Together with the International Observatory at Risk (OIAD), Lawyers for Lawyers, International Caravan of Jurists, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada and Global Justice Association, has informed the Colombian authorities of its concern about the information received regarding the situation of Luz Estella Romero Villalba and the other members of the Asociación Colectivo Mujeres al Derecho (ASOCOLEMAD), an association of women lawyers and human rights defenders in Colombia.
In the communication, the organisations have urged the Colombian institutions and authorities to:
Take all necessary measures to guarantee the safety and physical and psychological integrity of those who make up ASCOLEMAD, within the framework of protection programs and international standards;
Guarantee, under all circumstances, that human rights defence lawyers in Colombia can carry out their activities in defence of human rights without fear of reprisals and without restrictions and with respect for the United Nations Basic Principles of the Role of Lawyers, signed in Havana in 1990.
Likewise, in particular, we urge the Office of the Attorney General to observe due diligence and guarantee the rights to due process, defence, access to justice and the right to information in the investigation of the reported facts.
"Felicito a Luz Estella Romero Villalba, Edilia Mendoza Roa, @SomosGenesisCol y @LIMPALCOLOMBIA por recibir el reconocimiento a su labor de defensa de los derechos humanos. Cada uno de nosotros tiene un papel importante que desempeñar en un futuro en paz para Colombia". – FLP pic.twitter.com/yDemM4sB4J
#ATENCIÓN | Luz Estella Romero Villalba, abogada feminista y defensora de #DDHH es la ganadora a la Categoría 1: Defensor o Defensora del año. Ha sacado adelante casos emblemáticos de violaciones a DDHH con impacto diferenciado en mujeres y niñas. pic.twitter.com/gdkkCfgmK8
— Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos Colombia (@PremioNalDDHH) October 19, 2022
— ProtectLawyers (OIAD) (@ProtectLawyers) May 4, 2022
🇨🇴#Colombia: Lawyer Carlos Enrique Maldonado, victim of serious and worrying stigmatisation for defending peasant communities affected by the armed conflict.
🇨🇴#Colombia: Lawyer Carlos Enrique Maldonado, victim of serious and worrying stigmatisation for defending peasant communities affected by the armed conflict.
🇨🇴#Colombia: Lawyer Carlos Enrique Maldonado, victim of serious and worrying stigmatisation for defending peasant communities affected by the armed conflict.
La VII Caravana Internacional de Juristas recorre esta semana del 20 al 28 de agosto diferentes zonas de Colombia para conocer de primera mano los riesgos que enfrentan en este país abogados y defensores de los derechos humanos.
El equipo de la Caravana está conformado por 18 juristas internacionales y expertos en Derechos Humanos de 11 países, incluidos miembros de la Fundación Abogacía, como integrante del Observatorio Internacional de la Abogacía en Riesgo (OIAD).
Esta iniciativa, organizada por ‘Colombian Caravana’, se celebra desde el año 2008 de manera bianual. En esta edición se visitarán las regiones de Bolívar, Norte de Santander, Santander y Valle del Cauca.
La Defensoría del Pueblo, órgano del Estado colombiano, ha informado de que 122 defensores de derechos humanos han sido asesinados entre enero y julio de 2022. Por ello, la misión de este viaje es analizar las amenazas sufridas por este sector y abogar por su protección.
Esta visita de la Caravana se produce en medio de una coyuntura complicada, debido al incumplimiento del Acuerdo Final de Paz firmado en 2016. Desde entonces se ha dado una agudización de las masacres, del desplazamiento forzado en territorios indígenas, afrocolombianos y rurales, así como una criminalización del derecho a la protesta tras el estallido social de 2021.
La delegación se reunirá con autoridades regionales y nacionales del nuevo gobierno presidido por Gustavo Petro con el fin de abordar los desafíos e inquietudes respecto a la seguridad de los abogados y abogadas.
#AHORA RUEDA DE PRENSA📰🎙️ #7aCaravanaInternacionalDeJuristas Presentación de conclusiones preliminares de la visita de 18 juristas a cinco regiones del país sobre la situación de la abogacía y la defensa de derechos humanos.
Maria Alejandra Garzón Mora is a human rights lawyer and member of the Asociación Red de Defensores y Defensoras, DH Colombia. DH Colombia aims to promote, disseminate, protect and defend human and peoples’ rights. It is an interdisciplinary group that provides comprehensive defence for victims of human rights violations, both individually and collectively.
The Observatory has received information about numerous threats to the lawyer María Alejandra Garzón Mora from September 2020 to date, with a higher frequency in 2021. The lawyer is the victim of various attacks: cyber-attacks, constant surveillance, as well as verbal attacks. The threats received are directly aimed at her work as a legal representative of the victims of the protests that took place in Colombia as part of the national strike in April 2021.
