Stand by Colombia's Victims of Violence

July 9, 2012

Today the US Office on Colombia (USOC) and the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) in partnership with Colombian and international organizations released the final report of the International Verification Mission on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia. See the English version here and the Spanish version here. The report includes the findings of the 40-person mission conducted November 28-December 2, 2011 which show continued violations of the rights of human rights defenders despite a positive change in discourse at the national level. The mission, comprised of jurists, journalists and human rights activists from 15 different countries, visited eight regions of Colombia and verified firsthand the situation of human rights defenders with respect to five thematic areas identified by the Campaign for the Right to Defend Human Rights: impunity, baseless prosecutions, misuse of state intelligence information, systematic stigmatizations and structural problems with the protection program for defenders at risk.  

The report reveals that human rights defenders continue to face threats, attacks and stigmatizations at alarming levels and that the welcomed change in discourse at the national level has not yet been translated into effective policy, especially at the regional level. It also shows that impunity for such crimes is extremely high.

The Somos Defensores ("We are Defenders") database shows that there were 239 acts of aggression against human rights defenders in Colombia in 2011, including 49 assassinations.

"The experience of the Mission just reinforced for me that until there are significant advances in terms of impunity levels, human rights defenders in Colombia will continue to be at grave risk due to the very exercise of their rights," says Dana Brown, Executive Director of USOC.

"Human rights defenders of all descriptions in Colombia still face terrifying threats, and these threats translate to physical attacks, forced disappearance and murder," said Lisa Haugaard, executive director of LAWGEF. "While threats come from all directions, including guerrillas and members of the armed forces, many are from paramilitary successor groups. Our mission found that regional authorities' denial of the existence of paramilitary successor groups contributed to their failure to take serious measures to protect human rights defenders."  

The report calls on the Colombian government to take concrete, effective steps to reduce the levels of impunity and effectively dismantle the illegal armed groups that are responsible for the majority of the aggressions against human rights defenders in Colombia.

For more information, contact:
Dana Brown, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 202-232-8090 (office)
Lisa Haugaard, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , (202) 546-7010 (office)

By: Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director 6/8/12

Meeting with Colombian President Santos following the Summit of the Americas, President Obama declared that the Colombian government had met the terms of the Labor Action Plan, allowing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement to take effect May 15th. The Latin America Working Group joined U.S. and Colombian unions and nongovernmental groups in condemning this action, which makes a mockery of the commitment Mr. Obama made to ensure that all the elements of the Labor Action Plan would be fulfilled.

A week after President Obama made this announcement, trade unionists belonging to the SINTRAEMCALI union received invitations to their own funeral, with two bullets, two roses and a prayer book. Thirty trade unionists were killed in 2011, and at least four were killed so far this year. While the Colombian government has improved protection programs for trade unionists, a positive impact of the plan, most of the killers of trade unionists remain free, and threats are rarely even investigated.

In other violations of the Labor Action Plan, it continues to be a common practice to fire workers who wish to affiliate with a union or who were engaged in organizing, and then to rehire workers willing to sign letters saying they are not affiliated with a trade union. The Colombian government issued regulations to ban "labor cooperatives" that undermine unions (they act as if workers are self-employed, so that the companies that hire them need not abide by labor law), but has failed to address other similar arrangements with different names. Many companies, including in sectors such as sugar, oil palm, coffee, health, mining, ports and transport, are forming associations with other names to skirt the cooperatives ban.

Leo Gerard, President of the Steelworkers Union, declared, "We cannot certify as compliant with the Labor Action Plan a blacklisted country that continues to countenance murder. That would violate everything good and moral that we stand for as a people." We agree with him. LAWG will continue to work with unions, NGOs and interested members of Congress to put pressure on both governments to ensure full implementation of the Labor Action Plan.

