2023-11-09 07:01:00
Peasant Reserve of the Amazonian Pearl © VMLY&R/WHISKEY
In the last five years, the Colombian State has responded insufficiently to the serious risks faced by the human rights defenders in the country, Amnesty International said today as it published a new report, Hope under risk: The lack of a safe space to defend human rights in Colombia continues. In the face of the crisis, Amnesty International urges the authorities to guarantee that human rights defenders have a conducive and safe space to do their work.
“Amnesty International has received countless complaints from human rights defenders in Colombia who suffer attacks and threats for the work they do. Between 2020 and 2023, we have observed that authorities have failed to adopt state actions to guarantee the collective protection of people who defend human rights, in particular, those who defend land, territory and the environment in different areas of the country. In the face of this crisis, our research makes clear the need for a strong, integrated and coordinated institutional response,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
In 2023, the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office indicated that the trend of murders of human rights defenders in the country is sustained over time and grows gradually. According to the We Are Defenders Program, 199 defenders were murdered in 2020; 139 in 2021, and 197 in 2022. As of September 2023INDEPAZ had already documented the murder of 127 personas with social leadership and human rights defenders, a provisional but alarming figure.
“The authorities have failed to adopt state actions to guarantee the collective protection of people who defend human rights, in particular, those who defend land, territory and the environment in different areas of the country”
Hope under risk recounts five cases of attacks and threats to human rights defenders in four regions of Colombia. Three of the cases have been monitored by Amnesty International since 2020 and this report presents an update on their situation. The other two cases correspond to human rights defense organizations located in Magdalena Medio, a region strongly affected by armed violence and where defending human rights is a high-risk activity.
The Federation of Artisanal Fishermen, Environmentalists and Tourists of Santander (FEDEPESAN) defends the water bodies of the Medium Cupcake and the way of life of the fishing people of the swamps that surround Barrancabermeja. FEDEPESAN brought together seven organizations of fishermen and persists in its defense of the environment in a context of attacks and threats. Yuly Velásquez, its president, has been attacked at least three times by armed people in recent years.
The Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS) has built a human rights defense network, also in the Medium Cupcake, which has been the subject of attacks and threats for decades. Since 1987 CREDHOS has defended human rights in the region, putting itself at risk from attacks that have materialized over the years in murders of members of the organization, and has forced some of its members into exile and forced internal displacement. Today CREDHOS has been recognized as a collective victim of the internal armed conflict and continues its work to defend human rights.
The Association for Sustainable Comprehensive Development of the Amazon Pearl (ADISPA) defends the Amazon rainforest and the peasant way of life in Putumayo. The objective of the organization, made up of peasant families, is to manage the Peasant Reserve Area of the Pearl of the Amazon. Jani Silva and other members of ADISPA have been attacked and threatened on countless occasions over the last five years, especially for their work in environmental conservation and monitoring biodiversity and water in the territory.
The indigenous community of ASEIMPOMEafter more than 30 years of suffering attacks and violence, resists and remains in its ancestral territory in the Meta. Upon returning to their territory in 2015, the community faced attacks and harassment to prevent them from staying in the area. Some of the attacks have consisted of invasions of community property, fires to their homes, and threats to their traditional authorities.
He Catatumbo Social Integration Committee (CISCA) promotes the rights associated with the land of the peasantry that live in the Catatumbo, in the face of violence, exclusion and poverty. The peasant families of Catatumbo have historically been marginalized and have suffered disproportionately from the impact of the armed conflict and the forced eradication of coca leaf crops. Currently, although violence has decreased, the peasantry that CISCA accompanies face a socioeconomic crisis that seriously threatens their access to economic and social rights.
In addition to the particular cases, the report presents a general analysis of the collective protection situation of defenders of land, territory and the environment in Colombia. Amnesty International analyzes the last two years of the government of President Iván Duque and the first of President Gustavo Petro. During the close of Iván Duque’s presidential term, despite the multiple warnings and recommendations made by human rights defense organizations, platforms and international organizations, including Amnesty International, the government insisted on adopting counterproductive measures to protect defenders, such as creating parallel mechanisms to those existing through the Timely Action Plan, and resisted compliance with the commitments that were agreed in this regard in the 2016 peace agreement, such as guaranteeing the correct functioning of the National Guarantees Commission of security. Gustavo Petro’s government began with declarations of intention to change the situation, the adoption of an emergency plan for the protection of defenders and the beginning of efforts to reach medium and long-term solutions. Despite this change of course, Amnesty International was able to verify that violence against human rights defenders continued during his mandate, both in terms of general figures and with respect to several of the cases documented in the report.
“Colombian authorities must adopt collective protection measures to address the structural causes of the risk in which defenders and their communities are immersed, especially in the cases of those who defend land, territory and the environment. These measures must seek the complete mitigation of the causes that generate violence from a comprehensive and intersectional approach,” said Ana Piquer.
“By mitigating the structural causes, not only are they protected, but their other rights will be guaranteed. We welcome that the government has announced in recent months a strengthening of the strategy for adopting collective protection plans, but we urge that state intervention be complete, comprehensive and coordinated.”
The appropriate protection approach to address and mitigate the structural causes of violence against human rights defenders is collective protection, complementary to individual protection and based on an intersectional approach that adequately measures the particular needs and risks of the defenders. women, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant and peasant communities, boys and girls, LGBTIQ+ people, rural communities and other historically marginalized or discriminated groups. Amnesty International calls on the Colombian government to continue its drive to adopt measures with this approach and, ultimately, protect in the best possible way individuals, groups and communities that defend human rights.
Hope under risk is an update to the report Why do they want to kill us? The lack of a safe space to defend humans in Colombiaand follows up on the investigation that was carried out at that time on the situation of violence against human rights defenders in Colombia.
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