will not recognize the humanity of the 168 people that they directly murdered in Iran. We refuse their devaluation of non-white life and insist on their commemoration.

The AFFC will not be intimidated by the fearmongering tactics of U.S. repression and neutralization of those willing to stand up against fascism. Join us in the Global Network as we collectively struggle for People(s)-Centered Human Rights

Black Alliance for Peace New York City/New Jersey Endorses the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition’s Campaign to Move the World Cup from the U.S.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact
communications@blackallianceforpeace.com
(201) 292-4591 

Black Alliance for Peace New York City/New Jersey Endorses the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition’s Campaign to Move the World Cup from the U.S.

April 23, 2026 — The FIFA World Cup 2026 is scheduled to begin in the United States, Canada and Mexico on June 11, 2026. The Black Alliance for Peace New York City/New Jersey Citywide Alliance (BAP NYC NJ) is announcing its participation in the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition that has launched a coordinated campaign demanding that FIFA move these matches away from the United States. 

In 2026 alone, the U.S. kidnapped the president of Venezuela, waged a war of aggression against Iran, continued its genocide and war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, and, in an effort to implement regime change, created a humanitarian crisis in Cuba. In addition to these violations of international law, a mass deportation campaign has imprisoned thousands of people held in inhumane conditions, and athletes from countries such as Iran, which have qualified for the World Cup, have no assurance of safety while in the U.S. 

FIFA’s granting of World Cup hosting privileges lends an air of respectability to the winning nation and implies its compliance with international laws and norms of ethical behavior. The U.S. should not be granted even a symbolic seal of international approval when it is actively instigating what could become a world war and subjecting thousands of people to surveillance and incarceration, and even killing its own citizens, as ICE agents did during the Minnesota protests. ICE will bring that ability to use force to World Cup matches, making them unsafe for the participating athletes, spectators, and the community at large. MetLife Stadium, renamed the New York-New Jersey stadium for the World Cup, will host eight matches, including the final on July 19.

“FIFA is asking the world to celebrate in the shadow of the Delaney Hall immigration detention center,” said BAP Northeast Co-coordinator, JP Sloan. “The games are set to be hosted just a short 16-minute car ride away from Delaney Hall, the very location where a Haitian detainee, Jean Wilson Brutus, died while in ICE custody, and who still has not received justice. This is not a coincidence we are willing to ignore.” 

While FIFA placates the U.S. by making President Trump the first winner of the FIFA Peace Prize, the U.S. continues to kill workers and fishermen in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean regions bordering South America in order to manufacture a pretext for the illegal war against the nation of Venezuela. FIFA has made itself a partner in the active aggression against the Palestinian people by participating in the sham Board of Peace, which covers for the U.S./Israeli occupation of Gaza.  FIFA allows the U.S. to present itself as a country that respects civilized norms when, in fact, it violates them. Adding insult to injury, FIFA has pledged $50 million for a new stadium in Gaza, completely sidestepping the fact that Israeli military operations are the source of the crumbling football infrastructure and that over 800 athletes have been murdered since the start of the Gaza genocide.

Ewan, a BAP NYC NJ co-coordinator, pointed out the hypocrisy and the damage to FIFA and to the sport followed by millions of people throughout the world. “How does FIFA gain the authority to award a Peace Prize to the U.S. President while U.S. forces kill unarmed fishermen and workers in the Caribbean? It is not lost on any of us that this organization has gone out of its way to be an active participant in this malevolent whitewashing of war criminals.”

The United States is not an appropriate nation to host the World Cup or the Olympic Games in 2028. Nor should apartheid Israel be allowed to participate in these or any other international sporting events. It should be banned from these competitions, just as apartheid South Africa was banned.

As the World Cup begins in 51 days, the BAP NYC NJ Citywide Alliance strongly supports the demand to move the games. Keeping them in the U.S. would legitimize repression, genocide, human rights violations, and war crimes.  FIFA must move the games and boycott the U.S. until it has demonstrated that it is prepared to act as a responsible member of the world community.

