There will be no peace in Colombia while social segregation exists: UN poverty expert

BOGOTA (4 September 2024) – Peace in Colombia can only be achieved by addressing the country’s class divisions and widespread discrimination facing people in poverty, the UN’s independent human rights expert on poverty said today, ending a visit to the country.

“Rich and poor Colombians live worlds apart and these worlds very rarely collide,” said Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. “Yet unless eradicating poverty becomes a priority for all Colombians, no matter their income bracket, the vicious cycle of poverty and conflict will continue, and the country will never know peace.”

He warned that poverty was fuelling the ongoing conflict in Colombia – a conflict that has severely constrained the country’s socio-economic development, with extraordinarily high human and environmental costs.

“A lack of employment opportunities is making people in poverty an easy target for recruitment by non-state armed groups, and a lack of viable alternatives for coca farmers is leaving them with little choice but to continue growing illicit crops,” De Schutter said.

“Meanwhile, conflict is one of the principal causes of poverty in the country, with non-state armed groups forcing people to leave their homes and lands for fear of being caught in the crossfire, or forcibly confining them to their homes, making it impossible for them to attend school, work or healthcare facilities.

“Throughout Colombia, criminal gangs are also emptying the tills of small businesses through extortion and the pockets of desperate people through extortive money-lending.”

The Special Rapporteur expressed concern at the country’s social stratification system – whereby neighbourhoods are classified from 1-6, with six being the richest and one the poorest – calling the planning policy “institutionalised social segregation” and a major obstacle to eradicating poverty and achieving peace.

“While the idea that ‘higher’ strata residents pay more for their utilities to subsidise utilities in ‘lower’ strata is laudable, the unintended consequence has been to keep Colombians locked into their neighbourhoods,” the expert said.

“Given how little people of different income groups interact in Colombia – at school, in the workplace or in public spaces – it is little wonder that it would take 11 generations for a child born into a poor family to earn an average wage.

“Exacerbating this crisis of social mobility is the fact that Colombians have come to use the system to classify people, not just neighbourhoods, a clear case of the ‘povertyism’ that stigmatises those in lower strata and makes it harder for them to access decent jobs or public services.”

De Schutter welcomed plans to move away from social stratification towards a Universal Income Registry. He also commended recent government efforts to implement more progressive taxation, increase the minimum wage and improve the pension system, expressing hope that health and education reforms would also be approved as an important step towards addressing social segregation in a country in which “gaps in access to, and quality of, education and healthcare are vast”.

Referring to Colombia’s illegal drug trade – a major source of violence and poverty – the Special Rapporteur called for the full implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement, including supporting coca growers to substitute crops.

“Providing farmers with financial and technical assistance is not enough for crop substitution to work,” said De Schutter. “They also need improved access to credit and markets, and to obtain a decent price for their produce.”

He urged the international community to support Colombia’s efforts to identify human rights-based alternatives to the “war on drugs”, given the policy’s adverse impact on people in poverty.

The expert visited Bogotá, Soacha, Ciudad Bolivar, Cali and Buenaventura, meeting with people living in poverty, civil society groups and government officials.

“From community networks setting up schools, libraries and water projects, to social leaders and human rights defenders putting their lives at risk to protect others, ordinary Colombians are stepping in to fill gaps in public services and shield the most vulnerable from violence and hardship wrought by non-state armed groups and criminal gangs. If Colombian authorities are serious about ending poverty and achieving ‘total peace’, they should support and learn from their work,” De Schutter said.

The Special Rapporteur will present his final report on Colombia to the Human Rights Council in June 2025.