states have been proactive in ratifying laws that protect ethnic minorities in Latin America and the Caribbean, but Afro-descendants do not benefit much from these laws. Self-identification as an 'ethnic minority' for Afro-descendants has been problematic. Some Afro-descendants defend the term Afro-descendant peoples whereas others agree with the use of ethnic minority as the ideal concept to identify them as a group or population. In any case, most Afro-descendants support an effective human rights protection regime as a key tool to help overcome their historical problems. This article studies in depth the crucial importance for Afro-descendants of enhancing this still-weak regime. The text represents one of the few works of its kind that explores in detail the limitations of the Afro-descendants' human rights struggle in the region