By Eric Oliver and Vanessa Kritzer

This April, LAWG worked with a large coalition of faith-based and human rights organizations to make the 7th  Annual Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia a huge success.  Every week in Colombia last year, more than 2,250 people were violently pushed off their lands and left homeless.  With this in mind, we focused our efforts on spreading one simple message: everybody deserves a place to call home. 

In order to raise awareness about the scale of Colombia’s displacement crisis, more than 100 communities took part in our grassroots project, “A Place to Call Home: Hand in Hand for Peace in Colombia.” From San Francisco to New York, Chicago to Miami, people gathered in community centers, churches, and college campuses to learn about Colombia and join in the effort to create 5,200 paper houses to symbolize the yearning for home of 5.2 million displaced Colombians. The results were inspiring and imaginative.  These homes were displayed publicly throughout April to raise awareness, and photos of the events were shared on our facebook page to show solidarity between groups in the U.S. and Colombia. In May, these houses will be delivered to the White House along with 15,000 postcards asking President Obama to make meaningful changes in U.S. policies towards Colombia.

But that’s not all! In addition to crafting, activists made their voices heard through organizing lobby days, holding prayer services, and signing an online petition asking Congress to stop funding the war and to increase aid for displaced people and refugees.  We planned our main weekend of action to coincide with the Summit of the Americas, in which leaders from across the Western Hemisphere gathered in Cartagena, Colombia. Through letters to the editor, radio interviews, and coordinating with Colombian partners planning a vigil in Cartagena, we focused press attention onto the displacement crisis and amplified our call to support victims of violence and those working for peace in Colombia.

We owe a big thanks to everyone who helped us with this wonderful project. By working together, we have gained amazing momentum in the movement for better U.S. policies towards Colombia. Now we can’t wait to start planning for next year!

Wow.  What an incredible display of solidarity we saw this year!

Thanks to your help, this year’s 7th Annual Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia was a huge success!  Here at LAWG we are super impressed with how many of you got involved.  Whether by creating paper homes, sending postcards to President Obama, or signing our Petition to Congress—you helped make sure our message was heard loud and clear: everybody deserves a place to call home.  Together, we raised our voices to call for an end to the world’s largest displacement crisis that’s left millions of Colombians homeless. 

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."

To view the testimony in English, click here.

To view the testimony in Spanish, click here.

“Very few people have been found, so the question’s always there: how do we talk about them?  Is or was?  Presence or absence?” 

It’s hard to understand what exactly it means to be disappeared.  One day a daughter, father, or aunt is there, and the next they aren’t.  Families are left to search endlessly for their loved ones, meeting immense resistance from the government, and all the while never knowing if their loved one is across town or across the country, dead or alive.  

Write a Letter to the Editor: Call for U.S. policies to support a place to call home for everyone in Colombia!
Did you hear what President Obama did while in Colombia last weekend? Despite ongoing murders of union leaders and land rights activists, he glossed over all the human rights violations, ignored the continuing displacement crisis, and announced that Colombia had fulfilled its requirements on labor rights that would allow the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement to go into effect on May 15.

Click here to set the record straight on what’s really happening in Colombia!

Conflict, Violence, and Murders of Colombian Activists Concern U.S. Groups

The Latin America Working Group (LAWG), Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), U.S. Office on Colombia (USOC), Center for International Policy (CIP), and the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) urge President Obama to refrain from declaring that key elements of the Labor Action Plan (LAP) linked to the Free Trade Agreement have been effectively implemented at this week’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia or in his subsequent meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The labor and human rights situation in Colombia has not improved sufficiently to implement the Free Trade Agreement.
 
On April 7, 2011, the U.S. and Colombian governments announced the signing of the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP). In it, both governments expressed their commitment to provide a level playing field of economic opportunities for U.S. sectors as well as guarantees that Colombian workers would “have acceptable working conditions and respect for fundamental labor rights.” The Colombian government confirmed its obligation to protect internationally recognized labor rights, prevent violence against labor leaders, and prosecute the perpetrators of such violence. The LAP spells out critical changes needed to protect trade unionists, guard against labor rights abuses, eliminate the abusive associative labor cooperative (CTA) model, and advance prosecutions of perpetrators of anti-labor violence. The U.S. government announced that it was committed to reforming the security environment for all Colombians, addressing the needs of victims, and enhancing rule of law. Implementation of the key elements of the LAP is a precondition for the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement to enter into effect.
 
