EXPLORING THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR MINORITIES IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM- AN IACHR PERSPECTIVE My presentation today will focus mainly on two sets of minorities- Afrodescendants and indigenous peoples since these are the two main groups that come before the Commission. Religious minorities also have tremendous significance for the Americas, but as yet petitions and hearings are scarce in the Inter-American international human rights system. Undoubtedly, the region, like much of the rest of the world enjoys de jure equality in terms of general principles. The principle of equality and non-discrimination is entrenched in all of the legal systems in the hemisphere. It is a principle of jus cogens, also enshrined in the human rights instruments of the Inter-American System of Human Rights. It is therefore an universal principle. In our jurisprudence, Art 1 of the Convention, which contains these grounding principles, are applied globally throughout the system to every other human right, as a framing principle, including ECONSOC rights, which must also be granted without discrimination. While there is formal equality in terms of the legal framework, it is clear that in a number of important ways, there is de facto inequality, grounded in historical realities and paradigms that persist. This is very much evident in the criminal justice system, which might appear to be universally equitable, including in its mantra that every person is presumed innocent. Nevertheless, we observe clearly that minorities do not experience this presumption of equality, or often, even the presumption of innocence, in practice, whether we are examining the status of the minority individual at the point of entry / just before entry, into the criminal justice system, when he or she first comes into contact with the law, during a formal criminal process, the arrest or the trial, or indeed, afterward, at the sentencing and