Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

November 2011

Since 2002 over 50 leader of internally displaced communities have been assassinated due to their efforts to return to their stolen or abandoned lands or, in the case of Afro-Colombian and indigenous leaders, to protect their collective territorial rights. Twenty land rights leaders have been killed since the beginning of the Santos administration alone.

The struggle over the control and use of land in Colombia has produced massive, systematic and generalized human rights violations. More than 5 million people - representing more than 10% of Colombia’s population - have been internally displaced in the last three decades. During that same period of time, displaced communities have suffered illegal processes of usurpation of or been forced to abandon more than 8 million hectares of land, which represents more than 12% of the agricultural land in Colombia.

The vast majority of these lands have fallen into the hands of third parties and front men for the illegal armed groups that have legalized the process of usurpation through spurious proceedings, many times in liaison with local and national government agencies. This illegal usurpation has benefited human rights violators, agro-industrial business and local and national politicians.

Land usurpation in Colombia has been facilitated not only through the use of violence by legal and illegal armed actors, but also by the fact that many people living in rural areas of Colombia do not have legal title to their land. According to the Minister of Agriculture, Juan Camilo Restrepo, 40% of rural property in the country does not have formal titling. Indeed the lack of titles, in addition to local corruption, and to the violence generated by legal and illegal armed groups that have a strategic or commercial interest in the land, has facilitated the process of usurpation of the lands of hundreds of thousands of Colombian rural families.
However, despite these difficulties, communities around the country have formed local organizations to demand that the Colombian government not only restitute their lands but also protect their communities. Unfortunately, the security conditions these organizations work in are shocking. For example, nine leaders from the Foundation New Sunrise that represent more than 10,000 victims of forced displacement from 16 different departments have been killed since 2002. Furthermore, threats and attacks against the Foundation continue. Carlos Sabogal, a leader from the organization in the Tolima department, stated; “I have suffered three assassination attempts, the only protection that I have is a cell phone and a bullet proof vest". Another emblematic case that has received widespread international attention is that of the Afro-Colombian communities of Jiguamiandó and Curvaradó in the Chocó department. In the last six years, nine of its leaders have been assassinated due to their efforts to recover their land usurped by paramilitaries in connection with palm oil companies. Despite the Colombian government’s restitution policy for communities, under which they ordered these oil companies evicted, the communities have not been able to return due to threats and attacks against them.

Of great concern is the fact that many of these leaders did not have protection measures from the Colombian government despite the imminent risk they ran and despite having requested them on several occasions.
This was the case for Hernando Perez and Albeiro Valdez, both assassinated last year after being denied protection measures by the Ministry of Interior when their level of risk was deemed to be “ordinary”. Hernando was assassinated four months after Albeiro and was part of the same restitution process. Even after Albeiro’s death, Hernando’s risk assessment was not reviewed.
The Ministry of the Interior has a protection program for defenders and social leaders at risk, which is extremely important. However it must be thoroughly reviewed with input from human rights organizations, defenders and social leaders to assess where the program is failing; as it failed for Hernando and Albeiro and many others like them.

In addition to the threats and attacks coming from illegal armed actors, leaders of the displaced population and Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities have to face stigmatizations and baseless prosecutions coming from government officials and members of the armed forces, who in several instances work in liaison with legal and illegal actors that have a commercial or strategic interest in the land.

The National Round Table on Guarantees for Human Rights Defenders regarding Land, (Mesa Nacional de Garantías) reported that, “stigmatizations, in many instances have the objective of shaping the public’s opinion against social leaders and de-legitimizing their work. These stigmatizations are the first step towards the initiation of baseless prosecutions, assassinations, threats and attacks.” This is the case of the Federation of Agriculture and Mining of the Sur de Bolívar region which has been actively opposing the Kedala mining company’s attempt to enter their territory. Stigmatizations have lead to increased threats and attacks against the Federation. Indeed the Federation has suffered not only the assassination of one its members in 2006, allegedly by members of the Nueva Granada Battalion, but also the arrest and persecution of its members by the same battalion. As the Federation reports, the battalion has been very active in discrediting them by accusing their leaders of being guerilla militants who oppose “progress”, referring to the Kedala company’s desire to mine in their territory.

The report of the National Round Table also states that they have documented several instances in which local authorities have made public comments affirming that the associations and leaders who defend their land from foreign investment are “opposing development”. For example, on a public radio program last February, the Mayor of the municipality of Sabana de Torres in Santander called the leader of the Agricultural Association of Santander, Cesar Augusto Tamayo, a terrorist who supported illegal armed actors and accused him of promoting illegal land grabbing. Threats against Cesar Augusto increased after the program aired.

Despite the new administration’s commitment to respect and protect the work of human rights defenders including land leaders, the stigmatizations by members of the armed forces and public officials continue, as do baseless prosecutions against defenders. It is imperative that this commitment is translated into effective policies that include disciplinary and penal actions against those public officials who endanger the lives of human rights defenders through stigmatizations and baseless prosecutions.

The Colombian Congress has recently approved the Victim’s Law, which seeks to repair the rights of the victims of the armed conflict, including victims of forced displacement. The law establishes the restitution of land as the primary means to repair the rights of the displaced population. While we think that the Victims Law is a very important step forward in trying to repair the rights of the displaced population, the law must be accompanied by a comprehensive individual and collective protection program for the leaders and the communities returning to the land as mandated in the law. It is imperative that the communities and their leaders, as well as the organizations that represent them, are able to actively participate in the design and implementation of such a protection program so that it can respond to the specific needs of each community throughout the country.

The representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, Christian Salazar, affirmed at the event “For the Right to Life and Land Restitution” that “the land issue in Colombia has been at the center of violent conflicts... therefore the protection for victims that are leading land restitution processes, as well as the organizations that accompany them should have the same priority as the restitution process in itself, because above all, it is the duty and responsibility of the State to protect their lives”. Since President Santos took office in August 2010, 20 leaders of displaced communities have been killed. This clearly shows that the process of restitution will face fierce opposition and is likely to lead to a surge in violence in the country. It is imperative that before moving forward with the restitution process that the Colombian government designs and implements a rigorous protection program that takes into consideration recommendations from displaced communities and the organizations that work with them. This program should ensure communities the necessary conditions for them to be able to return to and remain on their land. If these conditions are not met, the process of restitution will fail and the communities will be faced with future displacement. Below are the cases of 20 land rights leaders who have been assassinated during President Santos’ administration–two of whom had their wives and children assassinated along with them. The vast majority of these leaders had requested protection measures from the Colombian government. All of them, like the members of the Foundation New Sunrise, had multiple threats against their lives. All of the threats were disregarded by public officials and all were subsequently killed for demanding their right to live and cultivate their land, for protecting their ancestral rights to culture and territory and for demanding their right to live on. We dedicate this report to their memory.