On 27 August 2019, ABColombia sent a letter to the Colombian president Ivan Duque and other key figures in the Colombian Government. The letter expresses concern at the planned eviction of the Indigenous Wayuu community of El Rocío. The community is situated between Albania and Maicao in La Guajira, Colombia and lives in close proximity...
Key ex-FARC-EP Commanders Announce Return to Arms ABColombia calls on the Colombian State and the International Community to redouble its efforts and working together with civil society to ensure a much faster implementation of the Peace Accord. On 29 August 2019, Iván Márquez, a lead negotiator of the Peace Accord and former Revolutionary Armed Forces...
On 30 July 2019, 24 UK Members of Parliament sent a letter of concern to Dominic Raab, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. On 9 August 2019 the Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP, the minister responsible for UK relations with Colombia, sent the following response to the letter. Thank you for your...
Letter of concern to Minister Simon Coveney on the situation of risk for the Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz (CIJP) in Colombia
Louise is the Programme and Advocacy Manager of ABColombia, she has been working in this role since 2010. She previously worked as Advocacy Officer for Peace Brigades International UK section. Before this she spent two years in Colombia working as an international observer with PBI. She has an MSc in Globalisation and Latin American Development....
On 10 August 2019 the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia (OHCHR), in a public statement, announced that two Indigenous Guards had been killed in the last 24 hours. It called on the Colombian State to provide adequate prevention and protection measures for the Nasa Indigenous Peoples (the Cxhab Wala Kiwe)...
Leaked government documents seen by the newspaper El Espectador have raised concerns regarding the Colombian Government’s intention to restrict the mandate of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It is essential that Colombia ensures a renewal of the full mandate of the OHCHR in Colombia to guarantee international independent monitoring...
On 16 July 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights the case 12.954, “Jineth Bedoya Lima and other, regarding Colombia”. Case 12.954 refers to the kidnapping, torture and rape of investigative journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima for reasons related to her profession; the case will address the...
On 30 July 2019, 24 UK Members of Parliament sent a letter of concern to Dominic Raab, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. As signatories of EDM 2232, the parliamentarians expressed their concerns regarding threats against members of the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz (CIJP), the church-based human rights organisation directly...
The protests reflect a growing concern internationally regarding the the safety of human rights defenders (HRDs), the deterioration of human rights in the rural areas and the lack of effective action on the part of the Colombian Government to protect rural communities and defenders.
