Peace Brigades International speaks at the United Nations on human rights in Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras

On February 28, Peace Brigades International-Switzerland Advocacy Coordinator Kim-Mai Vu presented to the 43rd Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The video of her presentation can be seen here (from 1:07:30 to 1:09:00).

Kim-Mai commented on the human rights reports on Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras.

She stated:

“PBI welcomes the presentation of the annual reports on Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras. We highly praise the work of the office monitoring and promoting respect of human rights in these three countries and we believe that it’s crucial to continue this work. We note with concern the trends towards the criminalization and stigmatization of defenders of human rights, impunity in terms of attacks against human rights defenders, as well as the militarization of law enforcement.”

“In Colombia we see continued systematic and serious violations of human rights and the exacerbation of the conflict with serious humanitarian consequences. It is urgent to ensure that the government is committed to the implementation of the peace agreements and implements effective public policies to guarantee the protection human rights defenders and dismantle the paramilitary structures.”

“In Guatemala the government continues to respond in protecting the human rights against attacks and also implementing different laws. It is crucial to develop a public policy to ensure the continued protection of the rights of human rights defenders and bring to justice the material and intellectual authors of human rights defenders.”

“In Honduras it is urgent to recognize the rights of LGBT community and combat violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity through the promotion of national laws and implementation of institutional discourse against hate speech.”

Previous interventions by Kim-Mai at the UN Human Rights Council include calling on Nepal to guarantee the security of women human rights defenders (June 2019) and at a session related to the Working Group on Involuntary Disappearances (September 2019).

PBI-Switzerland has highlighted that its “advocacy work includes regular meetings with representatives of the EDA [the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs] in Bern and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. PBI Switzerland has had consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2014. PBI Switzerland works closely with NGOs, aid organizations, solidarity groups, churches and interest groups, especially within the framework of platforms on specific countries and topics.”