How transnational corporations use trade and investment treaties as powerful tools in disputes over oil, mining, and gas. / Como las empresas mineras transnacionales utilizan las reglas de los acuerdos de inversión y de comercio como poderosos instrumentos a su favor en las disputas por el petróleo, la minería y el gas.

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The US Office on Colombia is proud to announce the release of our latest report, Large-scale mining in Colombia: Human rights violations past, present and future.

Bogota (ICRC) – Violations of humanitarian law, including forced displacement, threats of violence, rape and damage to civilian objects, have increased in Colombia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has found. In presenting its report today on its activities in Colombia in 2011, the ICRC seeks to remind all parties to the conflict of the importance of strictly respecting the rules of international humanitarian law.

Today the US Office on Colombia published a report on the dramatic situation of land rights leaders and associations of displaced communities in Colombia. Against all Odds: the Deadly Struggle of Land Rights Leaders in Colombia documents the cases of 20 land rights leaders that were assassinated during the Santos administration’s first year in office and the multiple threats, attacks and stigmatizations that such leaders face.

In 2010-2011, serious attacks continued against human rights defenders in Colombia, including numerous assassinations. Likewise, the climate of constant intimidation, threats and harassment continued against human rights defenders and their organisations. Among the most affected groups of defenders, were those working for truth, justice and reparation and land restitution, indigenous and peasants leaders, environmental defenders, leaders and members of trade unions, defenders of LGBTI persons, and organisations and journalists who denounced human rights violations.

On 17 October 2011, the Special Rapporteur presented his third annual to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The Report provides a summary of the activities over the first three years of the Special Rapporteur's mandate.

How much pain, dispossession, how many tears, disappearances, political prisoners and torture are needed for the world to stop its conspiratorial indulgence of the Colombian regime? The figures of those who have been killed, tortured, imprisoned and disappeared, as well as the impunity laws for paramilitaries, the submission to multinational corporations and continuous plunder clearly show the government's genocidal nature.
 

Colombian authorities fail survivors of sexual violence

The Colombian authorities have failed to tackle the lack of justice for women and girl survivors during the country's long-running armed conflict, Amnesty International said in a new report today.

“Women and girls in Colombia are often treated as trophies of war. They are raped and sexually abused by all the warring parties as a way to silence and punish them,” said Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, recently presented his annual report to the UN General Assembly.

After 11 September 2001, U.S. financial assistance to Colombia that previously had been funnelled through the Plan Colombia to fight “narcotics trafficking, was also used to combat terrorism. In October 2001, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the paramilitary groups were added to the list of terrorist organisations.