Colombia - Universal Periodic Review

UPR 30, May 8, 2018
Recommendations by Canada

Recommendations

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Thank you, Mr. President.

Canada welcomes the progress in implementing the 2016 Peace Agreement and on human rights more broadly.

Canada recommends that Colombia:

1. Take further actions to improve the prevention of, and response to, threats, attacks and killings of human rights defenders and social leaders, through strengthening security, timely investigations and addressing impunity;
2. Allocate appropriate funds in the national budget, and maintain adequate institutions to put gender equality at the centre of development and peacebuilding efforts.
3. Continue to implement the Peace Agreement with particular focus on: victims; transitional justice, truth and reconciliation; ethnic communities; and reintegration of former combatants.

Canada continues to be concerned about the high level of corruption in the country. This has considerable impacts on the ability of citizens to fully enjoy their social, political and economic rights.

Background

According to UPR Info, a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that tracks the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, in the first two cycles of the UPR, Columbia received 279 recommendations, of which 224 were accepted (an acceptance rate of 80%). Canada’s previous recommendations related to sexual violence, freedom of the press, and accountability for human rights violations.

Since Colombia’s last review, a peace agreement was signed in 2016 between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The agreement is rooted in a rights-based approach and has led to a number of important laws and iniatitives: victims and land restitution laws, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the Truth Commission, the Unit for the Search for Disappeared Persons and a National Human Rights Plan.

While the overall situation of human rights has improved, including the lowest homicide rate in 42 years in 2017, a number of worrying trends continue to jeopardize the establishment of a lasting and inclusive peace.

Due to delays in implementation and inadequate funding, the 18 months since the Agreement’s signature has brought few improvements to those hardest hit by the conflict. In many rural areas the situation has deteriorated as the state has yet to fill the power vacuums created by FARC withdrawal and insecurity and illicit economies have rapidly expanded prompting continued forced displacement ( 67,422 in 2017). The State has not lived up to promises of reintegration programs, rule of law, and basic social services. Rates of violence against women and girls remain extremely high; particularly in fragile areas.

Colombia has a legal framework and policies to protect human rights, but the challenge remains implementation and enforcement. The killing of human rights defenders and social leaders has continued to increase, with 121 killings in 2017, up from 59 in 2016. So far in 2018, the upward trend is continuing with 46 killed.

Many other structural issues that require a rights-based approach were at the heart of the armed conflict and have yet to be addressed: extreme inequalities, poverty (higher within Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities), corruption, and impunity.