JESSIE CHUNG
By the end of 2016, the government of Colombia and the country’s largest leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached a historic peace agreement; a supposed ceasefire to the longest-running civil war in the Americas responsible for the lives of 220,000 people and displacing those of 7 million more.[1] Yet, only two years since former president Juan Manuel Santos received a Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the deal,[2] its flaws have come into focus through the precarious climate for human rights defenders that prevails in Colombia.
Colombia is now the deadliest country for human rights defenders in the world.[3] The statistics are alarming; since the signing of the Final Peace Agreement approximately 360 social leaders have been killed and at least one is murdered every three days in Colombia.[4] The first week of July 2018 saw a spike in the killing of human rights defenders, with nine killed in the space of four days.[5] The Colombian government needs to do more to protect its activists. More importantly, we must identify the underlying structures which account for the spread of danger in a country that is supposed to be in an era of peace.
Since the disbandment of the FARC under the terms of 2016 Peace Accord, human rights defenders have fallen victim to competing paramilitary groups rather than one centralized, coordinated campaign.[6] In August, NGO representatives cited the state’s inability to fill the power vacuum left by the departure of the FARC as well as apprehensions arising from the inauguration of President Ivan Duque who notoriously opposed the peace agreement during his campaign as reasons for such violence.[7]
However, the grounds for disarray run deeper than the position of the new presidency. Carlos Guevara of Bogotá-based NGO Somos Defensores (We Are Defenders) identifies impunity as the greatest menace in Colombia’s fight for long-term peace and prosperity.[8] President Ivan Duque condemns the killing of seven people in the Cauca province, yet his reaction to the assassination of human rights defenders was slow and delayed. The Colombian government has a tendency to lay the blame of murdered human rights defenders on narcotrafficking.[9] This claim diverts much-needed attention from the issue of defenders’ security in Colombia and the killing of social leaders as a systematic rather than erratic phenomenon. The state must not continue to deny the role of neo-paramilitaries in committing these atrocities. More essentially the Colombian judicial system must be fundamentally strengthened. If nobody is sent to prison for their assaults on human rights activists, the message is clearly sent that actions do not have consequences.[10] Only by ensuring that assaults on activists are rightly punished can the Colombian state condemn the violence plaguing its country and deter ongoing abuses of defenders in the future.
Human rights defenders play an important role in raising awareness about worldwide atrocities and protecting the rights that uphold safety in society. But their activism comes at a high price, with criminal organizations, neo-paramilitaries and guerrillas attempting to silence them through brute force. The humanitarian crisis in Colombia raises an issue of broader significance; it is imperative for governments to defend the very social leaders who defend our human rights. “The peace process poses an invaluable opportunity to reinstate the rule of law in areas long battered by violence and abuses,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch.[11] The Colombian state must express unequivocally its intentions to stand by human rights activists and condemn abuses, in order to lower impunity and effectively raise the bar for accountability and justice.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/23/colombian-activists-face-extermination-by-criminal-gangs
[2] https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/10/americas/columbia-santos-nobel-prize/index.html
[3] https://www.equaltimes.org/colombia-is-the-deadliest-country#.XBCqRxP7Su4
[4] https://www.cejil.org/en/colombia-impunity-denial-and-stigmatization-continue-put-human-rights-defenders-colombia-risk
[5] https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/concerns-about-new-spike-in-killings-of-human-rights-defenders-in-colombia/
[6] https://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/defending-the-defenders-what-role-should-the-colombian-government-play-in-protecting-human-rights-activists/
[7] https://intercontinentalcry.org/colombia-is-the-deadliest-country-for-human-rights-defenders/
[8] https://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/defending-the-defenders-what-role-should-the-colombian-government-play-in-protecting-human-rights-activists/
[9] https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/concerns-about-new-spike-in-killings-of-human-rights-defenders-in-colombia/
[10] https://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/defending-the-defenders-what-role-should-the-colombian-government-play-in-protecting-human-rights-activists/
[11] https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/24/colombia-activists-risk
