Implementation of Human Right Laws Slow In Colombia

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President Juan Manuel Santos
President Juan Manuel Santos

President Juan Manuel Santos
President Juan Manuel Santos

Nearly three years after Colombia?s Congress approved the Ley de V?ctimas y Restituci?n de Tierras (LVRT, the Victims and Land Restitution Law), progress has been modest in addressing the rights of victims of the country?s long civil conflict. Achievement of the law?s ambitious goals has met with a number of obstacles, which?the administration of the president, Juan Manuel Santos, is only now starting to assess in order to make changes to speed up the reparation process. Although the number of victims has fallen considerably over the past decade, the topic of reparation will remain a priority for Mr Santos if he wins a second term in the May 25th presidential election.

The Santos administration had identified more than 6.3m victims of varied offenses attributed to illegally armed organisations between 1985 and the first quarter of 2014, including forced displacement, homicide, threats and forced disappearance. According to government figures, more than 5.5m Colombians have been the object of forced displacement, chiefly carried out by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and the Ej?rcito de Liberaci?n Nacional (ELN) leftist guerrillas, as well as the?bandas criminales, or Bacrim?criminal groups that are involved in drug trafficking and are partly comprised of demobilised former paramilitary members.

Although the armed forces have been involved in crimes against the civil population as well, the illegally armed organisations (mainly right-wing paramilitary groups) have been responsible for the majority of the 774,000 reported cases of homicide from the conflict, and the 122,155 cases of forced disappearance. These organisations also account for the largest share of victims of other crimes, such as terrorist attacks (with more than 63,700 persons affected since the mid-1980s), kidnappings (24,500), anti-personal mines (8,500), recruiting of minors (6,500), sexual assault (5,000 victims) and torture (almost 4,200).

Limited progress in land restitution

The huge incidence of forced displacement of the civilian population chiefly reflects the fight for territorial control that has characterised the conflict between the government forces and the left-wing guerrillas, and, to lesser extent, the clash between the guerrillas and paramilitary groups. Territorial control has been central to enabling the lucrative harvesting, processing and shipping of illegal drugs.

In this context, one of the main goals of the LVRT is land restitution. However, progress has been very slow, in part because the decrees to regulate land restitution took time to be implemented. According to Forjando Futuros, a local non-governmental organisation, out of more than 54,000 requests for land restitution filed since January 2012, judges have only approved 927 in favour of the claimants. Out of those, only 372 have resulted in land being returned to the victims, or less than 1% of total requests. In terms of area, around 26,000 hectares (ha) have been returned to their original owners. It is an important figure, but well below the Santos administration?s goal to hand back more than 2m ha before the end of 2014.

Changes ahead

Around 70% of land restitution requests are hampered by government bureaucracy and public security issues, says Forjando Futuros. To address this, Mr Santos recently announced a set of measures to speed up the process, including the planned submission to Congress in coming weeks of a new bill that would allow a single victim to be assigned land by administrative authorities, rather than judges. The government says that a third of the rulings issued in favour of land claimants over the past two years involved cases in which no third party claimed the same land and, therefore, could have been swiftly handled by an administrative unit such as the Unidad de Restituci?n de Tierras (the government?s land restitution office) rather than through the judiciary.

It is uncertain, however, whether Mr Santos will be able to secure passage of his revisions in Congress, as lawmakers are currently focused on the upcoming presidential election. It is therefore likely that the measures will have to wait until a new Congress is inaugurated in the second half of the year. Moreover, the government has yet to address other challenges hampering land restitution, such as alleged corruption and intimidation of claimants. For instance, according to Forjando Futuros, about 8,000 ha of land reinstated thus far have been given to a single family. This has raised questions about the fairness of the process.

A difficult task

Meanwhile, the government has been pressured to admit that 66 land-restitution leaders have been assassinated by illegally armed groups with the clear aim to deter further claims in areas that are still affected by violence and drug-trafficking. However, the Santos administration appears to be unable to provide enough protection to avoid further killings, or to swiftly and firmly secure territorial control of several ?pacified? rural areas that are at risk of falling under the renewed influence of the Bacrim and the guerrillas. As a result, violence is set to continue.

Despite the challenges, there are positive developments as well. According to the Unidad para la Atenci?n y Reparaci?n Integral a las V?ctimas (the government?s office in charge of co-ordinating victims? reparation efforts), more people are seeking advice and help, with more than 1.5m victims having filed reparation requests since early 2012. Of this total, 340,000 have already received some form of reparation, such as psychological assistance, grants for education and support to develop business projects. Even with its halting advances, the LVRT constitutes an unprecedented and necessary step towards reconciliation in a country that has suffered one of the longest civil conflicts in recent history.

Source: Economic Intelligence Unit

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