The lawyer is subject to constant monitoring and surveillance, both by police officers and by strangers near her home and office. In addition, María Alejandra is subject to cyber-attacks, telecommunications breakdowns and interception of calls with clients, colleagues and family members. The incidents occur most often in the context of hearings or crucial dates in cases in which she represents interests as a lawyer. These attacks constitute a serious breach of professional secrecy and impede the free and independent exercise of the profession.
Due to her high level of risk and insecurity, Alejandra Garzón began to benefit from the protection regime granted by the Investigation and Indictment Unit (hereinafter, UIA), an entity belonging to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), in March 2021. Faced with the UIA’s decision to reduce the protection measures in February 2022, the lawyer filed a guardianship application with the JEP. The guardianship ruling SRT-ST-088/2022 of 16 May recognised the extraordinary risk suffered by the lawyer and invited the UIA to reassess the lawyer’s status within two months. Until the new risk assessment is carried out, the protective measures initially adopted will be maintained.
— ProtectLawyers (OIAD) (@ProtectLawyers) June 29, 2022
🇨🇴 #Colombie: L’avocate spécialiste des droits humains María Alejandra Garzón Mora a subi de graves menaces, des cyber-attaques, des surveillances et des attaques verbales.
— ProtectLawyers (OIAD) (@ProtectLawyers) June 29, 2022
New threats against father of victim in the Mondoñedo case and lawyer Yessika Hoyos Morales, member of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective, Cajar – CAJAR @MIUI| https://t.co/nzEpQ22q7c
Following the assassination of Paraguay’s Marcelo Pecci while honeymooning in Colombia, two other crimes have hit Latin American prosecutors in the last days of May.
Honduran State Attorney’s Office has declared three days of mourning following Friday’s assassination of Special Environmental Prosecutor Karen Gabriela Almendarez Herrera from the city of Nacaome in the El Salvador-bordering department of Valle.
The head of the Specialized Prosecutor Unit Against Corruption Networks, Luis Javier Santos, published that: “Prosecutor ”Ranger“ that is how they have called those of who have been assigned to a local Prosecutor’s Office.” He added that “Almendarez, was a ‘Ranger’ Prosecutor, a true heroine, a dreamer, an idealist.”
Almendarez, aged 39, was murdered Friday in Nacaome’s El Chagüite neighborhood. She was shot while she was opening the gate to her home when returning from the gymnasium at night. According to uncorroborated sources, she was the sister of a high-ranking officer of the Honduran Armed Forces.
On May 16, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Last week PBI accompanied @Ccajar during the public hearing held in @CorteIDH [the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] in the case Members of the “José Alvear Restrepo” Lawyers Corporation v. Colombia. See more information about the audience here.”
[…]
The hearing took place on May 12-13 in San Jose, Costa Rica.
On May 11, PBI-Colombia also tweeted:
“@CorteIDH [the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] calls #Colombia to judge surveillance and illegal intelligence against human rights defenders @Ccajar whom we have accompanied since 1995. We express our deep admiration and solidarity for their tireless work in defense of human rights and search for justice so that #NoSeRepita [there is no repetition].”
“For the first time, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) will try a case involving illegal surveillance and intelligence on human rights defenders.
This is the case brought by the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar), which has denounced being a victim of persecution practices for more than 30 years, in which its members have been the focus of illegal intelligence activities by different State agencies, stigmatizing speeches, threats, attacks, exiles, smear campaigns, psychological torture and harassment.”
On the first day of the hearing, CCAJAR tweeted:
“In the worst years of persecution we felt that the organization was going to end. Half of the lawyers of @Ccajar had to go into exile. We always appeared on lists of threats from paramilitary groups.”
La @CIDH podría condenar a Colombia por los ataques e intimidaciones en contra de los miembros del @Ccajar. “Creíamos que no íbamos a llegar a viejos”, señaló una de las víctimas, quien denunció haber estado entre los ojos del DAS. Más detalles 👇 https://t.co/BP8pRK3dxz
#EnMedios🌷Caso de persecución y espionaje en Colombia llega a la Corte Interamericana "Según @cejil , el @Ccajar, ha sido víctima de "amenazas, atentados, exilio, campañas de desprestigio, torturas y hostigamientos realizados desde organismos del Estado"https://t.co/sFxMlq06cvpic.twitter.com/OXHZMIteX3
A high-profile Paraguayan prosecutor who fought against organised crime in his home country has been shot dead during his honeymoon in Colombia.
Marcelo Pecci was on a beach on the idyllic tourist island of Baru when he was killed by two gunmen.
Hours before the shooting, Mr Pecci’s wife had announced on Instagram that she was pregnant.
