IV FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES "Guaranteeing the Rights of Minority Women" Geneva, 29 and November 30, 2011 "Guaranteeing the Rights of Young Women of African Descent in the XXI Century" LICDA. ANGIE CRUICKSHANK L.i Director Caribbean Project Association, Costa Rica Mrs. President, Comrades, I have the honor to address you for several roles, as women, young, African descent, a lawyer by training, activist by conviction; as director of the Caribbean Project Association of Costa Rica and coordinator of World Youth Summit 2011 African descent. The Caribbean Project Association, as well as a large number of networks and women's organizations, and mixed, have been fighting steadily for the promotion and protection of the fundamental rights of women of African descent in the Americas. In the XXI century, women of African descent, particularly young women, continue to face significant problems in critical areas for full development. According to their practical needs, it has been identified the need to increase their income is identified, improve their access to jobs in the formal sector, and increase their ability to generate income in the informal sector; improve their overall health, and the full enjoyment of sexual and reproductive rights, and prevent HIV / AIDS. At the level of long-term strategic interests, the need to overcome their invisibility in poverty statistics, improve their level of formal education, vocational, technical and technological; overcome discrimination in access to education. And to have an inclusive education that reflects the culture, history and contributions of people of African descent to the development of States; create new opportunities for access to the labor market and decent employment; as well as recreational spaces that promote healthy lifestyles; improve their political participation at all levels; overcome sexual, physical, psychological violence, and prevent that in women and girls become victims of trafficking. Similarly, it is highlighted the lack of real opportunities for the establishment of economic enterprises, manifested among other things by poor access to credit resources, coupled with the problems facing many African Descent communities in the Americas on tenure and titling of ancestral territories. In particular I refer to the situation faced by women and Afro-descendant families of Costa Rican South Caribbean, which today are fighting against the demolition of their homes and commercial establishments located in ancestral territories. In disregard of the right they have under instruments such as the Declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities whose art. 5 in accordance with art. 1 states that