This document was issued on 29/Nov/2021 by the government of Iván Duque and approved on 6/Dec/2021 by the National Council for Economic and Social Policy (Conpes).

The document is a planning instrument that presents the National Policy of Guarantees and Respect for Human Rights Defenders’ Defence Work, setting as the general objective of this policy: “to strengthen respect and guarantees for the exercise of defending human rights and social leadership” (p.73), taking into account broad approaches that contemplate the complexity of social contexts and counteract the structural causes of violations against Human Rights Defenders.

Its design began in 2019 together with Human Rights organisations and platforms under meeting spaces in which it was built collectively with the government, however, the organisations withdrew because their contributions were not recognised.

The specific objectives of this policy are: a) The development of institutional strategies to intervene in risk factors that threaten the work of defence; b) Strengthening institutional capacities for early prevention and protection of HRDs; c) Strengthening the stages of investigation, trial and punishment of attacks against HRDs; and d) Strengthening individual and collective capacities of HRDs for the promotion of rights and recognition of their work.

Find the original document here in Spanish (Departamento Nacional de Planeación).