The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation has posted on social media: “Finally! Law 2364 has been signed. The struggle of the women searching for their missing loved ones was not in vain. Now: let it be fulfilled, let it be implemented, let it be respected.”
The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has also posted:
“Presidency signs the Decree authorizing the Women Seekers Act. Congratulations @fundacionnydiaerikabautista for persistence and may this achievement continue to be a light on the way.”
El Espectador reports: “This has been the story of the women searchers in Colombia: waiting for some response from that family member they never saw again; waiting for institutional recognition of their work amid repeated attempts to discredit it; and waiting, for almost two years, for the decree enforcing the law that protects them to be signed. That moment finally arrived on January 26, when the measure implementing Law 2364 of 2024, known as the Women Searchers Law, became final.”
Andrea Torres, director of the Nydia Érika Bautista Foundation and daughter of Yanette Bautista, tells El Espectador: “We received it with tears in our eyes. We were very moved because we feel that Yanette Bautista is continuing her legacy from heaven and showing us that we must keep going. It gives us strength, comforts us, and reminds us that it is worth getting up every day to demand our rights and those of our loved ones. It has been wonderful news after decades in which women searchers were invisible.”
Radio Nacional de Colombia notes: “With the signing of this law, the national government takes a key step in recognizing the fundamental role that women searchers have played in defending human rights, historical memory, and peacebuilding in Colombia, settling a historic debt with those who have tirelessly searched for their loved ones amid pain and resistance.”
The timeline of the legislation
The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project was present on October 19, 2022, the day the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation filed the Bill.
On March 15, 2023, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “We are accompanying the Meeting with the @FirstCommission to promote the Bill on #WomenSearchers of #EnforcedDisappearance in Colombia @nydia_erika” The First Commission (Comisión Primera) is the “Permanent Constitutional Commission of the Congress of the Republic of Colombia that processes in first debate the Bills and Legislative Act.”
And on May 16, 2023, PBI-Colombia accompanied the Foundation at the First Debate on the Comprehensive Law.
On June 27, 2023, PBI-Colombia posted: “The Commissioner of the @CIDH [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] @JulissaMantill6 visits the office of @nydia_erika in support of the risk situation that the Foundation faces in its fight against forced disappearance and in support of the Women Searchers bill.”
On July 27, 2023, PBI-Colombia posted: “Today vice minister @liliasolanor [Lilia Solano] facilitated an important push for law 242, protection for #WomenSearchers promoted by @nydia_erika. There was the participation of @ONU [United Nations] Women, @OACNUDH [the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights-Central America and the Caribbean], and the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defence.”
On October 27, 2023, PBI-Colombia posted: “We were with @nydia_erika at the meeting with @ONUMujeresCol [the United Nations agency in Colombia for gender equality and the empowerment of women] and @ONUHumanRights [UN Human Rights Colombia] to follow up on the draft Law for the Comprehensive Protection of #WomenSearchers of Victims of #MissingPersons.”
On February 27, 2024, PBI-Colombia posted: “Talking at the headquarters of the @nydia_erika Foundation about the importance of advancing and making a reality the Law Project on Guarantees for Women Seekers, a pioneering initiative presented last week to the UN Committee against Enforced Disappearances.”
PBI-Colombia was also present alongside Yanette Bautista on April 4, 2024, when Bill No. 242 was approved in the Senate.
Then on June 18, 2024, Law 2364 of 2024, the Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers, was ratified by President Gustavo Petro.
On October 23, 2025, when the Foundation launched a network and campaign on Law 2364, PBI-Colombia posted: “From PBI Colombia, we reiterate our support for FNEB to strengthen protective environments, support the implementation of #Law2364, and continue contributing to justice, truth, and peacebuilding.”
And now today, January 29, 2026, PBI-Colombia is sharing the good news: “Presidency signs the Decree authorizing the Women Seekers Act. Congratulations @fundacionnydiaerikabautista for persistence and may this achievement continue to be a light on the way.”
Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) occasionally since 2007 and in full since 2016.
