PBI-Colombia at meeting of Basque parliamentarians with the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission

On July 17, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted, “Today the delegation of the Basque Government parliamentarians visits the @Justiciaypazcol office and meets @IDARDOS in order to listen to their concerns about the current security situation in the territories they accompany and the threats they have received this year.”

@Justiciaypazcol is the Twitter handle for the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP), which has been accompanied by PBI-Colombia since 1994. @IDARDOS refers to Iván Danilo Rueda R, a legal representative for the CIJP.

PBI-Colombia later tweeted, “Thanks to the Delegation of the Basque Government for its visit to the office of @Justiciaypazcol, for its support in the construction of peace and in the protection of human rights in Colombia.”

Also related to the PBI-Colombia tweet, CEAR-Euskadi tweeted, “In Bogotá we started the agenda at the headquarters of the Inter-Church Commission of Justice and Peace. The meeting is accompanied by @PBIColombia, an organization that has issued an alert regarding the risk situation of its members.”

As noted on its website, “CEAR-Euskadi defends the rights of refugees, stateless people and migrants and we work to support their integral development to ensure their success in the new society that welcomes them.”

CEAR is the acronym for the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid. Euskadi refers to the Basque Country, an autonomous community in Spain, in the Basque language.

PBI-Colombia has previously explained that the CIJP accompanies community processes in the Bajo Atrato region and that in the last few months the CIJP has been the victim of serious threats due to their work in the region.

For example, Agencia Prensa Rural recently reported (in Spanish), “We reject the death threat via text message, uttered against the human rights defender Carlos Fernández, member of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, held on June 26.”

PBI-Colombia’s Javier Garate recently wrote this update on the security situation in the Bajo Atrato region and a visit to the Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) Humanitarian Zone by representatives of five embassies and other officials.