Preliminary report on findings Caravana 2014
Colombia
A short preliminary report on the first findings of the Caravana Internacional de Juristas (Caravana) mission was published in October 2014. During the Caravana 2014 mission, which took place from 23-30 August, a group consisting of 70 lawyers and judges visited Colombia to investigate the situation of lawyers and judges in this country. Two volunteers of the Lawyers for Lawyers ‘Latin America’ monitoring grooup participated in the mission.
One of the Caravana’s main goals was to increase the visibility of the work of Colombian human rights lawyers. To achieve this goal, the participants travelled to Bogota and seven other regions in Colombia (Bucaramanga, Buenaventura, Cali, Cartagena, Medellin, Pasto and Santa Marta) to speak, on the one hand, with judges, lawyers and their clients, and on the other hand with the ombudsman and authorities such as public prosecutors, embassies and ministries.
From the preliminary report of the mission it becomes clear that the murders, threats and stigmatisation of lawyers and judges in Colombia did not decrease. Because of this, lawyers cannot perform their profession, limiting the access to legal assistance of all citizens. Especially lawyers who defend those who are driven off their lands, victims of violence committed by the military or police and family members of disappeared persons are harassed systematically. Particularly the conditions for human rights lawyers in Calí, Valle de Cauca and Bolívar are dire and many lawyers have been killed since the first Caravana in 2010. In general, human rights defenders continue to suffer obstruction through threats, attacks and surveillance. The continued stigmatisation of human rights defenders and attempts to discredit their work by accusations of rebellion and false allegations of corruption and judicial fraud is concerning.
A full report on the findings of the mission will be published early 2015.