Drop Baseless Charges against Colombian Human Rights Leader

Date Issued: June 1, 2007

Ivan Cepeda, a prominent Colombian human rights leader, has been unjustly charged with slander and libel for exposing information about human rights violations implicating government officials. Ivan is a courageous human rights defender who has twice lived in exile to escape threats to his life, and who witnessed the brutal assassination of his father, a Colombian Senator.

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.

Throughout his career as a human rights defender, Ivan has endured attacks and threats that stigmatize him and are calculated to deter him from carrying out his essential human rights advocacy.

You can help ensure that Ivan remains free to carry out his important work by writing to the Colombian Attorney-General urging him to:

1. Drop the unfounded charges against Ivan; or
2. Appoint an independent and impartial Prosecutor to head the investigation; and
3. Stop the practice of making unfounded charges against Colombian human rights defenders.

Background

Ivan Cepeda is a brave 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 into activism by the brutal assassination of his father, Colombian Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas, Ivan is currently the Director of 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.

Through remarkable perseverance Ivan has demonstrated that paramilitary groups, with the complicity of members of the Colombian armed forces, have committed serious human rights violations. Despite facing considerable personal risk, he has helped document approximately 40,000 cases of serious human rights violations committed in Colombia since 1966.

On November 25, 2006, Ivan spoke at a public meeting in San Onofre, Sucre department. After hearing evidence of links between local authorities and paramilitary death squads, Ivan called for the local Mayor Jorge Blanco to resign. Local citizens documented not only the mayor’s link to illegal paramilitary groups but also his threats to kill political opponents. With the aid of Ivan’s organization they submitted formal complaints about the mayor to the prosecutor.

While these complaints against the mayor have not been acted upon, the prosecutor has proceeded with investigating charges of slander and libel against Ivan for his comments about the mayor. On May 3, 2007, the prosecutor in charge of the case tried to raid a Senate human rights commission to obtain confidential information for use in its investigation against Ivan.

On April 30, 2007, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said that his government was “preaching and practicing” the principles contained in the U.S. government’s Guiding Principles on Non-Governmental Organizations. Principle 3 states that “NGOs should be permitted to carry out their peaceful work in a hospitable environment free from fear of harassment, reprisal, intimidation and discrimination.”

Regardless of the merits of the accusations against the mayor, it is the right of Dr. Cepeda and every citizen to criticize public officials and even to call for their resignation. It is especially important that citizens should not feel constrained in speaking openly about the observance of human rights principles by state officials. Article 6 (c) of the United Nations Human Rights Defenders Declaration [1] provides that: 

“Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to these matters.”

Ivan’s comments do not constitute slander or libel.

Human Rights First fears that the charges against Ivan are politically motivated and designed to discredit him in contravention of the UN Human Rights Defenders Declaration, the U.S. Guiding Principles and of President Uribe’s stated policy.

HRF Colombia page: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/
hrd_colombia/hrd_colombia.htm

Sample Letter:

Doctor Mario Germán Iguarán Arana, 
Attorney-General
Diagonal 22-B # 52-01,
Bogotá

Dr. Iguaran: 

I am writing to express my deep concern about the charges against Dr. Ivan Cepeda. Dr. 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 He is founder and director of the National Movement for Victims of State Crimes, an umbrella organization of more than 200 Colombian human rights organizations.

I am alarmed that the prosecutor (Quinta Delegada, Circuito de la ciudad de Sincelejo, Radicado 70763) is investigating charges against Dr Cepeda for slander and libel. I understand that these charges relate to comments made by Dr Cepeda calling for the resignation of the Mayor of San Onofre, Jorge Blanco. I also understand that formal complaints have been lodged with the prosecutor against the mayor accusing him of links to paramilitary death squads and of threatening to kill political opponents.

Regardless of the merits of the accusations against the mayor, it is the right of Dr. Cepeda and every citizen to criticize public officials and even to call for their resignation. It is especially important that citizens should not feel constrained in speaking openly about the observance of human rights principles by state officials. Article 6 (c) of the United Nations Human Rights Defenders Declaration [2] provides that: 

“Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to these matters.”

Dr. Cepeda’s comments do not constitute slander or libel.

I am also alarmed that on May 3, 2007, the prosecutor attempted to enter the Senate Human Rights Commission in search of confidential information about Dr. Cepeda for use in its investigation against him.

I am concerned that the charges against Dr. Cepeda are politically motivated and form part of a broader pattern of instigating specious legal proceedings against Colombian human rights defenders in order to discredit them.

I call on you to:

1. Drop the charges against Dr. Cepeda; and
2. Stop investigating and charging Colombian human rights defenders with offences where there is no adequate evidence to support those charges.

In the event that the charges are not dropped, I call on you to appoint an independent, objective and impartial prosecutor based in Bogota. It is inappropriate for a local Prosecutor in Sucre to be in charge of an investigation involving a mayor of the same Department.

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

cc.

Fiscalia Quinta Delegada
Circuito de la Ciudad de Sincelejo
Sucre
Colombia

Ambassador Carolina Barco
Embassy of Colombia in Washington