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U.S. Global Lawlessness and Security Concerns for Non-White Nations and Their Fans Intensify Concerns that the U.S. is Not Appropriate Venue to Host World Cup

U.S. Global Lawlessness and Security Concerns for Non-White Nations and Their Fans Intensify Concerns that the U.S. is Not Appropriate Venue to Host World Cup

For Immediate Release
Contact: communications@blackallianceforpeace.com
(201) 292-4591

On April 6th, the Anti Fascist Football Coalition, a group of grassroots organizations in the three World Cup host countries - the U.S., Mexico, and Canada - delivered a petition to FIFA (signed by prominent individuals and organizations from every part of the planet) asking that FIFA and the International Olympic Committee demonstrate their stated positions on universal human rights and, as such, ban the United States and Israel from hosting or participating in international sporting events.

The Coalition is collaborating to implement shared strategies to demand that FIFA immediately remove the 2026 World Cup matches from the United States, and also calls on the international community to boycott the U.S. as a host nation for international sporting events.

Prior actions by the Coalition, including additional communications to FIFA, highlight the hypocrisy of their so-called “human rights statutes” when, historically, qualifying countries have been banned from participation in the Games for far less, such as the disqualification of Mexico in 1994 for incorrect paperwork. And yet, FIFA continues its shameless complicity with the U.S. agenda of global domination, no matter the cost of human and environmental life.

Brianna Alvarado Ramos, representing Diaspora Pa’lante Collective in the Anti Fascist Football Coalition, states that “The disqualification of the U.S. as both a host and participant is the bare minimum when we look at the U.S. warpath of barbaric and lawless acts of violence, repression, and genocide domestically and abroad - from the escalating economic strangulation of Cuba, the attacks on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its President, the ongoing U.S. occupation of Haiti, its brutal war on Iran, the subjugation and genocide of Palestinians, as well as the murder of working class people in the U.S. through both physical militarized forces and economic warfare.”

The past weeks have seen a clear build in momentum, internationally, with the demands to move the 2026 World Cup Games from the U.S. and hold FIFA accountable for its unwavering complicity in U.S. repression, lawlessness, escalating violence, and normalization of genocide. Dutch groups have collected nearly 200,000 signatories supporting their call to “Boycott the Trump World Cup.” Germany’s Fairness United is circulating their campaign and petition to “Love Football/Hate Fascism” with serious considerations to boycott matches held in the U.S. After the Trump administration openly disparaged Spain for its opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran, the Spanish government announced on March 3 that its national team’s withdrawal from World Cup participation is under consideration.

These actions echo the calls from several other countries, including Sweden, France, Switzerland, and, of course, Iran, where the Trump administration openly threatened the safety of their players should they choose to travel to and compete in the U.S.

The evidence as to why the World Cup Games must not be held in the U.S. continues to grow and there is nothing covert about the agenda of the U.S.state to use these mega events as direct pathways for militarized entities to further disappear and neutralize colonized and oppressed populations -  not just those living in the U.S., but also for international fans and players hoping to attend the matches. Just recently in Dallas, Texas, Iraqi football fans were physically and verbally harassed with threats to call ICE. In response, a countless number of fans reiterated that the U.S. is dangerous for anyone attending the Games.

The Coalition will continue to build resistance to FIFA’s complicity in U.S. lawlessness and genocide and invites the public to join in the Coalition’s Campaign to Boycott the World Cup and Boycott the U.S. at bit.ly/EndorseNow and learn more at https://peoplescenteredhumanrights.com/move-the-games/.

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Oppose the Normalization of Genocide and International Gangsterism!

Immediate Release
Contact Info:                                                        
communications@blackallianceforpeace.com 
(201) 292-4591

Oppose the Normalization of Genocide and International Gangsterism: Demand that the World Cup be Moved from the United States

Black Alliance for Peace’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights Calls on the Public and Nations to demand that FIFA move the Games out of the U.S. and take a stand for people-centered human rights.

January 13, 2026 - U.S. officials have chosen to operate outside the bounds of law and basic morality — from supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and illegal settlement expansion, to launching a direct military strike on Venezuela that kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, to escalating repression against migrants and racialized communities inside the U.S. itself that has even led to murder. These are not isolated policies, but interconnected expressions of an empire that uses illegal violence abroad and, in the U.S., to enforce dominance. BAP’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights believes that this disqualifies the U.S. from hosting the World Cup in 2026 and the Olympics in 2028.

