Write to your MP and ask them to #SignEDM1660 (tabled March 2021) Please write to your MP. You can find a template letter/email here. MPs have public contact details so that you, as their constituents, can get in touch.To see who your MP is, go to https://www.theyworkforyou.com and enter your postcode. You can then copy...
As 2021 is a key year for Colombia with its five-year anniversary of the signing of the Peace Accord in November, ABColombia have the following recommendations for the UN Security Council: to form a “Group of Experts” with technical expertise on organised crime, which includes experts on human rights, gender and ethnicity, to examine, together...
On March 24 is worldwide celebrated the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. It is on this day that the memory of victims of gross and systematic violations of human rights and the importance of the right to truth and justice are...
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;...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
