Colombian Human Rights Defenders Should Be Supported, Not Threatened

On May 13, 2005, Colombian human rights defender Soraya Gutiérrez Arguello received a package containing a decapitated doll whose body had been quartered, burnt in several areas, and covered in red nail polish to make it appear bloodied. An attached handwritten note read: “You have a lovely family. Look after them, don’t sacrifice them.”

Ms. Gutiérrez Arguello is President of the respected Colombian human rights organization, Corporación Colectivo de Abogados, ‘José Alvear Restrepo,’ (José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective).

The Colombian newspaper El Tiempo ran two classified advertisements around the same time referring to the need for security guards and other new staff at the Lawyers Collective. They appeared designed to intimidate the organization. They included the organization’s telephone numbers and address and were placed by unknown individuals. One referred to the precise date, time, and address of a planned meeting between the organization and victims of human rights violations.

These latest threats to Ms. Gutiérrez Arguello and the Lawyers Collective follow on the heels of several recent attacks against human rights activists in Colombia. Human rights defenders have been killed or forced to flee Colombia, where intimidation and human rights violations are carried out in a climate of impunity.

Please join Human Rights First in urging the Colombian authorities to ensure the safety of those courageous enough to speak out against human rights violations, such as Ms. Gutiérrez and the members of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective, and guarantee their ability to carry out their work free of harassment and intimidation.

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The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective have been involved in bringing to justice army officials implicated in serious human rights violations committed either directly by security forces or through collaboration with paramilitaries. The organization and its members have been the targets of harassment and serious threats, as are many human rights defenders who seek to expose and punish grave human rights violations committed by left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, or national security forces.

According to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, from January to September 2003, 12 human rights defenders were assassinated and one “forcibly disappeared”— an average of one every 25 days. The vast majority of these attacks were carried out against members of local human rights committees, operating outside of Colombia’s major cities and without significant international support. In the first eleven months of 2002, unidentified forces reportedly killed sixteen defenders.

Among the recent attacks against human rights activists was the abduction in April 2005 of five activists from the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz (Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission) by armed gunmen who identified themselves as members of the guerilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), or FARC. The abducted activists had been working to protect the rights of Afro-descendant communities in the Chocó region against attacks and violations on the part of both paramilitary and guerilla forces. Although the individuals have since been released, several members of the Commission are reportedly still being followed and watched by armed men.

In early February 2004, human rights defender María Lucero Henao and her 16-year-old son were gunned down outside their home in the Meta Department of Colombia. Ms. Henao had been the target of vicious threats and a previous assassination attempt as a result of her work to protect the land rights of the inhabitants of Puerto Esperanza, a farmland invaded and occupied by paramilitaries in 2001. That same week, José Mendivil Cárdenas was murdered just steps from the clinic in Barranquilla where he worked with several NGOs to protect human rights in the city.

Journalists in Colombia are also being targeted for their work to expose human rights violations and links between paramilitaries and security forces. A series of death threats were aimed at several prominent Colombian journalists during early May 2005 for their coverage of human rights atrocities committed by paramilitaries and guerilla groups during Colombia’s internal conflict. According to a recent report by Reporters Without Borders, one Colombian journalist was killed in 2004, 28 were physically attacked and 25 were threatened.

In addition to physical threats, human rights activists face an increasingly hostile political climate, with little public support for human rights work in part attributable to President Uribe’s repeated criticism of the human rights community. Important sectors of the public continue to view those who promote and protect human rights as sympathetic to guerrilla violence and an obstacle to security efforts. Educating the public about the need to protect rights during times of internal conflict is one of the many challenges facing human rights organizations.

Human rights defenders play a legitimate and essential role in preserving and protecting basic rights and strengthening democratic institutions. The important work of Colombian human rights defenders should be recognized by the government and they should be supported rather than persecuted for their activities. The hostile statements of government and military leaders in Colombia have contributed to a situation in which Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be involved in the promotion and protection of human rights. Creating a more secure environment for human rights defenders to carry out their essential work would contribute to an improved human rights situation to the benefit of all.

Letter to Uribe:

S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Presidente de la República
Cra. 8 # 7-26
Palacio de Nariño
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Fax: +57.1.566.20.71
auribe@presidencia.gov.co

Dr. Jorge Alberto Uribe
Ministro de la Defensa
Avenida El Dorado con Cra. 52 CAN
Santa fe de Bogotá
Fax: +57.1.222.18.74;
E-mail : siden@mindefensa.gov.co
infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co;
mdn@cable.net.co

Doctor Edgardo José Maya Villazón
Procurador General de la Nación
Cra. 5 #. 15-80
Santa Fe de Bogotá
Fax: +57.1.342.97.23;
E-mail : reygon@procuraduria.gov.co;
anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co

Dear Sirs:

I am writing to express my deep concern about the recent acts of intimidation against human rights defender Soraya Gutiérrez Arguello, President of the Colombian human rights organization, Corporación Colectivo de Abogados, ‘José Alvear Restrepo,’ and would like to urge the Colombian authorities to take appropriate and immediate measures to guarantee her security and that of her family and colleagues.

On May 13, 2005, Ms. Gutiérrez Arguello, President of the Colombian human rights organization, Corporación Colectivo de Abogados, ‘José Alvear Restrepo,’ (José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective) arrived home to find a suspicious-looking package. Inside was a decapitated doll whose body had been quartered, burnt in several areas, and covered in red nail polish to make it appear bloodied. An attached handwritten note read: “You have a lovely family. Look after them, don’t sacrifice them.” That same day, the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo ran a classified advertisement posting numerous job opportunities with the Lawyers Collective and containing the organization’s telephone numbers. The organization did not place such an advertisement itself, and interprets the message as implying that there will soon be numerous vacancies within the organization, and therefore as a direct threat to its staff.

A similar advertisement appeared in the same newspaper the following day announcing a need for security guards at the organization. The Lawyers Collective did not request this advertisement either. Alarmingly, the date, time, and address included in the announcement precisely match those of a planned meeting between the organization and victims of human rights violations. Evidently, the staff at the Lawyers Collective is meant to understand that they are being closely watched.

Human rights defenders play a legitimate and essential role in preserving and protecting basic rights and strengthening democratic institutions. Unfortunately, human rights defenders carry out their important work at great personal risk in Colombia. I am deeply disturbed by disparaging and dangerous comments made by senior government officials, including the President, against the human rights community as such comments only serve to further endanger the safety and security of human rights defenders. As your government confronts the challenges of combating an armed insurgency, the invaluable and courageous work of Colombian human rights defenders should be recognized by the government and they should be supported rather than persecuted for their activities.

The Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms addresses the special and critical role of human rights defenders. “Recognizing the relationship between international peace and security and the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and mindful that the absence of international peace and security does not excuse non-compliance,” the Declaration states in Article 12 that:

…everyone is entitled, individually and in association with others, to be protected effectively under national law in reacting against or opposing, through peaceful means, activities and acts, including those by omission, attributable to States that result in violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as acts of violence perpetrated by groups or individuals that affect the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.