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...
On 26 June 2017 the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP guerrilla completed the third phase in the process of the laying down of arms. According to the UN Mission in Colombia, they have registered the handing over of 7,132 of individual arms. The only ones that now remain in the 26 camps are those...
The situation of Colombian human rights defenders (HRDs) has for many years been one of the worst in the world. Since the official start of the Havana Peace Talks (October 2012) between the Colombian Government and the left-wing Guerrilla Group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejercito de Pueblo (FARC), the number of HRDs killed...
Colombia faces huge claims by Multinational Companies often because it has upheld rulings by the Colombian Courts, made policy changes to address climate change, protected its biodiversity and its forests. Large multinational corporations some of which are British companies or registered on the London Stock Exchange are bringing these cases. Multinationals are using secretive...
