Colombian state recognises only 219 of thousands of ‘political genocide’ victims
Thousands of UP members and supporters were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, with many more subject to displacement, exile and physical attacks in what is often referred to as a ‘political genocide’ in Colombia
Justice For Colombia / Tuesday 16 February 2021
In 1985, Colombian leftists and former guerrillas formed the Patriotic Union (UP) political party under the terms of the recent peace agreement between the government of Belisario Betancur and the FARC. The UP went on to make a series of electoral advances and to participate in national politics. In response, the Colombian security forces, in collaboration with paramilitaries, launched a brutal extermination campaign against the UP. Recent revelations say that Betancur’s successor, Virgilio Barco Vargas, personally approved the violence.
WASHINGTON, USA - As reported , the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) has ordered the sending of a special mission to the Republic of El Salvador in response to the requests received to assess the political-institutional situation and to try to contribute to the preservation and strengthening of the rule of law, within the framework of the provisions of Article 17 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
The special mission of the General Secretariat of the OAS, headed by Dr Santiago Cantón, former Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), will arrive in the country today and will remain until Thursday, February 18, 2021.
Kjell Anderson is a jurist and social scientist specialised in the study of human rights, mass violence, and mass atrocities. He is the author of Perpetrating Genocide: A Criminological Account (Routledge 2019), and the forthcoming volumes The Dilemma of Dominic Ongwen: From Child Abductee to War Criminal (Rutgers University Press, 2020); and Approaching Perpetrators: Insights on Ethics, Methods, and Theory (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020).
Anderson’s work experience encompasses advocacy for victims of torture and sexual violence in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo for FACT-Rwanda (Forum des Activistes Contre la Torture), leading the rule of law program at The Hague Institute for Global Justice, working at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on indigenous issues, acting as a legal researcher at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and teaching at the University of the Fraser Valley, Leiden University, the University of Amsterdam, the National Uni
February 10, 2021
Last November, Jorge Gamarra Aguilar, an Indigenous Naso leader, was in lockdown in Panama due to the Covid-19 crisis when his phone began buzzing with messages. The news was out: the Naso had finally won the right to their ancestral land.
“I could not go anywhere and despite being alone at home, I felt so happy sharing the news with people on WhatsApp,” says Gamarra. “The joy was immense for me. I have been part of this struggle and part of this process since 1980.”
The Naso number some 4,000 people spread across dispersed communities along the forested banks of the Teribe River in western Panama, where they practice subsistence farming, fishing, and botanical medicine. The Naso are the Western Hemisphere’s last remaining monarchy.
United Sates: Civil society urges the U.S. State Department to support human rights defenders
09/02/2021
Dear Secretary Blinken:
We, the undersigned organizations, work to promote human rights, democracy, media freedom, environmental sustainability, and an end to corruption around the world. The protection of human rights defenders such as activists, lawyers, and journalists is critical to each of our missions [1]. We are deeply concerned by the unabated rise in reprisals against human rights defenders, both globally and within the United States, and the chilling effect that these attacks have on fundamental freedoms and civic space.
We would like to request the opportunity to begin a discussion with the incoming State Department political leadership on the role that the Biden Administration will play in protecting human rights defenders.