Cultural diversity is a characteristic feature of Colombia.Its entrenchment in the Constitution of 1991 was a decisive step towards the recognition of indigenous peoples and afro-descendants as communities deserving special protection.Such recognition is truly consequential in that, today, it is accepted that these communities are collective subjects with fundamental rights.Moreover the Colombian Constitutional Court has been careful to make clear that these fundamental rights are not equivalent to the individual rights that each member of the collective enjoys, stressing that these rights are not to be equated with the collective rights of other groups of people.This specific treatment granted to indigenous people and afro-descendants invites debate on the essential criteria that enable the characterization of a given community as well as the implications of recognizing such communities as legal entities.