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez described the shooting as a “cowardly murder”.
His wife, journalist Claudia Aguilera, said that they were approached by two men on a private beach before her husband was shot. She said he had not received any threats.
“Two men attacked Marcelo. They came in a small boat, or on a jet ski, the truth is I did not see well,” Ms Aguilera told the El Tiempo newspaper.
One of the assailants got out and “without a word he shot Marcelo twice, one (bullet) hit him in the face and another in the back”, she said.
The Decameron Hotel, where the couple was staying, said in a statement that “assassins arrived on the beach… and attacked and murdered one of our guests”.
[…]
Mr Pecci specialised in organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and terror financing.
Along with the workaday perils of practising law that they share with their male counterparts, such as being gunned down in the street, Colombia’s women lawyers face threats that are particular to them. They could be raped, for example, or suffer another form of sexual assault that aims to intimidate and discourage them from doing their job – which is representing and protecting the vulnerable through the rule of law. Also, women lawyers’ children may be threatened with violence or press ganged into a guerrilla army, where the only subject on the curriculum – Marxist precepts apart – is how to kill.
These are some of the stark truths to emerge from this year’s Day of the Endangered Lawyer (24 January) panel discussion chaired by Law Society international human rights adviser Doctor Marina Brilman. Previous discussions have looked at other countries where the rule of law no longer holds sway, such as Azerbajan, Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt. This year’s focus is on the South American republic of Colombia, where the 2016 peace agreement was supposed to have ended the 60 year conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the state.
The conflict claimed around 262,000 lives, displaced 6.9m people, saw around 18,000 children forced to join armed groups and many thousands more people ‘disappeared’, raped or tortured. The optimism engendered by the agreement has failed to bear fruit, as the three Colombian lawyers on the panel report.
Dora Lucy Arias Giraldo is a member of Colombia’s leading human rights lawyers’ collective. She begins: ‘The Colombian constitution states that it is the duty of lawyers to promote human rights and represent the vulnerable. And yet the government, working through its own intelligence organisations, has an active strategy of diminishing and weakening our operations through attacks on our children and sexual violence against our (women lawyers’) bodies.’ She concedes: ‘There are protection measures in place regarding gender, but they are under-funded – a particular problem when trying to bring powerful economic players to justice.’
Ana Maria Rodriguez, who is also a human rights lawyer, warns that Colombia’s ‘entire existence as a social justice state’ is under threat. She points to recent ‘reforms’ that were designed specifically to weaken the remit of both public prosecutors and the ombudsman, while increasing the power of the executive to turn a blind eye to government corruption.
Webinar on📺🇨🇴: @JoelHernandezG "In the report on colombia, the @CIDH described multiple attacks of bullying and harassment and called on the state to investigate and punish the responsibles." #DayoftheEndangeredLawyer
Webinar on📺🇨🇴: Meet Daniel Mendoza Leal: @ElQueLosDELATA will share with you his career from human rights lawyer to journalist and the gradual constrains that led to his exile. #DayofendangeredLawyer
Webinar on 📺🇨🇴: Meet Lina Pelaez: @pelaezlina member of @Nomadesc will explain to you how the work as a Human right lawyer is forseen in Colombia and to what extent the practice can put lawyers in danger.
Infinita gratitud por la solidaridad internacional que rodea nuestro trabajo en defensa de los derechos humanos. Amenazas, campañas de desprestigio, judicialización infundada y actividades de inteligencia ilegal, ¡No nos callarán!#DayoftheEndangeredLawyer#DíaAbogacíaEnRiesgopic.twitter.com/4tZ6iMTcXH
Vandaag is de International Day of the Endangered Lawyer https://t.co/aUJo7Zt0ty Wereldwijd worden advocaten bedreigd omdat zij rechten van mensen verdedigen. Zij moeten hun werk in veiligheid kunnen doen. In Nederland, maar bijvoorbeeld ook in Colombia: https://t.co/jRxHwMenFzpic.twitter.com/46KmWi1LPB
24 Ocak 77’de Madrid’de dört avukatın katledilmesinin ardından ilan edilen Tehlikedeki Avukatlar Günü, bu yıl Kolombiya’daki avukatlara ithaf edildi. Mesleğini yaparken türlü saldırılara maruz kalan meslektaşlarımızın yanındayız. #DayoftheEndangeredLawyer#Protectcolombianlawyerspic.twitter.com/HM8c2y55d3
En 2021, 6 avocats ont été tués en lien avec leur exercice professionnel en Colombie. 700 avocats tués en dix années (Selon Fasol) ! C’est pourquoi, la journée de l’avocat en danger est dédiée pour la 2ème fois à la Colombie. pic.twitter.com/2iO5c4FzEZ
1/3 🆘 Journée internationale des avocats en danger🆘
Tous unis, tous confrères, quelque soit le pays, nous sommes aux cotés des #avocats qui sont empêchés d’exercer leur métier parce qu’ils défendent les libertés et droits fondamentaux des citoyens.
