Support LRWC Board Member Heather Neun’s Participation in VIII Colombian Caravana

24/06/2024

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Colombia remains the most dangerous country to be a human rights defender. Please donate to support LRWC Board Member Heather Neun’s participation in the VIII International Caravana of Jurists to Colombia in August 2024.

Caravana Delegates in Cúcuta in August 2022

Your donation supports an initiative that helps save the lives of lawyers and improve prospects for remedies for victims of human rights violations. To quote a prominent Colombian human rights lawyer:

It is very important that the international community maintains its interest in Colombia. International monitoring of the situation of human rights defenders in Colombia is crucial. Without this international support, many of us might no longer be alive.

Numerous sources document the dangers that Colombian lawyers and human rights defenders face for defending victims of grave human rights abuses.[1] The VIII Caravana takes place at the invitation of Colombian human rights lawyers who report that biennial Caravana monitoring visits help to raise their profile and provide a measure of protection to the legal profession and human rights defenders.

Donate to LRWC’s VIII Caravana fund through Canada Helps

Practicing law in Colombia remains risky, with lawyers facing horrifying consequences for advocacy that might expose wrongdoing by State and non-state actors. These risks were evident just last month as former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez issued stigmatizing statements against the prominent human rights law firm, CAJAR, and one of its lawyers, Reinaldo Villalba, in the case brought against Uribe Vélez for bribery and procedural fraud.[2] His statements are especially concerning, as the former President’s previous campaigns of stigmatization have spawned threats and attacks against the law firm. CAJAR has conduct of cases that allege responsibility of State and non-state actors for such serious human rights violations as massacres, forced displacements and other crimes against humanity. There is concern that these latest statements could generate new attacks against CAJAR. Such statements increase the longstanding risk for CAJAR lawyers and are contrary to the recent ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in CAJAR vs. Colombia.[3]

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Colombia remains the most deadly country for human rights defenders. In 2023, 142 defenders were assassinated, almost half the global total. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recently highlighted Colombia’s alarming human rights defender murder rate, the highest in the region in 2023. Front Line Defenders Global Analysis Report documented 142 killings of Colombian human rights defenders last year.[4]

Colombia continues to face human rights issues and impunity, underscoring the need for effective action to address the concerns outlined in the last Caravana report of 2023. Despite the perception of Colombia as transitioning to a post-conflict era, violence persists, predominantly affecting rural regions, Indigenous territories, Afro-Colombian communities, campesino communities, and marginalized urban areas.

In light of the evolving political landscape in Colombia, the VIII Caravana delegation will focus on the complex challenges encountered by human rights lawyers and defenders in their quest for justice.

Please donate to support LRWC’s participation in the VIII Colombia Caravana. You will receive a charitable tax receipt for your donation.

Support the fight for human rights with your tax deductible charitable donation

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Notes:

[1] Among them, the VII Caravana report issued in 2023: https://www.lrwc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/UPDATED-Colombian-Caravan-Report-Final-EN.pdf

[2] https://www.colectivodeabogados.org/nuevos-senalamientos-de-uribe-velez-contra-el-cajar-aumentan-el-riesgo-que-corren-las-y-los-integrantes-de-la-organizacion-de-dd-hh/

[3] https://www.lrwc.org/iacgr-finds-colombia-responsible-for-violating-rights-of-hr-defenders/

[4] https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/sites/default/files/1578_fld_ga23_online_u02.pdf