Inside the U.S., state violence is increasingly directed at Black, Brown, and Indigenous people through dehumanizing rhetoric, mass surveillance, immigration raids, and impunity for law enforcement. Between January and October 2025 alone, ICE carried out an estimated 220,000 arrests — a record surge that underscores the regime of criminalization faced by migrants. Amid these raids, a 37-year-old woman, Renée Nicole Good, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis, an incident that has sparked outrage and raised deep concerns about unchecked state violence.

This same logic of domination underpins U.S. actions abroad and repression at home: a system in which “might makes right.” As a result, the communities most at risk from U.S. repression are also among the World Cup’s most passionate fans and among the Global South nations participating in the 2026 Games.

“Allowing the U.S. to host the World Cup or any other international games would be an affront to the victims of U.S. lawlessness and its support for an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people,” according to Ajamu Baraka, director of the BAP’s North-South Project. Baraka continues, “The U.S. is an unsafe and illegitimate host. FIFA’s own statutes commit it to respecting internationally recognized human rights, yet allowing the U.S. to host. At the same time,  it enables genocide, military aggression, racialized repression, and the mass criminalization of migrants, normalizing and legitimizing these crimes. In doing so, FIFA becomes complicit.”

The World Cup should not be used to launder state violence and normalize genocide and international gangsterism. Organizations and people of conscience must demand that FIFA move the Games out of the U.S. and take a stand for people-centered human rights rather than empire, repression, and impunity.

The Project will be releasing a video worldwide on January 15th, the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King that makes the claim for why the games must be moved from the U.S. BAP is asking for the international public to sign the petition to FIFA to move the games and for all people of conscience to boycott the U.S. until it is ready to join the community of nations as an equal partner committed to justice and upholding international standards of decency.

The North-South Project Reclaims Human Rights as People(s)-Centered

The North-South Project Reclaims Human Rights as People(s)-Centered

December 10th, International Human Rights Day, represents one year since the launching of the North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights. The North-South Project seeks to address the contradiction of the human rights idea being co-opted and instrumentalized as a weapon of white supremacist colonial domination and exploitation. The PCHR frame emerged to counter that. Rooted in the decolonization process, it gives the frame new content that emanates from the values, perspectives and needs of the peoples and nations of the global South that have been subjected to assaults on their humanity since Europeans spilled out of Europe into what became the “Americas” in 1492.

Some of the activities of the Project included the launch of a petition to demand that FIFA and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) ban the U.S. and Israel from participating in or hosting international sporting events, and a coalitional webinar to highlight sports as an arena for principled political struggle. The Project has also observed elections in Ecuador, connecting the process to the PCHR framework and has furthered solidarity with the “Children of the Malvinas” and supporting organizations, to demand people(s)-centered human rights for the people of Ecuador. The Project continues to disseminate a bi-monthly publication, the Bulletin on Domestic Militarism and Repression, connecting global militarism to domestic tactics of repression.

International Human Rights Day supposedly commemorates the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, originally proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948. Even in this year of its establishment, Eurocentrism corrupted the idea of human rights when Israel and South África were welcomed into the community of nations and the fact that both were racist settler colonialist states was ignored. Furthermore, the “global pledge” of the Declaration is rendered meaningless when the U.S. and Israel continue to commit daily barbarous acts of violence, displacement and genocide against the Palestinians, with neverending impunity. The UNSC continues to reinforce its standing as a legitimizing agency for U.S. full spectrum domination through its approval of the U.S. “Peace Plan” for Gaza, further oppressing Palestinians’ right to self-determination and calling it a “resolution,” as well as its recent vote on September 30 to intensify the U.S. occupation of Haiti via “gang suppression forces”, using militarized tactics to violently quell the will of the people and advance the U.S. settler colonial project. 

This is compounded by the UN’s theme for this year, claiming that human rights are prescriptive “everyday essentials” and that they are “attainable,” rather than fought for, further undermining the necessity for human rights to be grounded in self-determination and social struggle. The PCHR frame rejects this approach, understanding that the process of achieving true people(s)-centered human rights can only be driven by the people, within decolonized systems, through protracted struggle. 

