Colombia is a constitutional,multiparty democracy with a population of about 45 million. In recent years there has been a frequency of human rights issues in this country that are vastly effecting its people. There has been a 46 year internal battle between the government and terrorist organizations like the FARC ( Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and Eln or the National Liberation Army. These groups thave commited the following human rights abuses: political killings; killings of members of the public security forces and local officials; widespread use of landmines; kidnappings and forced disappearances; massive forced displacements; subornation and intimidation of judges, prosecutors, and witnesses; infringement on citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedom of movement; widespread recruitment and use of child soldiers; attacks against human rights activists; violence against women, including rape and forced abortions; and harassment, intimidation, and killings of teachers and trade unionists. New illegal armed groups or gangs has been reported to be increasing and have been labeled as the emerging criminal bands, or BACRIM. In Feburary 2010, a Human Rights Watch report was released and stated the emergence of smaller criminal gangs followed the increase in internal displacement in Colombia from 2004 to 2007.
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| Child Soldier in the FARC |
The following societal problems and governmental human rights abuses were reported during the year due to the growth of successor groups: unlawful and extrajudicial killings; insubordinate military collaboration with new illegal armed groups and paramilitary members who refused to demobilize; forced disappearances; torture and mistreatment of detainees; overcrowded and insecure prisons; arbitrary detentions; impunity and an inefficient judiciary subject to intimidation; illegal surveillance of civilian groups, political opponents, and government agencies; occasional harassment and intimidation of journalists; unhygienic conditions at settlements for displaced persons, with limited access to health care, education, or employment; corruption; harassment of human rights groups and activists, including unfounded prosecutions; violence against women, including rape; violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons based on sexual orientation; child abuse and child prostitution; trafficking in women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation; some societal discrimination against women, indigenous persons, and Afro-Colombians; and illegal child labor. They frequently threaten and attack human rights defenders, trade unionists, jouranlists, and victims of the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) who want justice or restitution of land.
For example, one human rights defender described how, while she was providing assistance to a victim of the AUC at the victim’s home, members of a successor group calling themselves the Black Eagles broke into the house, raped both women, and warned her to stop doing human rights work.“They told me it was forbidden for me to do that in the municipality. They didn’t want victims to know their rights or report abuses,”she told us.When she continued her work, they kidnapped her and said that if she did not leave town, they would go after her family. She sought help from local authorities, who dismissed her saying she should have known better than to do human rights work, and so she eventually fled and went into hiding.
The importance of these problems that are occuring is that many people have fled their homes due to these gangs and many more live in fear of them. Many people has been taken away their right to equality, a good education, brotherhood,nationality, and living without discrimination. Other has been taken away the right to live, and living without torture or punishment. Most importantly it seems that a lot of people have lost the right to freedom of opinion, thought,and expression. That means that everyone should have the right to freedom to hold opinion swithout interference and to seek, recieve, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
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