PBI-Colombia accompanies dhColombia a meeting with Indigenous Bari peoples on search protocols for disappeared persons

On March 27, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“We were in [the municipality of] Tibú accompanying @dhColombia [the Associated Network of Human Rights Defenders] at a meeting with the [Indigenous] Barí people to prepare a search protocol for #MissingPersons that respects the principles of Barís law and philosophy.”

The Bari peoples

Last year, Euronews reported: “Over a thousand indigenous people from the Bari ethnic group that lives on the Colombian-Venezuelan border take to the streets in the Colombian town of Tibu, demanding the cessation of violent actions by armed groups in this region.”

And EFE has explained: “The 6,000 members of the Bari indigenous community live in the Catatumbo River basin – which is spread over the municipalities of Tibu, El Carmen, Convencion, Teorama and El Tarra of the northeastern department of Norte de Santander and has a sizable presence of guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug traffickers – as well as in communities on the other side of the border in Venezuela.”

dhColombia

dhColombia, founded in 2014 by a group of legal professionals and experts from related disciplines, helps victims of human rights violations, socio-political violence and crimes against humanity effectively access national and international justice courts, and thus, achieve truth, justice, comprehensive reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.

It carries out search actions for missing persons and collects information to locate their whereabouts. It also offers training and support to teams of professionals working on the issue of enforced disappearances in different regions of the country.

For their work in judicial cases involving representatives of political sectors, the public administration and the armed forces in the country, members of dhColombia, especially the lawyer Germán Romero, have been subject to threats, persecutions, and other security incidents.

PBI-Colombia has been accompanying dhColombia since 2016.