It is premature for the United States to declare sufficient progress under the terms of the LAP. In doing so, the U.S. government would lose a tremendous political opportunity to significantly improve labor rights in Colombia. While a number of laws and regulations have been issued, key elements of the LAP remain unfulfilled as evidenced in Colombia’s failure to fully ban problematic associative labor cooperatives and other forms of labor intermediation that bust unions. Furthermore, in priority sectors of the LAP including sugar and ports, businesses are turning to CTA-like models with different names to employ workers and deny them their rights. The Colombian government is not acting effectively to prevent this, as conditioned by the LAP. It remains a common practice to fire workers who wish to affiliate with trade unions and then to stigmatize these workers so that they cannot find employment elsewhere, driving them into poverty.
 
Union activists remain in grave danger in Colombia. Thirty trade unionists were murdered in 2011, and 4 unionists were killed so far in 2012. The security situation for human rights defenders significantly deteriorated in 2011 with attacks increasing by 36% compared to 2010. Of the 49 human rights defenders killed in 2010, 19 were indigenous leaders. Colombia needs to enforce the rule of law in order to send the signal to perpetrators that it will not tolerate further attacks against trade unionists, human rights, and community activists or other human rights violations.
 
Instead of making progress, Colombian government is taking steps backwards on human rights crimes. Military justice legislation under consideration by the Colombian Congress could lead to the prosecution of many kinds of human rights crimes committed by the military to return to military courts, thus rolling back historic advances in Colombian justice. The “legal framework for peace” bill would allow the judiciary to suspend existing sentences for any crimes committed by actors in the armed conflict. Not only do such provisions constitute a major boost towards guaranteeing impunity for human rights abuses, they also constitute a breach of the human rights conditions tied to U.S. military assistance towards Colombia.
 
While the Santos administration has improved its public rhetoric regarding human rights, the steps it has taken have failed to adequately improve protections for human rights defenders. President Santos’ flagship victims and land restitution law, an initiative we support in essence, is severely lacking in protection for victims. Even before the law has been fully applied, 26 land rights activists were killed during the Santos administration. Furthermore, new victims continue to be created in Colombia due to ongoing forced displacement linked to the conflict and abuses committed by the armed groups. For effective protection of communities, land rights activists, trade unionists, and human rights defenders to take place, the U.S. must express its grave concern for the expansion of paramilitary groups and encourage bold efforts to dismantle their operations. The Colombian government also needs to develop a well-financed and coordinated civilian agency plan to protect land rights activists and communities through careful consultation with affected parties.
 
Rather than making premature judgments about progress in labor and human rights—judgments that are not supported by facts—the United States should use the opportunity of the meeting in Cartagena to encourage its ally to make further reforms. Finally, the U.S. government should respond to a historic opportunity presented by the release of hostages—and the announcement by the FARC guerrillas that they are abandoning kidnapping for profit—to encourage a negotiated solution to the protracted conflict that has undermined security and human rights in Colombia for many decades.

For further information please contact:

Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director, Latin America Working Group (LAWG)
(202) 546-7010

Gimena Sanchez, Senior Associate, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
(202) 797-2171

Dana Brown, Executive Director, U.S. Office on Colombia (USOC)
(202) 232-8090

Abigail Poe, Deputy Director, Center for International Policy (CIP)
(202) 232-3317

Stephen Coats, Executive Director, U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP)
(773) 262-6502

As the National Days of Action for Peace in Colombia begin this week, I wanted to share the original poem "They Don't Believe Us" that Colombian human rights defender, Orlando Bolaños, read aloud to me when I visited him on a human rights verification mission in December.