by Lisa Haugaard and Omar Martinez
on January 29, 2013
January 2013
By: Lisa Haugaard and Omar Martinez, Latin America Working Group
Peace Process Advances; Civil Society Involvement in Peace Negotiations—or Lack Thereof; Colombian Congress Approves an Enormous Setback for Justice; 2012: A Year of Ups and Downs for Labor in Colombia
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by Colombia Land Rights Monitor
on January 28, 2013
The police tried to impede Trinidad Ruiz from looking for the bodies of her husband and son. They were disappeared by paramilitary forces on March 23, 2012. Manuel Ruiz, age 56, and Samir Ruiz, age 15, were executed. Their bodies were dumped in a river and discovered more than four days later by the surviving members of the Ruiz family who were accompanied by Colombian and international human rights organizations. More than eight months later, Mrs. Ruiz and her family are still searching for justice in the highest profile murder of 2012 in Colombia.....
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by Lisa Haugaard
on January 29, 2013
As Colombia's peace process advances, here are some words to live by.
“We can't condemn Colombians to another one hundred years of solitude and violence.”
--Enrique Santos Calderón, former editor of El Tiempo, brother of President Juan Manuel Santos
“It's one thing that the victims aren't present at the table in Havana, and it's another thing to ignore their voice, deny their rights. A peace without victims will have neither political nor moral legitimacy.”
--Senator Juan Fernando Cristo
"The dialogue for ending the armed conflict should be a moment in which sectors of Colombian society that have been marginalized, discriminated against and excluded have an opportunity to effectively present their demands, needs and rights that have long been neglected."
--Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos...
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by Omar Martinez
on January 17, 2013
It's go time! As we kick off 2013 and begin to work on our new year’s resolutions, we need YOUR help in pressuring the U.S. Embassy in Colombia to speak up for human rights defenders in Colombia. Afro-Colombian and indigenous leaders, labor activists and human rights defenders’ calls for protection have fallen on deaf ears and this needs to change!
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by Omar Martinez
on January 28, 2013
Expanding Military Jurisdiction in Colombia: A Major Setback for Justice
Versión en español.
January 28, 2013
Colombia’s recent passage [1] of a constitutional amendment that expands military jurisdiction in cases of human rights violations is a major setback for justice. The reform would allow grave human rights crimes to be investigated and tried by the military justice system, in direct conflict with years of jurisprudence of Colombia’s high courts and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights [2].
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by Lisa Haugaard
on December 14, 2012
On December 11, the day after International Human Rights Day, the Colombian Congress approved a justice “reform” bill that will likely result in many gross human rights violations by members of the military being tried in military courts—and remaining in impunity. The bill, along with a separate ruling by the Council of State, unravels the reforms put in place after the “false positives” scandal in which over 3,000 civilians were killed by soldiers.
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