The International Office for Human Rights Action on Colombia

Day: 17 April 2012

We ask that the EU supports land resistance initiatives to help put a stop to displacement in Colombia

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In five years at least 71 leaders claiming land restitution have been killed. Colombia is the country with the highest number of displaced persons in the world. Five and a half million people have been driven from their lands.

April 17 marks the International Day of Peasant Struggle. In Colombia the rural population is faced with one of the worst humanitarian tragedies in the world. According to the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento – Codhes), during 2011 about 260,000 people were displaced in Colombia, more than 710 people a day. The number of displaced persons in Colombia reached nearly 5.5 million in 2011. This vast number of war victims is composed mainly of peasant farmers, indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians.

Our solidarity is universal.

We are deeply concerned about all victims of armed conflict, repression and violence around the world — from Sudan to Syria, including the persecution of the Rohingya and so many other crises that often receive less international attention than they deserve. Each of these situations calls for solidarity, remembrance, justice and action.

However, we have decided to specifically highlight the message ‘Stop Genocide in Palestine’ because what is happening in Palestine represents not only a human tragedy of enormous magnitude, but also a direct challenge to the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and to the rules-based international system itself. The indifference and complicity of much of the international community in the face of the apartheid regime imposed by the Israeli government on the Palestinian people represent one of the greatest moral and political contradictions of our time.

The persistent violation of essential norms — such as the protection of the civilian population, the prohibition of collective punishment and respect for proportionality in the use of force — not only has devastating consequences for the Palestinian population, but also erodes the global mechanisms designed to limit the power of states and prevent abuses.

When these rules are repeatedly breached without any effective consequences, the framework that protects all populations in conflict situations, anywhere in the world, is weakened. Therefore, speaking out in this case does not mean ignoring other forms of suffering, but rather emphasising the urgency of defending an international order which, if it collapses, leaves everyone in a more vulnerable position.

Drawing attention to this situation is, therefore, an act consistent with the universal values we uphold: the protection of life, human dignity and respect for international law, without exception.

Oidhaco logo - Oficina Internacional de derechos Humanos - Acción Colombia
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