Colombians suffer a dire human rights situation due to the country’s 45-year-old internal armed conflict. Leftist guerrillas fight the state and illegal right-wing paramilitary organizations, which often collaborate with sectors of the Colombian armed forces. All of the parties to the conflict are responsible for human rights violations. Armed opposition groups, including the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (National Liberation Army) have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law, including high-profile kidnappings. Colombia’s paramilitary groups, which have sown terror across Colombia for decades, were supposedly demobilized in a process initiated in 2003 by the previous administration of President Álvaro Uribe, but many such groups continue to operate in many parts of the country. The Colombian government routinely fails to bring to justice military officials who have collaborated with these illegal paramilitary groups as they carry out atrocities or even participate in civilian killings.

General Country Conditions

After two terms (for which he had to change the constitution) served by President Alvaro Uribe, Uribe’s former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010. Amnesty International believes that one of Santos’ biggest and most important challenges is to ensure an independent judiciary system, allowing it to bring to justice those responsible for human rights abuses committed during the country’s long-running armed conflict. During Uribe’s tenure there has been no substantive improvement in the human rights situation. In fact, the human rights conditions in several conflict zones, have been worsening and the collusion between the armed forces and illegal paramilitary groups continues.

Human rights defenders, women, farmers, unionists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities among others face constant threats to their security. In rural communities, these individuals are often terrorized by guerillas and paramilitaries alike. They are forced to choose between supporting one of the armed groups for protection, or fleeing to the relative safety of urban areas where they add to the mass of urban unemployed and under-employed, swelling the ranks of the desplazados (displaced persons). As a result, between 3 and 5 million Colombians live as internal refugees.

arbitrary arrest; a high number of pre-trial detainees, some of whom were held with convicted prisoners, impunity and inefficient judiciary subject to intimidation; illegal surveillance of civilian groups, political opponents and government agencies; harassment and intimidation of journalists; unhygienic conditions at settlements for displaced persons, with limited access to health care, education of employment; corruption; harassment of human rights groups and activists, including unfounded prosecutions: violence against women, including rape; child abuse and child prostitution; trafficking in women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation; some societal discrimination against women, indigenous persons, and minorities; and illegal child labor.

Between 3 and 4 million people fled their homes and sought refuge elsewhere in the country; a further 500,000 are believed to have fled to neighbouring countries.

The reasons people are forced to flee vary. However, the one overwhelming factor is the continuing armed conflict: counter-insurgency operations, guerrilla and paramilitaries activities against civilians that are seen as allies of their enemies, land conflict, economic interests and fear of the terror and human rights abuses committed by all parties in the conflict.

Some of the internally displaced are accidental victims caught up in the hostilities, but in many cases displacement is a deliberate strategy used by the parties to the conflict to "cleanse" civilians from areas which they believe are controlled by their enemies, or as a means to win control over areas of economic or strategic importance.

Indigenous People, Afro-descendant and campesino communities make up a disproportionate number of those who have been internally displaced. They are at particular risk of displacement, particularly in areas that have been earmarked for large economic projects, such as mineral and oil exploration, agro-industrial developments or hydro-electric installations.

People often face severe economic and social difficulties when they are displaced. They also suffer discrimination and stigmatization by those who accuse them of being "guerrilla sympathizers" or of bringing the conflict with them. The security forces’ counter-insurgency strategy is largely based on the premise that those living in conflict areas are part of the enemy, simply because of where they live. The result of labeling communities in an area as "sympathetic" to guerrilla forces has been a pattern of abuses.

The recent increase in killings of leaders of displaced communities, who are campaigning for the return of lands stolen from them by paramilitary groups, has been a source of particular concern, and urgent action must be taken to protect these leaders.

On May 23, 2010, for example, human rights defender Alexander Quintero was shot dead by four unknown gunmen on motorbikes as he made his way home by foot with his family in the town centre of Santander de Quilichao in the south-western region of Cauca.

Alexander had for years had been campaigning in favor of truth, justice and reparation for the victims of the paramilitary Naya massacre in 2001 in which more than 30 people were killed and more than 70 forcibly disappeared. He had been the president of the Alto Naya Association of Community Action Councils and represented victims of paramilitary groups in the Justice and Peace process, had received repeated death threats as a consequence of his human rights work.

Editor's Update to article:
While the article is accurate, enormous strides have been made in respect of human rights in Colombia under the new President Juan Manuel Santos.

While Satish Sekar was in Colombia this summer, a paramilitary was jailed for 43 years for gross human rights abuses in the False Positives Scandal. Satish also reports that paramilitaries were established by Uribe to combat the FARC and they were apparently effective and brutal. They would kidnap innocent civilians, torture and kill them and then dress them up as FARC to claim they were more successful in fighting the FARC than they were.

Along with USAID, the Instituto de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses has made great efforts to identify the disappeared, so they can be given the funerals they deserve and if evidence exists the perpetrators be brought to justice.

Santos has made great advances in respect of human rights, and he deserves great credit for the fantastic work he has done.

Colombia: Deadly Threats — http://www.hrw.org/en/feature/colombia-deadly_threat

A documentary by the Human Rights Watch

Sources:Human Rights Watch

& Amnesty International

For further information:

The High Commissioner`s Stategic Management Plan 2010-2011 (U.N.)