The UN theme of World Water Day 2021 is valuing water. Without a comprehensive understanding of water’s true, multidimensional value, we will be unable to safeguard this critical resource for the benefit of everyone.” (UN Water) But what is the “value” of water? What does it represent? On the surface, Colombia has vast water resources;...
302 search results for: peace
In Solidarity with the Mothers of Soacha
The Mothers of Soacha discovered their sons were being extra judicially executed by the Colombian Army to boost their combat killings. This practice is known as ‘Falsos Positivos’ (false positives). Their work has created awareness around the world of this horrendous practice in Colombia. In February 2021, the true extent of this practice began to...
Massacres on the Increase in Colombia
Colombia is one of the top twenty countries globally most impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. The Government moved quickly in March 2019 to lockdown the country in order to combat this virus. However, it did this without considering the impact that this kind of lockdown would generate on the poorest, and those living in areas...
Indigenous Peoples and Afro Colombian Communities are Suffering a Humanitarian Crisis in Alto Baudó Chocó
Combats in Alto Baudó in Chocó saw indigenous communities caught in the midst of the crossfire. Armed clashes were between the ELN guerrilla group, the neo-paramilitary Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) and FARC dissidents. These armed skirmishes have affected both indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in Chocó. So far this has resulted in the confinement of...
International Women’s Day 2021
International Women’s Day 8 March 2021 In celebration of this day, ABColombia pays tribute to outstanding and courageous Colombian Women Human Rights Defenders. According to NGO Sisma Mujer, in Colombia every 19 hours a woman human rights defender [WHRD] is attacked [1]. Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a human...
International civil society organisations welcome the progress of the JEP and support the legitimate work of human rights organisations and victims of extrajudicial executions
Bogota, 24 February 2021 International civil society organisations signatories to this communiqué, welcome the advances of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, which through Order 033 of 2021 on 18 February 2021, made public the strategy of prioritisation in Case 03, known as “false positive” extrajudicial executions. In which, according to the information collated by the...
UN Report says Colombia Failing to Protect Human Rights Defenders
Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) December 2020 report states that of the 1,323 killings of defenders 933 of those were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is the region of the world which has consistently been the highest in terms of killing of HRDs and Colombia has consistently...
Environmental Activists in Ibague and Cajamarca
In 2021, the UK will host COP26, this important event cannot happen at a more crucial moment for climate change, biodiversity conservation and the environment. In 2018 ABColombia led a Delegation of Parliamentarians who met with environmental activists in Ibague and Cajamarca – the Young Social and Environmental Group of Cajamarca (Colectivo Socio-Ambiental Juvenil de...
UK Parliament: Human Rights in Colombia must be improved before deepening trade relations
Lords insist that the UK as pen holder to the UN Security Council on the Verification Mission in Colombia hold the Colombian Government to account for the attacks and killings of human rights defenders and trade unionists stop before deepening its trading relations with the Pacific Alliance On during a debate in the House of...
ABColombia Winter Newsletter
After a year marked by a global pandemic and the 4th anniversary of the signature of the Peace Agreement (24 November 2020), ABColombia reflects on the advances and the challenges of building a sustainable and meaningful peace in Colombia. The pandemic has exacerbated some of Colombia’s obstacles to peace. Human Rights Defenders continue to be...