LAWGEF Reports on Colombia

Still a Dream:  Land Restitution on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast
New report from Latin America Working Group Education Fund &
 Lutheran World Relief

Despite the promises of Colombia’s positive Victims’ Law, land restitution on the Caribbean Coast has barely begun.   LAWGEF’s and Lutheran World Relief’s September 2012 report, Still a Dream: Land Restitution on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast, shows the tremendous obstacles that face implementation, including the lack of protections for returning communities, as well as the pressures that are causing small farmers and Afro-Colombian communities to continue to be pushed off their lands.  As Colombia’s peace negotiations advance, the ability of the government to deliver on its promises to victims of violence is essential to the construction of a just and lasting peace. The report provides recommendations to the Colombian government and international community on how to fairly, effectively and safely advance land restitution and reparations.

Download our publication:  Still a Dream: Land Restitution on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast
Lea nuestra publicación: Aún un sueño:  Restitución de tierras en la Costa Caribe Colombiana

Interested in ordering a hard copy? Click here to visit our publications center and submit your order for Still a Dream  and other LAWGEF publications.

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)

Preliminary Report
Bogotá, Colombia December 2, 2011

The International Verification Mission is made up of 40 people from 15 countries, including parliamentarians, lawyers, and human rights defenders. At the invitation of the National and International Campaign for the Right to Defend Human Rights in Colombia, and with the objective of following up on the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Mission visited eight different regions in Colombia from November 28 to December 2, 2011. During these visits, the Mission met with dozens of organizations and hundreds of human rights defenders, in addition to local, regional and national authorities.

Far Worse than Watergate reveals the inside story about a wiretapping scandal in Colombia.  It documents how the Colombian government’s intelligence agency not only spied upon major players in Colombia’s democracy—from Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judges to presidential candidates, from journalists and publishers to human rights defenders, unions and faith-based organizations, from international organizations to U.S. and European human rights groups—but also carried out dirty tricks, and even death threats, to undermine their legitimate, democratic activities. 

Read our publication Far Worse than Watergate (PDF)
Lea nuestra publicación Mucho peor que el Watergate (PDF)

The year was 2004. I was contacted by Colombian human rights activists. Would I please come to Colombia to join them in a book launch of the second edition of The Authoritarian Spell? They were worried that the book, a collectively written critique of what they saw as authoritarian tendencies by the administration of President Alvaro Uribe, would provoke a reaction, and wanted international accompaniment. I said yes, and went to one of the book launches in Medellín, where a professor at the local university spoke and introduced me and several of the book’s coauthors, and we had a genteel, scholarly discussion of current events, in an auditorium filled mainly with students and professors. 

Little did we know that the book, criticized by the government as exaggerated, was in fact far too light a critique of the government’s authoritarian tendencies.

A Compass for Colombia Policy makes a detailed, persuasive case for a new U.S. strategy that would achieve our current policy goals while ending impunity and strengthening respect for human rights.

Read our publication A Compass for Colombia Policy (PDF)
Lea nuestra publicación Un nuevo rumbo para la política estadounidense hacia Colombia (PDF)

The Other Half of the Truth: Searching for Truth, Justice, and Reparations for Colombia's Victims of Paramilitary Violence explores the limited opportunities for truth, justice and reparations available to victims of paramilitary violence through the official process established by the Colombian government following a demobilization agreement with paramilitary forces.

Read our publication The Other Half of the Truth (PDF) 
Lea nuestra publicación La Cara Oculta de la Verdad (PDF)

Blueprint for a New Colombia Policy presents a positive set of recommendations on how to improve U.S. policy towards Colombia. At the expiration of the original six-year Plan Colombia, Blueprint urges the U.S. government to take a tougher stance on human rights, prioritize social aid rather than limitless military assistance, and urge peace negotiations with truth, justice, and reparations for victims.

Read our report Blueprint for a New Colombia Policy (PDF)
Lea neustra publicación Propuesta para una nueva política hacia Colombia (PDF)

Going to Extremes: The Aerial Spraying Program in Colombia examines the U.S.-funded aerial spraying program to eradicate coca production in Colombia. The report concurs that addressing drug abuse in the United States is a laudable goal. However, it suggests that this controversial strategy has harsh human and environmental costs, while doing little to curb drug abuse in the United States.

Read our publication Going to Extremes (PDF) 

The Wrong Road outlines Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's controversial security policies. These include permitting police and army to search homes and offices, tap phones and detain people without warrants, suspending basic civil liberties in war zones, and employing armed civilians as soldiers and informants.

Read our publication The Wrong Road (PDF) 

Blunt Instrument: The United States’ Punitive Fumigation Program in Colombia explores the controversial aerial spraying program to destroy drug crops. Using the lens of congressional legislation intended to ensure that the program did not unduly harm small farm families, the study finds that the US and Colombian governments have failed to compensate farmers whose food crops are mistakenly destroyed by fumigation.

Read our publication Blunt Instrument (PDF)