APG urges Canada to express concern about situation of Colombian human rights defenders
December 4, 2020
Dear Minister Champagne:
We are writing to you on behalf of the Americas Policy Group (APG), a coalition of Canadian civil society organizations that work closely with partner organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Amid an alarming deterioration in the human rights situation in Colombia, we urge you to use Canada’s close relationship with Colombia to express deep concern to Colombian authorities, and request measurable action both to stop assassinations of human rights defenders, and to comply with commitments to implement the peace agreement signed with the FARC-EP.
Many of the APG’s member organizations have a long history of engagement with Colombia. Together with our Colombian partners, we celebrated the signing of the historic peace agreement in 2016 and shared their hope that the human rights and humanitarian situation would improve. Canada also supported that cause as a major donor to peacebuilding in Colombia. Yet, for the past four years, the situation has consistently deteriorated and the implementation of the peace agreement is at a virtual standstill.
By every account, Colombia is now the most dangerous country in the world for human rights defenders. It is particularly worrying that violence is mainly targeted at Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant communities, people who defend the right to land and the environment and those who defend implementation of the peace agreement. Civil society organizations like Indepaz report that over 250 community leaders have been killed this year alone, while more than a thousand have been murdered since the signing of the peace agreement. But these numbers continue to climb. Meanwhile, countless others, among them our partners, have received death threats and live in fear, given lack of effective action to protect them.
COVID-19 has increased the vulnerability of community leaders as armed groups have exploited movement restrictions to consolidate control. In addition to the continued activity of armed groups such as the ELN and EPL, there has been a strengthening of paramilitary structures such as the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia engaged in a conflict over territory that is victimizing entire communities. Our partners report forced displacement, confinement, targeted killings, forced recruitment, and sexual violence against women, girls and LGBTI people. Meanwhile, the Colombian government has reduced, or is failing to implement collective and individual protection measures, opting instead to further militarize the country. Our partners are telling us it is precisely in the most militarized areas that the majority of murders are occurring, such as Antioquia, Cauca and Nariño, among others. These incidents recall some of the worst episodes of violence in Colombia and generate widespread fear in communities.
The APG and our Colombian partners are equally concerned over the failure by the Colombian government to implement the peace agreement and prevent the assassination of hundreds of former FARC-EP combatants who laid down their weapons following the signing of the agreement. We believe that the current wave of killings, both of social leaders and former combatants is further sabotaging the agreement and the rural economic reform it promised. This is undoubtedly impeding any thoughts of advancing on a peace process with remaining armed groups, most notably the ELN and EPL.
A comprehensive report issued in September 2020 by over 500 Colombian organizations1 denounced that, to date, only 4% of the peace agreement has effectively been implemented and an additional 10% is only starting to be implemented. Little or nothing has been done to move forward on 86% of the agreement reached – in particular the provision related to comprehensive rural reform and the substitution of illicit crops. Regarding implementation of the “Ethnic Chapter”, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has highlighted that Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant communities continue to experience an upsurge in violence in their territories and that the measures adopted by the government have seen no progress. And despite the 130 gender-specific commitments in the peace agreement, the implementation of these measures has been slow. According to a recent report by the Kroc Institute2, only about 9% of these have been completed to date.
The situation is urgent. The current government’s slowness in implementing the peace agreement and its ongoing inability to prevent and prosecute attacks against human rights defenders and social leaders are fuelling a growing crisis that undermines peace. It is vital that the international community and especially donors to peacebuilding, like Canada, speak up to express concern and support solutions.
As a priority, we urge you to press for:
strengthened, not diminished, protection for threatened human rights defenders, social leaders and their communities;
thorough, transparent investigations of murders and justice for the perpetrators;
effective action to dismantle paramilitary organizations, their drug trafficking networks and links to state security forces;
vigorous implementation of the peace agreement.
Finally, we request an opportunity to meet at your earliest convenience to share information from our partners on the frontlines in Colombia to strengthen Canada’s diplomacy for peace.
Sincerely,
Robin Buyers
Co-Chair
Laura Ramirez
Co-Chair