FIDH, meeting in Taipei (Taiwan) from 23 to 25 October 2019 for its 40th Congress, wishes to express its concern for the low level of implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia and urges the Government of President Iván Duque Márquez to effectively fulfil the commitments included therein:
CONSIDERING
1. That at its 39th Congress in Johannesburg, South Africa, FIDH and its 178 leagues celebrated the signing of the Peace Agreement reached in 2016 between the National Government and the FARC-EP guerrillas, which ended an armed confrontation that had lasted over 60 years.
2. That FIDH has been observing the developments in the Colombian peace process with hope, but also with serious concern. In particular, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT), has noted an increase in attacks against human rights defenders, as well as the failure to overcome the structural causes that generate violence against them, such as persistence of stigmatisation, impunity and paramilitarism.
3. Likewise, within the framework of its mandate, and with the support of the European Union, FIDH and its leagues monitor the implementation of point 5 of the Peace Agreement on victims’ rights, and provides victims with access to the organs created for the realisation of their rights: Truth, Coexistence and Non-Recurrence Commission(CEV), the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and Special Unit for the Search for Persons deemed as Missing in the context of and due to the conflict (UBPD). Although the organs are in operation, FIDH has called attention to the obstacles that the Government has placed on the signing of the Statutory Law that would guarantee the full operation of the JEP, as well as the barriers to participation, security and access to information that victims have faced at different times recently. It is equally concerning the underfunding national policy that could affect their ability to fulfil their mission.
4. If effectively implemented, the Peace Agreement would fulfil the will of those who, both in Colombia and in the international human rights community, have fought to build a country in which the ideal of human rights being indivisible is realised. The Agreement has a transformative effect on the rural realities and territories, the political rights of the actors, the political participation of the communities, the solution to the problem of illicit drugs, the particular harm that women, children, the LGBT population and ethnic communities have suffered, and the rights of victims in a new model of transitional justice.
5. Today the weak and slow implementation of the Agreement jeopardises what has been achieved. Particularly, the points of Comprehensive Rural Reform (point 1) and Solution to the Illicit Drugs Problem (point 4) are severely delayed, whilst, in legislation and public policies, we note the promotion of militarisation initiatives, forced eradication of illicit crops, and development based on extractivism in priority areas for the implementing of the Peace Agreement that contradict its spirit and purpose.
6. Similarly, the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, in its reports to the Security Council (S/2018/874, S/2018/1159, S/2019/265, S/2019/530) has drawn attention to the socioeconomic obstacles of the process of reintegrating ex-combatants into civilian life, the persistence of paramilitary successor groups, as well as the increase in the murder of ex-combatants and their families. There has also been an increase in the dissidents of the process, an increasing risk factor in the territories.
7. The world requires that this effort by Colombia and the international community be fulfilled and continued by the Colombian State, as part of what it means for wars and conflicts to stop, and put the imperative nature of fairer and more democratic societies first, as the best way of protecting human rights and preventing their violation.
The FIDH Congress urges Colombian society and the international community to continue working on the peace process in Colombia, recognising its significance in terms of safeguarding thousands of lives of members of the State Public Forces, ex-combatants, civilians, and defending its implementation.
Likewise, it urges the National Government of Colombia to:
1. Comply with the Agreements on comprehensive rural reform, development plans focusing on territory, guarantees for political participation, the preservation of life, security and personal integrity of social leaders, ex-combatants, reintegrated persons and their families, voluntary illicit crop substitution programmes, and guarantees for ex-combatants to be reintegrated into social, economic and community life.
2. Guarantee the independence of the work of the organs of the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Non-Recurrence (SIVJRNR), sufficient funding to enable it to be rolled-out nationally, ensure the protection of victims and the effective development of its mandate. Likewise, extend the validity of the Victims Law (Law 1448 of 2011) and the National System for Comprehensive Victims Support and Reparations.
4. End stigmatisation and incitement to violence against social leaders, ex-combatants, and their families, members of the PDETS (Rural Development Programmes with a Territorial-Based Focus) and PNIS (National Comprehensive Program for the Substitution of Crops Used for Illicit Purposes), and implement the instances and mechanisms of protection established in the Agreement, such as the Commission on Security Guarantees and the construction of a policy to dismantle paramilitarism, the Strategic Security Plan and the Protection Programmes for communities, ex-combatants, reintegrated members and their families.
5. Determine, appropriate and implement without further delay, the resources in the National Development Plan and the Multi-Year Investment Plan for the Rural Development Programmes with a Territorial-Based Focus (PDETS), the National Program for Illicit Crop Substitution, and the Comprehensive System for Truth, Justice, Reparations and Non-Recurrence (SIVJRNR).
6. Build on a comprehensive peace policy, which includes bringing to justice the paramilitary successor groups and reassuming formal dialogues with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group, and move forward in signing agreements and humanitarian commitments.