650 national and international NGOs ask the IACHR to carry out a research visit to Colombia

The situation of violence and abuse of power that Colombia has been going through since April 28 continues to worry many national and international organizations, that on Friday afternoon, they asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the IACHR, to do more for the country than just issue a statement condemning the events.

According to the Center for Justice and International Law, Cejil, a total of 650 civil society organizations, both from Colombia and other countries such as Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, the United States, Europe and even Venezuela They have issued statements calling for more attention to what is happening in Colombia and even a request for the IACHR to make an in-person visit to the country to thoroughly investigate the acts of repression against social protest.

“We call on the state to immediately cease the arbitrary and excessive use of force to prevent further violations of the human rights of the population. Likewise, given the important role that the international community can play in this situation, we call on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to seek the consent of the state to visit the country and set up a mechanism. independent. experts to collaborate in the investigation of what happened, ”the agency said on May 7 in a statement.

In it, Cejil recalls that the protests are not only linked to the already withdrawn tax reform proposed by the government of Iván Duque, but also with the economic crisis that the country is going through due to the management of the covid-19 pandemic at the state level, the very health situation in which Colombia finds itself; and even the increase in the killing of social leaders and human rights defenders. It should be noted that, according to Indepaz, In 2021 alone, a total of 57 people died violently.

However, they add, the protests have also become the scene of the disproportionate use of firearms by the national police and even the intervention of the military forces. “This left dozens of people lifeless and resulted in arbitrary arrests, prosecutions, acts of sexual violence, disappearance of people, hundreds of injured and countless reports of police abuse ”.

In this sense, the latest report from the Office of the Mediator, an official body, reports 26 homicides and 145 missing persons55 of them have already been located. However, according to other reports, such as that of the NGO Temblores, there were a total of 1,728 cases of police violence, including 234 victims of physical violence, 37 of homicidal violence, 11 of sexual violence and 934 cases of arbitrary detention. All in the hands of the police.

The attacks, reported by these 650 organizations, even spread against the press and defenders; and they even had the support “Officials, officials and public figures, who encourage the use of lethal weapons”, without any official statement from the national authorities rejecting the excessive use of force to suppress the demonstrations.

These arguments, added to other legal arguments such as the right to freedom of expression and association, the legitimacy of demonstrations and the absence of both the same and the principle of proportionality that govern the use of force, communication raised a call “To the Colombian State for the immediate cessation of the use of force and the use of lethal and non-lethal weapons, for the cessation of sexual violence as punishment and torture and to fulfill their international obligations with regard to the right to protest, including their obligation to respect, protect and facilitate the conditions for exercising this right ”.

Likewise, he reiterated the request addressed to the IACHR “to make a visit to the country to verify the seriousness of human rights violations, as well as the state of impunity and the lack of investigation similar events in previous years ”, for which it is also recommended to set up an independent mechanism on the ground to collaborate with the national authorities in the investigation, which not only clarifies what happened, but recommends also steps that contribute to the failure to repeat the same.

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