On Thursday, March 14, 2013, U.S. Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) circulated a House sign-on "Dear Colleague" letter addressing the ongoing peace talks between the Colombian Government and the FARC guerillas and how U.S. policy should emphasize and promote of human rights and support Colombia’s efforts to end the internal armed conflict.
A great way to make our legislators pay attention is to get their phones ringing off the hooks. Let’s give Washington a piece of our minds through thousands of phone calls that will tell them now is the time to support peace and justice in Colombia.
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2012 gave us the great news that the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas had begun to negotiate an end to the longest-running conflict in the Americas. 2013 gives YOU the chance to make an impact on U.S. policy regarding the peace process by taking an urgent action today!
Your mission? Get your representative in the House to sign this congressional Dear Colleague letter in support of the peace process in Colombia!
Click here to find out how!
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Current List of Co-Signers on this Letter
- Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) - Original co-signer
- Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) - Original co-signer
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We heard from our longtime LAWG partner Nancy Sánchez, who has worked many years in Putumayo, Colombia, about this sorry case of fumigation of pineapple crops of the Association of Women Pineapple growers, Oroyaco Hamlet, Municipality of Villagarzon, Putumayo.
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"What is going wrong in Colombia?" asks the coalition of human rights defenders in Colombia. The government of Juan Manuel Santos last year invested time and funding in mechanisms to protect communities and people at risk, among them human rights defenders.
And yet, in 2012, every five days a defender was assassinated in Colombia, and every 20 hours one defender was attacked. In 2012, 357 men and women in Colombia were attacked for their work as human rights defenders, according to Somos Defensores ("We Are Defenders"), which maintains a unified database of attacks against human rights defenders. Sixty-nine defenders were assassinated, a jump from 49 assassinations in 2011. Indeed, this is the highest number of aggressions against defenders registered by the database in the last ten years, and a 49 percent increase since 2011. The attacks include: 202 threats, 69 assassinations, 50 assaults, 26 arbitrary detentions, 5 forced disappearances, 1 arbitrary use of the penal system, 3 robberies of information, and 1 case of sexual violence...
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In commemoration of International Women's Day, there will be two screenings of the film We Women Warriors in 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.
Click here to see the film’s trailer.
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.
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Nowhere in the world is the situation for unionists more dangerous than in Colombia. Approximately 3,000 trade unionists and labor activists have been murdered since 1986, with the great majority of these cases still unresolved. Leaders routinely receive death threats and members of unions are fired as punishment for their membership. In order to help remedy the dire situation, the Labor Action Plan (LAP) was signed between the United States and Colombia in April 2011 as a forerunner to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The goal was to clean up the rampant labor rights violations and provide protection for workers’ rights. Unfortunately, progress has been slow and the abuses continue...
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Now is the time. With spring just around the corner, it’s time we all start thinking about Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia. Every year, communities across the United States come together and join in solidarity with our Colombian brothers and sisters in an effort to show policymakers that now is the time for real change in U.S.-Colombia policy.
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2012 has come and gone and Colombia still has far to go in following up on the Labor Action Plan (LAP). The Labor Action Plan was signed by both the U.S. and Colombian governments during the contentious debate for approval of the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. It was intended to serve as a road map to address severe labor rights problems in Colombia as well as the systemic problem of anti-union violence which has made Colombia in recent years the most dangerous country in the world to exercise worker rights...
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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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