In a historic ruling, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared on the 18th of March 2024 that the Colombian State was responsible for the harassment and persecution against the members of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective Corporation (CAJAR). The Court ruled that the State was responsible for violating the rights to life, personal integrity, privacy, and others. In the reading of the sentence, the Court added that the lawyers’ rights to freedom of thought and expression, informative self-determination, truth, and to judicial guarantees were violated by the Colombian State. This is a landmark ruling – it is the first time that the Inter-American Court has issued a decision recognizing the international responsibility of a State for violating the right to defend human rights. The executive director of the Center for Justice and International Law, who was part of the legal team representing CAJAR, stated that this sentence was a “unique and unprecedented recognition of the work of people who defend human rights in Colombia and the CAJAR team.”
This case was first brought to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights 22 years ago, and it concerns facts of violence, harassment, and threats received by CAJAR members since the 1990s and continuing into the present day, because of their work to defend human rights. Since the case reached the court two decades ago, 2,000 precautionary measures have been decreed in order to protect the life and integrity of CAJAR members. The most critical act of violence occurred in the 1990s relating to intelligence activities conducted by the defunct Administrative Department of Security in which CAJAR’s members’ lives were monitored extensively. Several lawyers between 2002 and 2010 were forced to go into exile to protect themselves and their families.
The Court listed 16 reparation measures. Among them was the order for Colombia to further investigate, identify, try, and if necessary, convict, those responsible for the events leading up to the violation of the rights of CAJAR members, particularly in relation to intelligence activities in the 1990s. The Court also ordered the State to “provide psychological, psychiatric, and/or psychosocial treatment to victims who request it.” Furthermore, Colombia was ordered to issue a statement of recognition for their actions and a public apology. The Court stated that in the public statement, references should be made to the human rights violations declared in the judgment by the Court. The full list of reparations (in Spanish) can be found on page 289 of the judgment.
CAJAR has also issued a statement on this ruling, asserting that this ruling dignifies the hard work and struggles of human rights defenders and recognizes the lack of sufficient guarantees for the defence of human rights.
Lawyers for Lawyers welcomes this historic ruling and hopes that this improves the situation of human rights lawyers in Colombia. Lawyers for Lawyers has had a long history of supporting and advocating for Colombian lawyers, including members of CAJAR (for example: in 2015 we highlighted worrying reports that CAJAR members were being illegally bugged and followed; in 2021 Lawyers for Lawyers issued a joint statement with other human rights organizations to call for the protection of CAJAR lawyers from death threats). Most recently, Lawyers for Lawyers issued an Oral Statement to the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Colombia.
We will continue to raise awareness on the difficulties faced by Colombian lawyers in exercising their professional and legitimate activities.
