Colombia

At least 145 community leaders and rights activists were killed in 2021 in Colombia, the country’s human rights ombudsman has said. The 2021 death toll, which came amid a year defined by protests and government crackdowns, was lower than in 2020, when 182 killings were registered, … .

At least 23 people were killed in Colombia this weekend, and 20 had to flee their homes as fighting between rebel groups intensified in the eastern state of Arauca, Colombia's defense minister said Monday.

The United Nations’ human rights office in Colombia called for urgent and far-reaching reforms to prevent human rights violations in response to protests. In the report, the office of UN human rights chief Juliette Riveros confirmed reports that mainly the police committed widespread human rights abuses during anti-government protests earlier this year.

Colombia must urgently reform how it polices protests in the wake of demonstrations earlier this year in which several people were killed or injured, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report published on Wednesday.  

Colombia’s 2016 peace deal was a landmark achievement, convincing the FARC guerrillas to disarm and enter civilian life. Yet much remains to be done to show insurgents that they can redress their grievances through ordinary politics. The country’s leaders should recommit to finishing the job.

The Biden administration has removed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia from the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations in an effort to support the country’s peace process five years after the end of its decades-long conflict, officials said Tuesday.

[…] Yet, despite the solid progress, the Secretary-General cautioned that all sides “must be clear about the risks” that may threaten the long-term sustainability of the agreement.

The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) said in its latest report that it had registered 304 acts of political violence since March 13, the beginning of the electoral year. This would be a 125% increase compared to the 135 acts of aggression against aspiring politicians, community leaders and rights defenders registered in the same period in 2017.

Five years after an historic Peace Agreement was reached in Colombia, the process continues to show the benefits of ending the conflict through negotiation and keeping victims at the heart of the discussion moving forward. That was the main message from the Special Representative and head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, delivered to ambassadors at the Security Council on Thursday.  

Paramilitary groups remained active in almost one in every five of Colombia’s municipalities after the demobilization of paramilitary organization AUC in 2006, according to a think tank. In its annual report, think tank Indepaz said that almost two thirds of Colombia’s municipality saw some activity by paramilitary groups between 2008 and 2020.