Welcome 
ABColombia (English)
ABColombia is the advocacy project of a group of five leading UK and Irish organisations with programmes in Colombia: CAFOD, Christian Aid UKI, Oxfam GB, SCIAF and Trócaire. Amnesty International and PBI are observers. More
Publications in English
ABColombia (Español)
ABColombia es un proyecto de incidencia política de cinco importantes agencias Británicas e Irlandesas con programas en Colombia: CAFOD, Christian Aid UKI, Oxfam GB, SCIAF y Trócaire. Amnistía Internacional y Brigadas Internacional de Paz (PBI) son observadores. more
Publicaciones en Español
Vacancies
ABColombia is seeking a volunteer Finance and Fundraising Lead to sit on it's Non-Executive Board for further information click here
Register to receive emails from ABColombia
Latest from ABColombia 
ABColombia Statement on:
The importance of the work of human rights lawyers and the Inter American System to the rule of law and democracy.
The regional Inter-American System has been a leader in demonstrating how effectively it can also be in supporting access to justice for the victims and encouraging the effective functioning of rule of law in countries where the national system is weak.
Lawyers are also essential to the functioning of national and regional justice systems. Human rights lawyers and defenders find themselves in a highly vulnerable situation in Colombia as they seek to uphold human rights and provide access to justice. The first six months of 2011 saw 129% increase in attacks against them compared to 2010.
Therefore recent public statements publically attacking the internationally respected group of lawyers of Jose Alvear Restrepo -CCAJAR and the Inter-American System by officials at the highest levels of the Colombian government can only serve to weaken the rule of law in Colombia, as they place not only CCAJAR, but all human rights lawyers and defenders in an even more vulnerable position.
See Statement HERE
.......
President Santos visits UK, 21 and 22 November 2011
President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon was in London as a guest of the British government between 21st and 22nd November 2011.
During the two days that President Santos was in the UK his focus was on increasing trade and investment between Britain and Colombia.
ABColombia welcomed the UK and Colombian governments Joint Declaration on Human Rights but considers that their mutual goal of deepening trade alliances is not achievable at present without the downgrading of human rights. We would therefore urge the British government not to forget its commitment to place human rights at the heart of its foreign policy. Read more...
In addition to the focus on trade, there was one meeting with British NGOs and another with UK parliamentarians, both groups expressed concerns regarding the continuing, and in some key areas increasing levels of human rights violations, in Colombia. Read more...
.......
Colombia: do human rights policy changes hold up to Scrutiny?
- 54 human rights defenders and community leaders were killed; the majority of whom were working on land restoration and victims' rights.
- A comparison between the first six months in 2010 with the same period in 2011 shows an increase of 129 per cent in violence against human rights defenders.
- During the first six months of 2011 one defender was attacked or threatened every 36 hours
.....
"Colombia must improve human rights", Open letter from ABColombia, The Guardian here
Women Human Rights Defenders and the Struggle for Justice in Colombia
ABColombia, Oidhaco and USOC launched a report this week on the situation of Women Human Rights Defenders in Colombia and the need for differential protection measures for women defenders. Amongst the recommendations made is that the Colombian Government invite the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for sexual violence in conflict to Colombia. read more...
Latest News on Colombia 
ABColombia, our members and partners continue to call attention to the risks faced by human rights defenders in Colombia.
Read more about actions supporting their work and fresh threats against ABColombia partners:
- One of the ways that ABColombia works to support Colombian defenders is by raising our concern for the safety of individual defenders and organisations with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Irish Department for Foreign Affairs (DFA). Access our most recent letters to the British and Irish governments
- On 10 March 2011, we wrote to Colombia's Attorney General to highlight our concerns regarding the case of David Ravelo Crespo, (Director of the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS), detained on unfounded criminal charges; and to express our support for the valuable work being undertaken by David and our partner organisation CREDHOS.