Colombia

The International Secretariat of Amnesty International publishes its own website, with country specific news and campaigns. Do check out the Colombia page.

Protect human rights defenders in Colombia

Each day in Colombia, defenders risk their lives to protect human rights. Defending them is the only option we have for ensuring Colombia lives free from violence. Yuly, María, Jani, Joel, and the members of the organization CREDHOS are brave individuals. Together with their communities in Catatumbo, Magdalena Medio, Meta, and Putumayo, they contribute to guaranteeing life, ending the violence in Colombia, and protecting natural resources. They do so in a country in which the attacks they are subject to tend to go unpunished and no authority can guarantee their security.

Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in which to defend human rights. Approximately every two days a defender is assassinated there. 

Demand that the Colombian government guarantee the comprehensive security and protection of all defenders. Sign and share this petition.

Amnesty’s 2023 report on Columbia

Amnesty has published its Annual Report on Colombia detailing human rights abuses. These include huge numbers of people being forcibly displaced, the high risk of indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities, femicide, violence against LGBTI people, attacks against human rights defenders and lack of protection for Venezuelan refugees. The government failed to implement comprehensive police reform. Progress was made on the use of force during demonstrations, measures to protect human rights defenders and on investigating war crimes

Significant Events from Newsletters 2024

July

Yuly Velásquez (see photo below), President of FEDESPAN (Federation of Artisanal, Environmental, and Tourist Fisherfolk of Santander Department), received AI Germany’s human rights award on 4 June. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Amnesty’s Secretary General were at the ceremony. FEDESPAN members have been targeted by armed groups and have been the subject of several Urgent Actions issued by Amnesty in recent years. You can still take action here. Please send copies of your email to Roy Barreras, Colombian Ambassador to the UK, elondres@cancilleria.gov.co

June

Amnesty International has issued a new report on grave abuses committed by the police during the National Strike of three years ago. This opens with musicians and dancers performing to remind us of the violent events where their leader lost an eye to a rubber bullet. Protesters were killed, others lost their eyes or were sexually abused. Many of these injustices remain unpunished. Some who reported the abuses have been threatened and had to flee the country. How is it possible that a police reform that ensures that these events never happen again is not part of today’s political agenda?’

May

Amnesty issues a short film showing the devastating impact of a less than lethal weapon on Leidy Cadena in the April 2021 National Strike in Colombia.  Please write to President Petro and Defence Minister Velásquez demanding police reform now.  During the National Strike, at least 84 people lost their lives, thousands were arbitrarily detained and more than 100 people sustained eye trauma. Amnesty has denounced torture, gender-based violence, sexual violence and excessive use of force in the context of the 2021 National Strike, attacks on Indigenous peoples and torture of the civilian population.

Colombia is included in Amnesty’s new report on abortion rights in the Americas. “In Colombia, we’ve seen harassment, slander, and insults levelled against those who provide abortions, who are often ostracized at work. We always have to constantly be wary because the threats never stop”, explained Dr. Gil. “For example, they slashed one of my friend’s car tires. They glued shut a different colleague’s padlock so she couldn’t open her locker. When a friend who is a psychiatrist stood up for a patient who was asking to terminate her pregnancy… one of her colleagues hit her with a folder.”

April

The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó remembered the killings of seven of their members in recent years, including the boy Deimar Usaga, who was found with a bullet wound to his head opposite the Army barracks in 2019. None of the killings have resulted in prosecutions. 19 March 2024 30 year-old Nalleli Sepulveda and 14 year-old Edinson David were the latest Peace Community members to be killed. The perpetrators of the killings are believed to be Gaitanistas paramilitaries, whose presence is tolerated by the Army and the State.

Amnesty International has written to President Petro demanding that the State protect the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó and end impunity for those who have perpetrated human rights violations against members of the Community. Please sign Amnesty’s petition demanding that the Colombian authorities protect human rights defenders.

March

Amnesty International has issued a second Urgent Action on behalf of the Colombian human rights NGO CREDHOS. On 13 February the home of one of the members of CREDHOS suffered an attack by grenade, which injured members of the family. This new Urgent Action is directed at the Attorney General’s Office demanding that the perpetrators by brought to justice. One of the major difficulties in stopping these attacks on human rights and environmental defenders is the impunity under which they operate. It is rare indeed for anyone to be brought to justice.

February

The Colombian NGO Indepaz found that 187 social leaders and human rights defenders were killed in 2023, about the same number as in 2022 and 2021.  44 former FARC guerrillas were killed in 2023, a slight reduction from the prior two years. A further 55 people were killed by landmines and 167,000 people were forcibly displaced in the year. In broad terms, violence continues at a high level despite the Government’s efforts to negotiate ceasefires with armed opposition groups. A more detailed analysis will be published by Programa Somos Defensores later in the year.

January

Amnesty hosts Yuly Andrea Velásquez Briceño, who explains how they formed the Federation of Artisanal, Environmental and Tourist Fishermen of the Department of Santander (FEDEPESAN) in 2017 to defend their water rights, and the risks this entails.  Shots were fired at her in 2021 and she has received death threats. In 1991 her 5-year old brother was killed by a stray bullet fired by guerrillas and two years later her father was killed by paramilitaries.

Please sign Amnesty International’s petition to the Colombian government demanding that they protect human rights defenders and, in particular, members of CREDHOS (Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights). CREDHOS was formed in the 1980s and in 2023 a bomb was placed at their office by ELN guerrillas and while accompanying an administrative police procedure in the area known as “Finca El Hebron” in Barrancabermeja, staff members of CREDHOS were shot by armed civilians.