With the intensification of the neofascist challenge, the Project intends to broaden the integration of the PCHR frame in 2026 through collective learning and building power with partner organizations globally to support the development of the agency of peoples to define and defend their human rights including the right to self-determination. 

Currently, the Project is building an anti-fascist football coalition with key organizations in the countries hosting the 2026 World Cup (Canada, Mexico, U.S.) that have been meeting to further a collective mission and implement objectives, strategies and tactics to move the games from the U.S. and deepen mass resistance from all of our bases. To highlight the contradictions, danger, and urgency of the U.S. as a World Cup hosting country, the Project is launching a series of media propaganda to broaden popular support for the demands of the petition. The first video launches today to reinvigorate the petition’s reach and expand the coalition of organizations in alignment with the stated demands. 

Further work for the Project is coordinated through the Global Network for the Advancement of People(s)-Centered Human Rights – a space that fosters connectivity, communication and cooperation that will facilitate information sharing and possible strategic collaborations between activists, researchers, educators, organizers and other interested individuals and organizations. Join the Global Network here to reclaim authentic People(s)-Centered Human Rights and further our collective resistance. 

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El Proyecto Norte-Sur Reivindica los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos

El 10 de diciembre, Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, se cumple un año desde el lanzamiento del Proyecto Norte-Sur por los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos. El Proyecto Norte-Sur busca abordar la contradicción de que la idea de los derechos humanos haya sido cooptada e instrumentalizada como un arma de dominación y explotación colonial supremacista blanca. El marco de los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos surgió para contrarrestar eso. Enraizado en el proceso de descolonización, dota al marco de un nuevo contenido que emana de los valores, perspectivas y necesidades de los pueblos y naciones del Sur global, que han sufrido ataques contra su humanidad desde que los europeos salieron de Europa hacia lo que se convirtió en las “Américas” en 1492.

Algunas de las actividades del Proyecto incluyeron el lanzamiento de una petición para exigir que la FIFA y el COI (Comité Olímpico Internacional) prohíban la participación o la sede de eventos deportivos internacionales a Estados Unidos e Israel, y un seminario web coalicional para destacar el deporte como un ámbito de lucha política con principios. El Proyecto también ha observado elecciones en Ecuador, vinculando el proceso al marco del PCHR y ha fomentado la solidaridad con los “Niños de las Malvinas” y las organizaciones de apoyo, para exigir derechos humanos centrados en las personas para el pueblo de Ecuador. El Proyecto continúa difundiendo una publicación bimestral, el Boletín sobre Militarismo Doméstico y Represión, que conecta el militarismo global con las tácticas de represión internas.

El Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos supuestamente conmemora el aniversario de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos, proclamada originalmente por la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas en París el 10 de diciembre de 1948. Incluso en este año de su establecimiento, el eurocentrismo corrompió la idea de los derechos humanos cuando Israel y Sudáfrica fueron aceptados en la comunidad de naciones, ignorándose el hecho de que ambos eran estados racistas, colonialistas y de colonos. Además, la “promesa global” de la Declaración pierde todo sentido cuando Estados Unidos e Israel continúan cometiendo a diario actos bárbaros de violencia, desplazamiento y genocidio contra el pueblo palestino, con una impunidad interminable. El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU sigue reforzando su papel como agencia legitimadora de la dominación estadounidense de espectro completo al aprobar el “Plan de Paz” de Estados Unidos para Gaza, oprimiendo aún más el derecho a la autodeterminación de los palestinos y llamándolo “resolución”, así como con su reciente votación del 30 de septiembre para intensificar la ocupación estadounidense de Haití mediante “fuerzas de supresión de pandillas”, utilizando tácticas militarizadas para reprimir violentamente la voluntad del pueblo y avanzar en el proyecto colonial de asentamiento de Estados Unidos.

Esto se ve agravado por el tema elegido por la ONU para este año, que afirma que los derechos humanos son “elementos esenciales cotidianos” prescriptivos y que son “alcanzables”, en lugar de algo por lo que se lucha, socavando aún más la necesidad de que los derechos humanos estén fundamentados en la autodeterminación y la lucha social. El marco de los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos (PCHR por su nombre en inglés) rechaza este enfoque, entendiendo que el proceso para lograr verdaderos derechos humanos centrados en los pueblos solo puede ser impulsado por el pueblo, dentro de sistemas descolonizados, a través de una lucha prolongada.