Francesco Caia, presidente del Observatorio Internacional de la Abogacía en Riesgo comparte estas palabras con motivo del #DayofendangeredLawyer dedicado a Colombia.
The FBE expresses its grave concern at the situation of lawyers at risk in Colombia. Their role in maintaining access to #Justice, the right to an independent defence, the independence of judges & lawyers, and the defence of #HumanRights upholds the #RuleOfLaw in Colombia. pic.twitter.com/BFFHsoy1uT
— Fédération des Barreaux d'Europe (@EuropeanBars) January 24, 2022
In den letzten zehn Jahren wurden dort mehr als 700 Rechtsanwält_innen ermordet. Daneben kam es zu mehr als 4.400 Übergriffen auf kolumbianische Kolleginnen und Kollegen, weil sie ihren Job erledigt und gegen Unrecht aufgetreten sind. #DayOfTheEndangeredLawyer
Lawyers & judges continue to face persecution in 🇨🇴Colombia – esp. those in environmental law, land restitution & at the Special Court for Peace.#DayofEndangeredLawyer: We join the call on the Colombian State to strengthen its protections of lawyers.
On the International Day of the Lawyer in Danger. #Colombia has been selected this year. I call on the #Colombian institutions to address the situation of lawyers who suffer harassment in their professional practice. pic.twitter.com/ncTytnpqsH
Giornata mondiale degli #Avvocati in pericolo per ricordare il massacro di Atocha, a Madrid, il #24gennaio 1977, in cui furono uccisi 5 avvocati esperti di diritto del lavoro, nel periodo di transizione tra la dittatura franchista e la democrazia: https://t.co/26EKEFiEsy
Lawyers are being arbitrarily arrested, prosecuted and convicted, as well as forcibly disappeared and even killed in countries across the world because of their work upholding the rule of law, the Law Society of England and Wales said to mark the day of the endangered lawyer on 24 January.
Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said: “We honour the courage and commitment of lawyers around the world who put their lives at risk so that people’s rights are protected and those who violate them are held accountable.
“Today we think particularly of our colleagues in Afghanistan who helped build the justice system and bring stability to the country under the former government. Since the Taliban took power some have tragically been killed because of the work they did, a few managed to escape, but far too many are in hiding, at risk from not only the Taliban but also from terrorists and criminals they convicted since released from prison.
“The Law Society stands in solidarity with legal professionals around the world. We will continue to work to support them and to contribute to building strong, fair justice systems everywhere.”
On December 6, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Attention: Yesterday, December 5, the #DDHH [human rights] organizations accompanied by PBI @Ccajar and @Movicecol victims of state crimes. Urgent progress in investigations into those responsible and guarantees were threatened for political participation.”
‼️ Atención: Ayer 5 de diciembre fueron amenazadas, entre otras, organización de #DDHH acompañada por PBI @Ccajar y víctimas de crímenes de estado @Movicecol ⚠️#Urgen avances en investigaciones sobre responsables y #garantías para la participación políticahttps://t.co/cdiyizMxPI
CCAJAR has also tweeted: “We demand that @FiscaliaCol investigate, prosecute and punish the authors of this pamphlet. Never until today have the so-called ‘Black Eagles’ been identified. There are serious indications that these threats are acts of illegal intelligence from state agencies.”
Exigimos a @FiscaliaCol investigar, juzgar y sancionar a autores de este panfleto. Nunca hasta hoy han sido identificadas las llamadas "Águilas Negras" Existen serios indicios de que estas amenazas son actos de inteligencia ilegal desde organismos estatales @CIDH@ONUHumanRightspic.twitter.com/vNKS2dTBON
El Espectador lists the 20 people named in the pamphlet. And Infobae quotes the pamphlet that states: “We continue with the civic and patriotic work of cleaning our homeland of leftist garbage, environmentalists and human rights defenders who intend to change the government from social networks and through indoctrination to the masses as they could not take power by arms…”
Contagio Radio further reports: “On Sunday morning, a pamphlet was released in which the so-called ‘Black Eagles’ associated with far-right sectors threatened several members of the Historical Pact and Victims’ movements such as MOVICE and the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective, as well as members of the First Line [Primera Linea].”
Our Day of the Endangered Lawyer online seminar will explore challenges faced by #HumanRights lawyers & the situation of judicial independence in the Colombian legal system. Join us 15:00 to 16:30 Thurs 20 January.
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 