Human Rights Defenders in Colombia

Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights activists. Amid decades of violent conflict and guerilla warfare, dozens of human rights defenders, labor rights activists, and community and religious leaders are murdered every year. In few if any of these cases are those responsible brought to justice. The Colombian Commission of Jurists reports that since 1996, more than 118 human rights defenders in Colombia have been murdered or “disappeared,” including at least 16 in 2004. According to the reports of credible Colombian human rights organizations and U.N. monitors present on the ground, the majority of these attacks were carried out by paramilitaries, many of whom are under the direction of or act in close association with the government’s regular armed forces.

Furthermore, several disparaging comments made by President Álvaro Uribe and other government officials have needlessly exacerbated the already enormous risks faced by human rights defenders. Within the context of the 40-year old internal conflict in Colombia – which pits illegal paramilitary groups against armed insurgents – human rights organizations often comment on the failures of government policy vis-à-vis security and human rights. In response, President Uribe and other administration officials have branded human rights advocates in Colombia as terrorist sympathizers and have insinuated that illicit connections exist between human rights NGOs and illegal armed groups. Irresponsible comments by government officials in Colombia put the lives of human rights defenders at even greater risk and threaten to undermine the value and credibility of their work, and endanger the vital contribution made by independent human rights monitors to accurate reporting of human rights conditions.

Human rights defenders in Colombia play a legitimate and essential role in protecting basic rights and strengthening democratic institutions, and they perform this work despite threats and attacks from all sides of the armed conflict, including paramilitary and guerrilla forces. The invaluable work of Colombian human rights defenders should be supported and recognized as an essential tool in establishing lasting security and stability.