Colombia is one of the countries with the most anti-discrimination laws in Latin America. In this rare legislative cocktail, there are very specific laws, such as the anti-discrimination law that criminalises discrimination, as well as more general laws, such as the law on harassment at work, which includes a clause prohibiting harassment based on race. Despite these various regulatory tools, the justice system has not succeeded in altering the situation of victims of racial discrimination. This is due to institutional barriers that make the anti-discrimination tools ineffective. These obstacles range from companies and public officials’ lack of capacity to process the complaints, to deficiencies in the design of legal mechanisms to address discrimination. This situation is clearly illustrated by the case of John Jak Becerra, who was a victim of racial discrimination in the workplace and who, despite his attempts to use all the mechanisms available to him, was forced to bear the impacts of racial discrimination at work. This led the Colombian Constitutional Court to hand down a ruling ordering the companies and the Ministry of Labour to adopt corrective measures on racial harassment in the workplace.