Submission to Human Rights Committee
22 September 2016

Submission to Human Rights Committee

Colombia

In October 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee will review Colombia’s compliance with its international human rights obligations. Lawyers for Lawyers submitted a submission for this review, to inform the Committee about the situation of lawyers in Colombia.

Due to our participation in the mission Caravana Internacional de Juristas last August, Lawyers for Lawyers was able to share recent information about the working conditions of lawyers in Colombia. In the submission, Lawyers for Lawyers highlighted that the Colombian authorities do not always uphold the necessary guarantees for the proper functioning of the legal profession in practice. Lawyers are regularly subjected to threats and attacks, including killings. Furthermore, despite the creation of the UNP, there remains a lack of protection against harassment and attacks on lawyers. Acts of harassment towards lawyers and attacks against lawyers often remain unpunished. Impunity of such acts of persecution has a “chilling effect” on other lawyers, negatively influencing the quality of their work, potentially forcing them to renounce to certain kinds of cases, and working in the fear that they or their families may be at risk because of their work. As a result, lawyers are not in an equal position to represent their clients.

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18 April 2023

UPR submission Colombia

Colombia

On 5 April 2023, Lawyers for Lawyers submitted a report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Colombia. The next UPR of Colombia will take place in November 2023. The UPR report highlights issues regarding Colombia’s compliance with its international

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15 March 2023

Concerns about the ongoing threats, kidnapping and harassment against Colombian lawyer Andrea Torres Bautista

Colombia

Lawyers for Lawyers is concerned about the ongoing threats, harassment and the lack of progress in the investigations of aggressions towards Andrea Torres Bautista, Colombian human rights lawyer and co-director of the Fundación Nydia Erik Bautista (FNEB). Andrea Torres heads

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22 December 2022

Adil Meléndez Marquez: “When starting a legal case, there is no guarantee at all that it will ever be treated, let alone that environmental and human rights violations are actually punished”

Colombia

Illustration: Joost Hölscher Adil Meléndez Márquez, 46 years old and born in San Onofre, department of Sucre, Colombia, lives in the north of Colombia in Cartagena de las Indias. He works as an environmental and human rights lawyer and mainly

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7 November 2022

Letter to Colombian authorities on the risk situation of lawyer Luz Romero Villalba and the Association COLEMAD

Colombia

Together with the International Observatory at Risk (OIAD), Lawyers for Lawyers, International Caravan of Jurists, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada and Global Justice Association, has informed the Colombian authorities of its concern about the information received regarding the situation of Luz

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