Today, 10 July 2017, the United Nations Security Council approved a second United Nations (UN) Mission in Colombia via Resolution 2366 (2017). The Second Mission’s mandate is to verify the reincorporation of the FARC-EP into civilian life and the implementation of individual and collective security measures in regions most affected by the conflict. The new...
ABColombia welcomes the end of the process of the Laying Down of Arms by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC). The next crucial challenge is to get the Mandate right for the second phase of the United Nations Security Council’s Special Political Mission to Colombia. This requires the...
ABColombia welcomes the decision by Colombia’s Supreme Court to acquit prominent Colombian indigenous leader Feliciano Valencia after he was arrested in 2015 under an alleged kidnapping charge. Background The 2008 original ruling made by Popayan’s Superior Court, sentenced Feliciano Valencia to eighteen years in prison for allegedly kidnapping a Colombian soldier in the department of...
Judicial attacks against Human Rights Defenders continue in Colombia despite the signing of a Peace Accord with the FARC Guerrillas. However, ABColombia received welcome news that on 20 June 2017, David Ravelo Crespo, a Colombian Human Rights Defender, was released conditionally after being incarcerated for nearly seven years. Whilst the case continues, this is...
The Inter-ethnic Forum, the Indigenous Board and the Dioceses’ of Quibdó, Istmina and Apartadó and many NGOs in Colombia, like ABColombia’s partner, the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz) have raised their concerns about the forced displacement of Indigenous Communities across Chocó. Many communities in Chocó are being...
On 24 February 2017 the National Security Guarantees Commission was inaugurated. This is an important first step in the implementation of the ABColombia welcomes the start of the implement the Peace Accord point 3.4 [1]. Point 3.4 is a Chapter on Security Guarantees for human rights defenders, political activists and demobilising FARC Guerrilla. It...
Peace with Nature in the Heart of the World – Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta On 28 August 2024, then-President Gustavo Petro instructed the National Land Agency to acquire the remaining sacred and strategic lands between Indigenous territory and the Black Line under the Agrarian Reform policy, an initiative he called “Peace with Nature in...
