PBI highlights Colombia in statements at UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva

Peace Brigades International-Switzerland Advocacy Coordinator Kim-Mai Vu recently made two presentations about the human rights situation in Colombia at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

On September 17, at the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of non-recurrence, Kim-Mai noted:

“The threats of September 7 to Yeisson Salamanca, associated with the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation, after delivering a report to the Truth Commission on forced disappearances of relatives and hundreds of other victims, and the responsibility not investigated by the Army and paramilitary groups in Casanare, as well as the continuous threats and harassment against the CREDHOS organization in Barrancabermeja that provided information to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. Likewise, we express concern regarding smear campaigns, threats, and illegal state intelligence operations against organizations of lawyers and representatives of victims who actively participate in processes of memory and truth: among them the CCAJAR, the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners and the Justice and Peace Commission.”

And on September 21, at the Interactive dialogue with the Working Group on enforced disappearances, she highlighted:

“The case of Buenaventura, one of the cities hardest hit by this phenomenon, where today the families of victims of missing persons draw the attention of the international community in front of the port expansion works that include the dredging of the Estero de San Antonio, where there are indications of the presence of mass graves where bodies lie of missing persons. The continuity of the works, without previously an action of serious and coordinated search, would mean the definitive loss of all right to the truth, impossibility of finding the remains and cessation of uncertainty.”

The video of the September 17 presentation can be seen here (#48, starting at 1:47:08) and the September 21 presentation can be seen here (#24, starting at 43:23).

Peace Brigades International-Switzerland regularly presents statements to the Human Rights Council in collaboration with PBI field projects and has had consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2014.