Final Statement of the Workshop on Colonization, Decolonization and Neocolonialism from the Perspective of Justice and the Common Good

2023
Statement
31 March
Esp

Final Statement of the Workshop on Colonization, Decolonization and Neocolonialism from the Perspective of Justice and the Common Good

African and American Intercontinental Meeting of Judges for Social Rights and the Franciscan Doctrine

Final Statement of the Workshop on Colonization, Decolonization and Neocolonialism from the Perspective of Justice and the Common Good
Photo: Gabriella C. Marino

We, the participants in this meeting, recognize and remember the struggles for human rights sustained for centuries by the peoples of Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean. In particular, we value those who have played a leading role in the defense of the rights of ethnic, gender, religious, cultural and linguistic minorities against all forms of discrimination. They have claimed freedom and equality of all those who constitute the human fraternity and defended their common good.

Therefore, we repudiate all forms of domination, violence and intolerance. We promote dialogue and respect for the cultural and religious identities of societies and their historical traditions, as individual and collective manifestations of resistance to the economic, political, military and cultural hegemonies imposed by Europe outside Europe, especially since 1492.

We appreciate yesterday’s Statement of the Holy See (March 30, 2023), according to which the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” affirmed in Papal Bulls since the 15th century is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Migration is “a condition shared by all humanity” (Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 2017, 1). The human catastrophes of the 21st century, marked by the vectors of war and terror, structural inequality, and environmental collapses, contribute to levels of mass displacement and induce numbers of refugees unseen since World War II. Globally, more than 100 million people are displaced as a result of extreme social, economic and environmental conditions.

Those of us gathered here, sponsor and defend decolonial and decolonizing cultures as a necessary basis for the juridical-political cultures of the academic formation of Magistrates, whether they are Defenders, Prosecutors or Judges, as well as those who conceive and promote access to justice for the legally weaker, i.e. all those people who are discarded by the system.

We, lay and religious, in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, aware of the

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We, the participants in this meeting, recognize and remember the struggles for human rights sustained for centuries by the peoples of Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean. In particular, we value those who have played a leading role in the defense of the rights of ethnic, gender, religious, cultural and linguistic minorities against all forms of discrimination. They have claimed freedom and equality of all those who constitute the human fraternity and defended their common good.

Therefore, we repudiate all forms of domination, violence and intolerance. We promote dialogue and respect for the cultural and religious identities of societies and their historical traditions, as individual and collective manifestations of resistance to the economic, political, military and cultural hegemonies imposed by Europe outside Europe, especially since 1492.

We appreciate yesterday’s Statement of the Holy See (March 30, 2023), according to which the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” affirmed in Papal Bulls since the 15th century is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Migration is “a condition shared by all humanity” (Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 2017, 1). The human catastrophes of the 21st century, marked by the vectors of war and terror, structural inequality, and environmental collapses, contribute to levels of mass displacement and induce numbers of refugees unseen since World War II. Globally, more than 100 million people are displaced as a result of extreme social, economic and environmental conditions.

Those of us gathered here, sponsor and defend decolonial and decolonizing cultures as a necessary basis for the juridical-political cultures of the academic formation of Magistrates, whether they are Defenders, Prosecutors or Judges, as well as those who conceive and promote access to justice for the legally weaker, i.e. all those people who are discarded by the system.

We, lay and religious, in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, aware of the values of freedom and equality, of the inviolability of the human person and of his or her dignity, as they are concretely embodied our communities, our peoples and nations, advocate forms of common coexistence and peace in each and every region of the world. This is an essential condition to be able to bequeath our planetary Pacha Mama to future generations, thus guaranteeing the perpetuity of life, of ourselves and of future living beings.

Undersigned by the participants today, Friday, March 31, 2023, at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Vatican City.

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