Protect Peaceful Protesters in Colombia

Date Issued: February 20, 2008

Ivan Cepeda is one of Colombia's most prominent human rights activists and the recipient of Human Rights First's Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty in 2007. Many of you took action last year to demand that the false criminal charges against him be dropped.

On February 4, there were worldwide protests against Colombian guerrillas (FARC). Now Cepeda and others are organizing similar peaceful marches on March 6 against human rights violations by another major party to the conflict in Colombia, paramilitary groups.

Despite wholehearted support for the anti-FARC protests, the Colombian government has opposed the anti-paramilitary protest. More alarmingly, a Presidential adviser stated on national radio that the anti-paramilitary protest organizers, including Cepeda, were guerilla terrorists. After these comments, Cepeda and other human rights defenders have received death threats from paramilitaries.

Please tell the Colombian government that it is unacceptable to endanger the lives of human rights activists by smearing them as guerillas. Demand that the Colombian President correct his adviser's statement and recognize that everyone has the right to participate in the March 6 protests.

Background

Ivan Cepeda is a courageous human rights defender who has selflessly promoted the rights of victims of Colombia's civil war and created a national social movement to call for justice. Motivated to act by the brutal assassination of his father, Colombian Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas, Cepeda is currently the spokesperson for the National Movement for Victims of State Crimes, an umbrella organization of more than 200 Colombian human rights organizations. He is also a columnist in the leading Colombian newspaper El Espectador.

Cepeda has twice lived in exile to escape threats to his life. Throughout his career as a human rights defender, he has endured attacks and threats that stigmatize him and are calculated to deter him from carrying out his essential human rights advocacy.

Cepeda is currently facing charges of slander and libel for exposing information about human rights violations implicating government officials. The charges against Ivan appear designed to discredit him and prevent him from performing his vital work in promoting the rights of victims of Colombia's civil war. See our report here about the spurious criminal charges against Cepeda and other human rights defenders.

In June 2007, Human Rights First issued an alert and more than 1,000 of you took action demanding that the Colombian Attorney-General drop the charges against Cepeda. Shortly afterwards, the Attorney-General agreed to move the investigation to Bogota. Human Rights First had sought the appointment of a Bogota-based prosecutor instead of a regional prosecutor. Prosecutors in Bogota are widely perceived as more independent and are more likely to close the case. In appointing the new prosecutor, the Attorney-General cited a letter from 28 members of U.S. Congress. Human Rights First had encouraged the letter in response to the unfair prosecutions of Colombian activists. Read the letter from Members of Congress to Colombian Attorney General here.

Last year Human Rights First awarded Cepeda the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty for his outstanding commitment to human rights.

• More information about Cepeda.
• More information about Cepeda being awarded the Roger Baldwin Medal.
• Watch Democracy Now TV interview with Ivan Cepeda and Human Rights First's Andrew Hudson.
• Watch Latin Pulse TV interview with Ivan Cepeda and Human Rights First's Andrew Hudson.
  

Sample Letter:

S.E. Alvaro Uribe Velez
Presidente de la Republica
Cra. 8 #7-26
Palacio de Narino
Bogota
Colombia

Dear President Uribe:

I am writing to express my concern about the attitude of your government to the peaceful anti-paramilitary protests planned for March 6, 2008. On February 10, 2008, on Caracol national radio your adviser, Jose Obdulio Gaviria, criticized the protests and labeled those convening it as FARC guerrillas. The next day he continued his radio attacks, naming protest organizer Ivan Cepeda of the National Movement for Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) as a guerilla supporter.

Last year Human Rights First awarded Cepeda the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty in recognition of his outstanding promotion of human rights. MOVICE is a legitimate and important human rights organization that rejects all forms of violence and has no affiliation with the FARC. The protests on March 6 are intended to be peaceful and have no connection to any armed actor, whether FARC or paramilitary. The organizers have also clearly stated that the march is against paramilitary groups, which continue to commit human rights violations, and not against the Colombian armed forces.

Following the comments by Gaviria, Cepeda and other human rights defenders have received death threats from paramilitary groups. Cepeda himself has received at least ten email death threats in the last week. In Narino, a paramilitary group called the New Generation has threatened NGOs in the area and warned them not to participate in the March 6 protest, which they falsely state is being organized by the FARC. On February 11, demobilized paramilitaries released a statement containing a similar message to that made by Gaviria: that Cepeda and his organization were guerilla terrorist sympathizers.

I welcome the Presidential Communication of February 15, 2008, which guaranteed the rights of whoever participates in the March 6 protest. I also welcome the comments made by Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos on the same day, which gave conditional government support to the march.

However, I remain extremely concerned that Gaviria has continued to smear Cepeda and the protest organizations after these pronouncements, most recently in El Tiempo on February 17.

As a close adviser of yours, who frequently states that he is speaking on your behalf, Gaviria carries considerable influence. His comments not only deter people from participating in the March 6 protest, in stark contrast to the government support for an earlier February 4 march, but they also put the lives of Cepeda and other human rights defenders in considerable danger. As you know, publicly labeling an individual as being a FARC sympathizer marks them as an objective for attack by many sectors within Colombian society.

These comments breach both Presidential Directive 7 of 2001 and Presidential Directive 7 of 1999. Both directives order public servants, "to abstain from questioning the legitimacy of... NGOs and their members... and to abstain from making false imputations or accusations that compromise the[ir] security, honor and good name..". Directive 7 of 1999 further clarifies that public servants must not, "make affirmations that disqualify, harass or incite harassment of said organizations... [nor] emit ... declarations that stigmatize the work of these organizations."

Many international declarations, and Conventions which Colombia has ratified, recognize the right to peaceful protest and freedom of assembly.[1] Those protected rights mean that the Colombian government should allow and encourage the March 6 protests rather than putting the lives of their organizers at risk.

I call on you to immediately:
1. publicly disavow the statements made by Gaviria and others linking the March 6 protest organizers to guerillas and ensure that no further inflammatory remarks are made by members of the executive.
2. recognize that Cepeda and the other protest organizers represent legitimate human rights organizations;
3. recognize that everyone has the right to participate in the March 6 protests.

Thank you for your attention in this urgent matter. I will continue to closely monitor this situation.

cc.

Dr Carlos Franco
Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos
Calle 7 No 6 - 54
Bogota D.C
Colombia

[1] See, e.g. Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, art. 5; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 19; American Convention on Human Rights, art. 13.