Con la intensificación del desafío neofascista, el Proyecto pretende ampliar la integración del marco PCHR en 2026 mediante el aprendizaje colectivo y la construcción de poder junto con organizaciones aliadas a nivel mundial, para apoyar el desarrollo de la capacidad de agencia de los pueblos para definir y defender sus derechos humanos, incluido el derecho a la autodeterminación.

Actualmente, el Proyecto está construyendo una coalición antifascista de fútbol con organizaciones clave en los países que acogerán la Copa del Mundo de 2026 (Canadá, México, EE.UU.), las cuales se han estado reuniendo para impulsar una misión colectiva e implementar objetivos, estrategias y tácticas para trasladar los partidos fuera de Estados Unidos y profundizar la resistencia de masas desde todas nuestras bases. Para resaltar las contradicciones, el peligro y la urgencia de que Estados Unidos sea un país anfitrión del Mundial, el Proyecto está lanzando una serie de piezas de propaganda mediática para ampliar el apoyo popular a las demandas de la petición. El primer video se lanza hoy para revitalizar el alcance de la petición y expandir la coalición de organizaciones alineadas con las demandas planteadas.

El trabajo adicional del Proyecto se coordina a través de la Red Global para el Avance de los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos, un espacio que fomenta la conectividad, la comunicación y la cooperación para facilitar el intercambio de información y posibles colaboraciones estratégicas entre activistas, investigadores, educadores, organizadores y otras personas y organizaciones interesadas. Únete a la Red Global aquí para reivindicar unos Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos auténticos y fortalecer nuestra resistencia colectiva.

Image: ©REMKO DE WAAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights Stands with the Community on the One Year Anniversary of the Murder of the “Children of the Malvinas”

North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights Stands with the Community on the One-Year Anniversary of the Murder of the “Children of the Malvinas”

Statement by Ajamu Baraka
Director, North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights

December 8, 2025

The Black Alliance for Peace’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights stands in solidarity with the families, legal representatives, the Solidarity Committee with the Four Children of Las Malvinas, organizations and social leaders, civil society and human rights defenders who are working to bring about accountability for the horrific murder of the four precious young boys known around the world as the “Children of the Malvinas” - Josué Didier, Ismael Eduardo Arroyo Bustos, Steven Gerald Medina Lajones and Nehemias Saul Arboleda Portocarrero.

We also condemn all actions on the part of state and non-state actors to intimidate those same family members, supporters and human rights organizations working on behalf of the “Children of the Malvinas.”

We support the decision by the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances to expand protections for the families and legal representatives of the “Children of the Malvinas.” In that declaration, the UN reaffirmed the responsibility of the state to provide security support during the judicial process.

With our presence, we reaffirm our commitment to honor the lives of these children and to continue to work internationally to ensure that there is accountability. The implications of this case reverberates well beyond Ecuador. The circumstances that led to the murder of these children are emblematic of the precarious existence and persistent devaluation of the lives of Afrodescendants throughout this region.

The fact that there exists a mindset among some people that they could torture and murder these children with impunity is a dramatic example of the vulnerability that so many people of African descent experience in this country and throughout this region because impunity for the murder of Black people is so much the norm.

Those days, however, are coming to an end. Afrodescendants understand they have human rights, including the most precious right of all – the right to life, and are demanding that those rights are recognized and are building, through organization, their capacity to defend their fundamental rights.

The Black Alliance for Peace reaffirms with our presence, and with the eyes of the world, that we will not allow the world to forget these children. Their lives had value, their families deserved to be able to believe that their children would be protected by the agents of the state, that their inherent dignity and human rights would be recognized.

Yet, that was not the case. Instead of security so often Afro-Ecuadorians feel that their rights are under constant threat because their inherent humanity is not recognized.

It is clear that within the traditional understanding of the human rights frame that the state has a responsibility to recognize, protect and fulfill the fundamental human rights of the individuals and collectives that reside in the state. This is an important principle.

However, that principle and responsibility reside side by side with the principle that the people themselves have a right to define and defend their rights. That is the essence of the People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework. It asserts that the ultimate source of human rights legitimacy emanates from the people and that the people have the fundamental right to protect their rights.

