Stand by Colombia's Victims of Violence

Hear What We Hear: Human Rights NOW

by Lisa Haugaard, Vanessa Kritzer, and Jenny Johnson on October 09, 2009
They don't get it... yet.

Although we now have new leadership in Washington, they still don't understand what they need to do to stand up for human rights. They think that by saying more about the importance of human rights and democracy than the Bush Administration did, they are making progress. But we know that until they actually change U.S. policies to support victims of violence in places like Mexico and Colombia, they will continue to be a part of the problem, not the solution.

Now, if we can get them to hear what we hear from people in Mexico and Colombia and know what we know, they might change their tune.

So, this month we are launching a "Human Rights NOW" campaign, which will use innovative tactics to get them to make human rights come first in U.S. policy.

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:2009, Action Alerts, Action Alerts
 

Actions Speak Louder Than Words for Mexico and Colombia

by Vanessa Kritzer, Lisa Haugaard, and Jennifer Johnson on October 02, 2009
Actions speak louder than words.

This seems like a simple concept. But lately, the Obama Administration and the State Department seem to have forgotten it when dealing with Latin America. Despite serious human rights abuses by Colombian and Mexican security forces alike, the State Department just went ahead and declared that both countries were meeting the human rights requirements needed in order to receive more U.S. military aid.

Click here to send a fax to Secretary of State Clinton asking her to stand up for human rights!

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:2009, Action Alerts, Action Alerts
 

LAWGEF Comments on the Pending U.S. Trade Agreement with Colombia

by Vanessa Kritzer and Lisa Haugaard on September 15, 2009

Today, LAWGEF joined labor, environmental, human rights, development and faith-based organizations in submitting written comments to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in response to a formal request to the public for opinions on the pending trade agreement. In their comments, these groups outlined the specific human rights and labor problems in Colombia, and urged the Obama Administration to insist upon seeing fundamental improvements on these issues before going forward with a free trade agreement.  Violence against trade unionists and other obstacles to worker rights were outlined by the AFL-CIO and US Labor Education in the Americas Project.  Some groups also outlined the potential impact of the trade agreement on the rural poor, including Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Colombia, LAWG/LAWGEF Statements, Memos, and Speeches, Lisa Haugaard, Vanessa Kritzer
 

Colombia's Intelligence Agency: Spying on Democracy

by Vanessa Kritzer on October 01, 2009
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:2009, Nongovernmental Letters on Human Rights and U.S. Aid to Colombia
 

Activists Rally to Support Colombia's Broken Hearted: We've Got the Pictures!

by Vanessa Kritzer on September 14, 2009

Last week, a group of intrepid activists came together to raise awareness about the serious human rights issues that the Colombian government is seeking to hide with their recent campaign “Discover Colombia through its Heart.” Here are some great pictures shot of actions during the week by Brandon Wu from Public Citizen.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Colombia, Vanessa Kritzer
 

CRLN Comments Submitted to the USTR Concerning Free Trade Agreement With the Republic of Colombia

by Vanessa Kritzer on September 22, 2009
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:2009, Nongovernmental Letters on Human Rights and U.S. Aid to Colombia
 

Oh, No, Not Again. State Department Certifies Colombia

by Lisa Haugaard on September 11, 2009

Just as the Bush Administration did countless times before, the Obama Administration certified on September 8th that Colombia meets the human rights conditions in law. The conditions, which refer to gross violations of human rights by Colombia’s security forces and collaboration between those forces and paramilitary or other illegal armed groups, are attached to thirty percent of Colombia’s military aid.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Colombia, Lisa Haugaard
 
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