The case refers to a tutela petition filed by ten social leaders in Colombia requesting the protection of the right to defend human rights. The second instance court confirmed the protection of the right to defend human rights and recalled the State’s obligation to guarantee, recognize and strengthen the work towards the defense of human rights in Colombia through the tools established by the Final Peace Agreement. On January 29, 2021, the Colombian Constitutional Court selected the tutela for review. Since May 2020, the deadlines for its resolution are suspended due to a decision by the Plenary of the Constitutional Court.
On December 10, 2019, different organizations in Colombia filed a tutela requesting the declaration of an Estado de Cosas inconstitucional (Unconstitutional State of Affairs), due to the very serious context of violence that exists in Colombia against social leaders. At the time of its presentation, the We Are Defenders Program reported 426 murders between January 2016 and September 2019.
On March 25, 2020, the Juzgado 45 Civil del Circuito de Bogotá (45th Civil Court of the Bogotá Circuit) upheld the right to defend human rights and recognized the State’s systematic failure to protect social leaders. This happens because, despite the different legal instruments, the National Government fails not only to clearly identify the risk factors, but also to define adequate prevention policies. The judge highlighted that crimes against leaders continued to occur despite the confinement decreed by the State of emergency due to COVID-19, consequently, there could exist “a criminal organization coordinated to the systematic extermination of that population, which continues and has been perpetuated for decades, despite the fact that the State has a special duty of protection towards them”.
On May 11, 2020, the Sala Civil del Tribunal Superior (Civil Chamber of the Superior Court) of Bogotá confirmed the protection of the right to defend human rights and recalled the State’s obligation to guarantee, recognize and strengthen the work towards the defense of human rights in Colombia through the tools established by the Final Peace Agreement.
On January 29, 2021, the Colombian Constitutional Court selected the tutela petition in which ten social leaders in Colombia requested the protection of the right to defend human rights. Since May 2021, the deadlines for its resolution are suspended due to a decision by the Plenary of the Constitutional Court.
Since the signing of the Acuerdo de Paz (Peace Agreement), attacks against leaders and human rights defenders have increased. For example, in 2018 they increased by 43.7% compared to previous years. This data has positioned Colombia as the country with the most murders worldwide, with 106 defenders murdered in 2019 alone. These events are concentrated in rural areas most affected by the armed conflict and hit by paramilitary forces. In addition, between January and June 2020, in the midst of the pandemic and the quarantine imposed as a result of it, the Programa Somos Defensores (We Are Defenders Program) recorded the murder of 95 social leaders, 36 more than in 2019, meaning that there has been an increase of 61%. For its part, this same organization recorded that during these first six months of 2020, there were 463 violent acts, 128 fewer attacks than in 2019, because of a higher than usual underreporting due to the obstacles and difficulties encountered in monitoring during the pandemic. Finally, it highlights that, according to records from the Indepaz organization, between January and March 2021 alone, 36 social leaders have been murdered.
On the other hand, given this serious and violent scenario, there is the malicious underreporting of attacks and murders against human rights defenders, promoted by the high authorities of the State. Thus, on several occasions they have affirmed the success of the “Plan de Acción Oportuna” (PAO) (“Timely Action Plan”), due to alleged significant reductions in the number of homicides of social leaders through the repeated use of an erroneous methodology for its estimation, as has been evidenced on several occasions by Colombian civil society.
- Dejusticia, La Corte Constitucional escucho lideres y lideresas sociales (02 February 2021)
- Dejusticia, Juzgado falla a favor de líderes sociales y ordena que se garantice el derecho a defender derechos humanos (03 April 2020)
- Comisión Colombiana de Juristas, Sentencia de tutela para proteger el derecho a defender los derechos (05 November 2020)
- Asociación Minga, Tribunal Superior de Bogotá reitera que el derecho a defender derechos humanos de líderes sociales debe ser protegido (20 May 2020)
Amicus curiae presented before the Colombian Constitutional Court by International Service for Human Rights, Front Line Defenders, Centro de información Sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos, Women’s Link worldwide, Alianza Mundial por la Participación Ciudadana CIVICUS and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Individual Contributors
Deobaldo Cruz (Líder de la Asociación Campesina de Puerto Asís, Putumayo, ASOCPUERTOASIS); Martha Lucia Giraldo (Representante del Movimiento Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado, Valle del Cauca; MOVICE); Oscar Gerardo Salazar Muñoz (Miembro de la Cumbre Agraria Campesina étnica y Popular- Marcha Patriótica, Cauca y Macizo Colombiano); Isabel Cristina Zuleta (presenta la tutela en nombre propio y en representación del Movimiento Ríos Vivos, de Antioquía); Fabián de Jesús Laverde Doncel: Vocero de la Comisión de derechos humanos del Congreso de los Pueblos, Cumbre Agraria, Campesina, Étnica y Popular, Casanare, y vinculado con la Corporación Social para la Asesoría y Capacitación Comunitaria (COSPACC); Arnobi Zapata (Asociación de Campesinos Del Sur de Córdoba, Córdoba); y Alejandro Palacio (Representante de los estudiantes al Consejo Superior de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Bogotá; y presidente de la Asociación Colombiana de Representantes Estudiantiles de la Educación Superior (ACREES).