The communities of Guayaquil and throughout Ecuador have spoken. Through this case they are asserting their rights and their peoplehood. In that effort, individuals, peoples and states around the world are in solidarity as they assert their voice and presence.

Justice for the Children of the Malvinas!

Make Human Rights Real!

Thank you.

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El Proyecto Norte-Sur para los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos se solidariza con la comunidad en el primer aniversario del asesinato de los “Niños de las Malvinas”

Declaración de Ajamu Baraka
Director del Proyecto Norte-Sur para los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos

8 de diciembre de 2025

El Proyecto Norte-Sur para los Derechos Humanos Centrados en los Pueblos, de la Alianza Negra por la Paz, se solidariza con las familias, los representantes legales, la Mesa de Solidaridad por los 4 niños de las Malvinas, las organizaciones y lideres sociales, la sociedad civil y los defensores de los derechos humanos que trabajan para que se rindan cuentas por el horrible asesinato de cuatro niños muy queridos conocidos en todo el mundo como los “Niños de las Malvinas”: Josué Didier, Ismael Eduardo Arroyo Bustos, Steven Gerald Medina Lajones y Nehemias Saúl Arboleda Portocarrero.

También condenamos todas las acciones por parte de actores estatales y no estatales para intimidar a los familiares, simpatizantes y organizaciones de derechos humanos que trabajan en nombre de los “Niños de las Malvinas.”

Apoyamos la decisión del Comité de las Naciones Unidas sobre Desapariciones Forzadas de ampliar la protección a las familias y los representantes legales de los “Niños de las Malvinas.” En esa declaración, la ONU reafirmó la responsabilidad del Estado de proporcionar apoyo en materia de seguridad durante el proceso judicial.

Con nuestra presencia, reafirmamos nuestro compromiso de honrar la vida de estos niños y de seguir trabajando a nivel internacional para garantizar que se rindan cuentas. Las implicaciones de este caso repercuten mucho más allá de Ecuador. Las circunstancias que llevaron al asesinato de estos niños son emblemáticas de la precaria existencia y la persistente devaluación de la vida de los afrodescendientes en toda esta región.

El hecho de que exista una mentalidad entre algunas personas de que pueden torturar y asesinar a estos niños con impunidad es un ejemplo dramático de la vulnerabilidad que experimentan tantas personas de ascendencia africana en este país y en toda la región, ya que la impunidad por el asesinato de personas negras es la norma.

Sin embargo, esos días están llegando a su fin. Los afrodescendientes comprenden que tienen derechos humanos, incluido el más preciado de todos: el derecho a la vida, y exigen que se reconozcan esos derechos y están desarrollando, a través de la organización, su capacidad para defender sus derechos fundamentales.

La Alianza Negra por la Paz reafirma con nuestra presencia, y ante los ojos del mundo, que no permitiremos que el mundo olvide a estos niños. Sus vidas tenían valor, sus familias merecían poder creer que sus hijos estarían protegidos por los agentes del Estado, que se reconocerían su dignidad inherente y sus derechos humanos.

Sin embargo, no fue así. En lugar de seguridad, los afroecuatorianos sienten a menudo que sus derechos están constantemente amenazados porque no se reconoce su humanidad inherente.

Está claro que, dentro de la concepción tradicional del marco de los derechos humanos, el Estado tiene la responsabilidad de reconocer, proteger y cumplir los derechos humanos fundamentales de las personas y los colectivos que residen en él. Este es un principio importante.

Sin embargo, ese principio y esa responsabilidad coexisten con el principio de que los propios pueblos tienen derecho a definir y defender sus derechos. Esa es la esencia del marco de los derechos humanos centrados en los pueblos. Afirma que la fuente última de la legitimidad de los derechos humanos emana del pueblo y que este tiene el derecho fundamental a proteger sus derechos.

Las comunidades de Guayaquil y de todo Ecuador se han pronunciado. A través de este caso, están reivindicando sus derechos y su identidad como pueblo. En ese esfuerzo, individuos, pueblos y Estados de todo el mundo se solidarizan al hacer oír su voz y afirmar su presencia.

¡Justicia para los niños de las Malvinas!

¡Hagamos realidad los derechos humanos!

Gracias.