Colombia

Protests against the hydroelectric project in May. Photo credit: https://peoplesdispatch.org/

On 22 September, two relatives of members of the Rios Vivos Movement were killed in Antioquia, Colombia. These killings come after several other killings of environmental human rights defenders. All are members of the same movement, and all are affected by the environmental and human rights impact of the Hidrohituango dam construction.

On 22 September, unidentified men shot to death the nephew of Rubén Areiza, a member of the Rios Vivos Movement (Movimiento Ríos Vivos Antioquia, MRVA). He was returning from a sport event in the Briceño municipality, Antioquia department, northwest Colombia. Another man was injured in the attack. On the same day, the son of a former member of MRVA was killed with a sharp object in the Valdivia municipality, also in Antioquia.

In response to reports indicating that some 3,600 Indigenous people from 14 communities find themselves trapped in the middle of clashes between armed groups in the department of Chocó, in northwestern Colombia, which could lead to mass displacement, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said:

“This is not the first mass forced displacement in Colombia this year which has specifically affected Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant communities in Chocó. This is a crime under international law and one of the most serious human rights violations in the context of the armed conflict still taking place in the region”.

“Food shortages, lack of access to basic services and the escalation of the violence leave the affected communities in a state of vulnerability with an unacceptable lack of protection. The national, departmental and municipal authorities must take immediate and comprehensive action to guarantee their human rights in the face of this situation”.

Seven bodies, all male, were found piled on a road of the municipality of Argelia, in the southwest region of Cauca, Colombia. The bodies are being identified by authorities as they were presumably not from the municipality. In the past few weeks, paramilitary groups have been circulating pamphlets threatening to kill certain groups of people. 

In the early morning of 3 July, the inhabitants of the rural area of the municipality of Argelia, Cauca in the south-western region of Colombia, found seven bodies on a road connecting the villages of La Belleza and Sinaí. The bodies were reported to have been shot at point blank range with visible signs of torture and other ill-treatment. On 5 July, the authorities were able to identify six of the seven bodies, two of which were registered ex-combatants from the demobilized guerrilla group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). 

The new government of president elect Iván Duque, who is due to take up office on 7 August, has an obligation to guarantee the rights of the more than eight million victims of the armed conflict in Colombia and to adopt an agenda of full respect for human rights, including for human rights defenders and historically excluded communities, stated Amnesty International today.

“Violence continues to be a reality for thousands of people and communities. We are worried that armed actors, such as paramilitary groups, are still committing crimes under international law, including collective forced displacement, sexual violence against women and girls, and targeted killings of human rights activists. This has to change and we hope that the new administration under president elect Iván Duque will be committed to that change”, said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

One of the bullets shot at the house of Indigenous teacher and community leader Gonzalo Hilamo Mesa Photo credit www.onic.org.co 

More than 200 Indigenous Nasa Embera Chamí from La Delfina reservation in Buenaventura (West), Colombia, are currently displaced following an armed attack on a member of their community on 8 June. They are in need of decisive security measures to protect them and access to humanitarian aid such as food, health services and shelter.

In the early morning of June 8, 2018, the Indigenous teacher and community leader Gonzalo Hilamo Mesa suffered an armed attack in his home with two bullets fired against his residence by unknown men.  Mr. Mesa was unharmed, however this recent attack generated fear and terror among the community who moved en masse from the area and are currently stationed and confined in a nearby school called Technical-Husbandry Educational Institution (Institución Educativa Técnico Agropecuaria, NACHASIN). 

JOINT RELEASE OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CANADA   PEN CANADA   TORONTO ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRACY IN CHINA

Amnesty International Canada, PEN Canada and the Toronto Association for Democracy in China jointly announced today the kickoff of the Liu Xiaobo Memorial project to erect a bronze sculpture of an empty chair to commemorate his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.

Liu Xiaobo was a writer, literary critic, human rights activist, and co-author of Charter 08, a manifesto calling for political reform in China. He was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment. 

Liu Xiaobo was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. At the award ceremony in Oslo, the award was presented to an empty chair. In 2017, Liu became the second Nobel Peace Laureate to die in state custody.

In an open letter to Cheryl Urban, Director General of the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau at Global Affairs Canada, Amnesty International Canada notified the Department it will no longer make submissions to the annual report on Human Rights and Free Trade between Canada and Colombia.

The organization cited serious concerns with the Department’s methodology which fundamentally undermines the credibility of the process, including by failing to assess some of the most significant trade-related human rights concerns in Colombia. Instead, “the Government of Canada chooses to interpret its human rights reporting responsibilities in a limited and restrictive manner that ignores and overlooks pressing human rights concerns directly related to critical trade, investment and business policy and activities that are encouraged, promoted and furthered by the [Canada Colombia Free Trade Agreement],” the Open Letter reads.