Colombia

Status: Adopted (sub)national law or policy

Colombia has multiple public policies for the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs). However, the situation of HRDs in the country remains worrying, as Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for HRDs.

Despite the signing of the 2016 peace accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), armed conflicts still have a significant impact on civilians. President Petro took office in 2022 and vowed to implement the 2016 peace accord. Nonetheless, violence and abuses by armed groups increased in 2023, especially in remote areas. Indigenous peoples, afro-descendants and peasant communities are more exposed to violence than other groups.

In a country marked by violence, serious abuses of human rights and a conflict that lasts for five decades, the work of HRDs puts them at risk. HRDs are often caught in the middle of power struggles with violent non-state actors. In fact, Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for HRDs. The country has the highest number of murders of HRDs in the world. Indigenous human rights defenders are particularly targeted. According to Somos Defensores, among the many attacks HRDs face, the most recurrent are threats, murders, attacks, forced displacement, forced disappearances and arbitrary detentions. The highest number of attacks against HRDs were registered in the departments of Cauca, Antioquia, Nariño and Valle del Cauca.

There are multiple public policies for the protection of HRDs in Colombia, starting with the Constitution of Colombia, which in art. 95 protects the right of its citizens to defend and promote human rights.

In 1997, Colombia introduced Law 418 on the protection of persons at risk, being the first document in the world to create a protection mechanism that can be applied to human rights defenders. It should be noted that the protection programme covers other groups too, such as members of local authorities and former Presidents.

With time, Law 418 was modified. In 2011, Decrees 4.065 and 4.912 created the National Protection Unit, which is present in all the country, and the Prevention and Protection Programme for the rights to life, liberty, integrity and security of persons, groups and communities, which offer physical protection measures for persons at risk in Colombia, including HRDs. These mechanisms were further enhanced by other decrees, such as Decree 2078 of 2017 on the route of collective protection of the rights to life, freedom, integrity and personal security of groups and communities. However, public policies for the protection of HRDs in Colombia can seem vague and unintelligible to the wider public due to the complex interrelation between the multiple regulations, laws and policies that broadly protect HRDs. Find a more detailed overview of laws and decrees here.

Unfortunately, despite these efforts, the impact of these norms is not reflected in an effective protection of the right to defend human rights in Colombia, and the situation for HRDs continues to be critical. Effective implementation of the laws, regulations and policies is lacking.

The president of Colombia signed the law that ratifies the Escazú Agreement in 2022, however its entering into force is still dependent on the approval of the consistency of the treaty with the national Constitutions by the Constitutional Court. Therefore, the provisions of the agreement have not entered yet into force in the country. The Escazú Agreement is the first legally binding instrument to protect environmental human rights defenders and the first regional treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean on human rights and the environment. Given that Colombia is one of the deadliest places for environmental defenders, the ratification of the agreement is fundamental.

The UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs monitors the situation of HRDs in Colombia. In 2020, Michel Forst, former mandate holder, visited Colombia. He remarked that the risks faced by HRDs in the country had increased after the signature of the Peace Agreement in 2016. He noted the particular risks faced by HRDs in rural areas and called for the effective implementation of the Peace Agreement and the development of a comprehensive policy for the defence of human rights. More recently, regarding the situation of child and youth HRDs, UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor, highlighted the smear campaigns against Colombian youth defenders. On a different report, she complimented the Colombian authorities’ efforts to improve the security of women HRDs.

At the regional level, the situation of HRDs in Colombia is monitored by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and more specifically through the Rapporteurship on Human Rights Defenders and Justice Operators, who has not produced any reports on the situation in Colombia recently. The IACHR conducted a visit to Colombia in April 2024, which has special focus on human rights defenders. In its preliminary observations the Commission recommended measures for reducing the levels of impunity, increase civil society participation and safeguarding human rights defenders. In 2019, the Commission published a report on the topic of HRDs and Social Leaders in Colombia.

In 2023, the IACHR filed an application before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a case concerning the murder of human rights defender Jesús Ramiro Zapata. In 2024, the IACHR issued a resolution to grant precautionary measures in favour of Víctor Miguel Ángel Moreno, Colombian HRD, whom the Commission believes faces a serious, urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to his rights.

Colombia is equally monitored through the Universal Periodic Review. The last review of Colombia was in 2023. Among the reports received, stakeholders, including the Office of the Ombudsman of Colombia, called on the national authorities to address the persistent violence and risks faced by HRDs in Colombia, with particular focus to women HRDs, EHRDs, Indigenous HRDs and LGBTQI+ HRDs. Similarly, the working group recommended extensively the implementation of effective protection measures of HRDs. Colombia supported all the recommendations concerning the protection of HRDs.

Colombia is ranked by the Civicus monitor as “repressed”, which means that civic space is “significantly constrained” and is classified as “free” by the Freedom House democracy index. Concerns include restrictions to the right to freedom of assembly, constraints to the right to freedom of association, impunity for attacks against HRDs, lack of independence and freedom in the media and high corruption levels in public administration.

PI has a Country Office in Colombia. You can find out more about PI’s work in Colombia here.

[Updated on 04/07/2024]