Colombia must act to stop killings and attacks against human rights defenders - UN expert

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BOGOTA (3 December 2018) – Since the adoption of a peace agreement in Colombia two years ago there has been a dramatic increase in the number of killings, threats and intimidation of human rights defenders in the country, a UN human rights expert said today.

“As Colombia is turning the page on decades of armed violence, there is a collective and historic responsibility to protect those who dedicate their lives to the realisation of human rights and peace building,” said Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

He said the increased violence levelled against human rights defenders comes as the general homicide rate has fallen by some 40 percent.

“Human rights defenders in Colombia are operating in a coercive and unsafe environment,” Forst said at the end of a 14-day visit to Colombia. “Not only that, they are also depicted by different sectors of society as guerrillas, ‘the internal enemy’, ‘informants’, or as being ‘anti-development’.

“In rural areas, where the State absence is coupled with a heavy presence of organised and illegal armed groups, defenders are an easy target for those who see them and their human rights agenda as an obstacle to their interests,” warned the expert. “I was stunned to learn that for US$100 anyone could ‘get away with murder’, or at least hire a hit-man (sicario).”

Forst met with more than 200 human rights defenders, most of them women, from various regions. “I have received dozens of testimonies indicating widespread and extreme violence against social leaders, community leaders, small-scale peasants, indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians, as well as against women human rights defenders,” he said.

“Human rights defenders who are most at risk in the post-accord era, are social and community leaders, and members of the presidencies of the Juntas de Acción Comunal […]. At particular risk are defenders that support policies derived from the Peace Agreement, such as the Comprehensive Program for Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS) and that claim land restitution.

“I am concerned that human rights defenders will not be safe in Colombia, as long as impunity persists. This is one of the areas that needs to be addressed urgently.”

Forst welcomed the commitment of the Government to adopt and implement a comprehensive public policy on human rights defenders and to recognise their important work. He called for the policy to be developed swiftly with the active participation of defenders and civil society.

On the final day of his visit, the expert delivered an end of mission statement with a series of recommendations to the Colombian authorities and other actors to improve the protection of human rights defenders.

ENDS

Mr. Michel Forst (France) was appointed by the Human Rights Council as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in 2014. Mr. Forst has extensive experience of human rights issues and specifically of the situation of human rights defenders. He was the Director General of Amnesty International (France) and Secretary General of the first World Summit on Human Rights Defenders in 1998. He is a former UN Independent Expert on the human rights situation in Haiti.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

UN Human Rights, Country Page: Colombia

For additional information, please contact: Adriana Zarraluqui +41 79 444 5172 (before/during the dates of the visit) / azarraluqui@ohchr.org)
For media requests and queries relating to the press conference on 3 Decemberplease contact, in Bogota, Diana Losada Castaño, Coordinator of the Public Information unit of OHCHR Colombia Office, dlosada@ohchr.org | +57 3212841580

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts: Jeremy Laurence (+ 41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org)

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