In commemoration of International Women's Day, there will be two screenings of the film We Women Warriorsin Washington DC.
About the film: In Colombia's war-torn indigenous villages, three brave women from distinct tribes use nonviolent resistance to defend their peoples’ survival. Warfare between the guerrillas, paramilitary groups, and armed forces imperils Colombia's 102 aboriginal groups, dozens of which face extinction because of the conflict. Trapped in a protracted predicament that is fueled by the drug trade, native women are resourcefully leading and creating transformation imbued with hope. We Women Warriors bears witness to neglected human rights catastrophes and interweaves character-driven stories about female empowerment, unshakable courage, and faith in the endurance of indigenous culture.
As part of DC Independent Film Festival, a free screening of the film will take place on Friday, March 8th, at noon. We hope you can join us for the film and a discussion with filmmaker, Nicole Karsin, and Omar Martinez, LAWG staff member. Admission is free, but tickets are required.
When: Friday, March 8 at 12:00 pm Where: DC Independent Film Festival, Voice of America (VOA) Building Auditorium, Wilbur J. Cohen Building. 330 Independence Ave. SW, Washington DC Tickets: Click here to purchase your tickets for Friday’s screening. Click here for the promotional flyer.
The second screening will be on March 11th, at the Gala Hispanic Theatre with a panel discussion featuring LAWG Executive Director, Lisa Haugaard, WOLA's Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, USIP's Virginia Bouvier, and filmmaker, Nicole Karsin. Tickets are a minimum of $5 for this screening, with a suggested donation of $15-20.
When: Monday, March 11 at 7:30pm Where: Gala Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th Street, NW, Washington DC Tickets: Click here to purchase your tickets. Click here for the promotional flyer.
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
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].
U.S. Security Assistance and Human Rights in the Americas Today: This Much at Least Must Be Done
Statement by Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director, Latin America Working Group Education Fund at the Just the Facts Conference: Security, Civil-Military Relations, and U.S. Policy in the Americas Today
September 28, 2012
How do you ensure that U.S. security assistance supports and does not undercut human rights?
As a human rights advocate, my best answer is quite simple: The United States should not provide training and assistance to highly abusive military or police forces.
However, the U.S. government often does give assistance and training to abusive security forces.
In those cases, at an absolute minimum, there must be enforceable human rights conditions over all military and police assistance, through all sources, including through the Defense as well as State budget, and the State Department and the Congress must be willing to enforce them.
US Office on Colombia and Latin America Working Group Education Fund Applaud Steps towards Peace Negotiations in Colombia
We applaud the announcement that the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have agreed to begin formal negotiations. We salute Colombia in this effort to bring a negotiated end to the nearly 50-year-old internal conflict. We also are encouraged to hear the National Liberation Army’s (ELN) stated willingness to enter into peace talks.
We believe it is imperative that combatants and civilians alike be guaranteed the full application of human rights and international humanitarian law protections throughout this process.
A lasting peace requires addressing the root causes of the conflict. The peace process must include substantial space for civil society involvement and input, including by women, Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities and other sectors brutally affected by the war, in order to ensure that historic underlying economic and social conflicts and decades of human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations by all parties to the conflict are addressed.
We hope that this initiative brings about the lasting peace with justice that Colombians long for and deserve.
On May 17, 2012, Lisa Haugaard, executive director of the Latin America Working Group Education Fund testified before the United States Congress Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the situation of human rights defenders in Colombia.
"The situation in 2012 continues to be grim," says Lisa Haugaard in the official testimony. "In the first three months of the year, 13 human rights defenders were assassinated, according to Somos Defensores, with 64 acts of aggression during that same period."
Hear LAWG's director talk on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview program about the "two Colombias": The one in which the war is winding down and all is going well; and the other one, in which hundreds of thousands of people are still fleeing their homes from violence, the army as well as guerrillas and paramilitaries are killing civilians, and the government is illegally wiretapping the institutions that are the basic building blocks of democracy.
Click here to listen to it on the Chicago Public Radio website.
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.
Although it was heartening to learn the news of the freeing of FARC kidnap victims in July, many other indicators of human rights in Colombia remain extremely troubling. The rate of internal displacement in Colombia accelerated in 2007 compared to the previous year, and remains at record-breaking levels in 2008, indicating that the war continues to rage in the countryside, brutally affecting the civilian population. Threats and attacks against human rights defenders continue, with assassinations of trade unionists increasing in 2008. Killings of civilians by the army escalated in 2007 and erupted into a major scandal in the last two months, forcing the government in October 2008 to announce long overdue dismissals of officers and resulting in the resignation of the head of the army. Paramilitary forces, despite the demobilization, exercise control in many parts of the country and threaten and abuse communities. Guerrillas are hard hit by army offensives but still exert control over territory, plant landmines, kidnap, and kill.
As the debate on the free trade agreement for Colombia heats up, the true human rights tragedy that is still taking place in that country should not be ignored. It is essential for the United States to insist upon improvements in human rights in Colombia, not to paint a rosy picture to secure a trade agreement. U.S. policy must take responsibility for the behavior of security forces trained with U.S. taxpayer dollars; take into account the continued suffering of the civilian population in the midst of an ongoing conflict; and support the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparations after a decade of atrocities. Here is a summary of recent human rights concerns.
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