61st session of the Human Rights Council
On Friday, 27 February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights presented a report in Geneva on the human rights situation in Colombia during 2025.
The report can be found at this link.
This video shows the presentation of the report during the session.
The intervention of Gustavo Gallon, Colombia’s ambassador to the Human Rights Council.
The Annual Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Colombia, presented to the 61st session of the Human Rights Council, analyses the human rights situation in the country during 2025, as well as progress and challenges in the implementation of the Peace Agreement.
The report expresses particular concern about the expanding territorial presence and social control exercised by non-State armed groups and criminal organisations, noting that high levels of violence in several regions are seriously affecting civilians and hindering implementation of the Peace Agreement. The Office even warns of the risk of a return, particularly at the territorial level, to the serious human rights situation experienced before the signing of the Agreement.
Key concerns include forced displacement and confinement, massacres, the recruitment of children, gender-based violence and attacks against human rights defenders. In 2025, the Office received 207 allegations of killings of human rights defenders and verified 99 cases in which the killing was related to their human rights work, with a particularly severe impact on Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant leaders. Mass forced displacement also increased by 85% compared with 2024, particularly as a result of the humanitarian crisis in Catatumbo.
Against this backdrop, the High Commissioner stresses the need for the full implementation of the Peace Agreement as a central State policy, stronger guarantees for human rights defenders and enhanced protection of the civilian population. The report also explicitly calls on the international community to maintain its political, technical and financial support for the comprehensive implementation of the Peace Agreement and to provide adequate support to human rights organisations.
We would like to thank MEP Ana Miranda for her question, which highlights the risk that European investments in Buenaventura could jeopardize human rights. At Oidhaco, together with several of our member organizations, such as Peace Brigades International, we have been raising awareness about the situation in Buenaventura and the surrounding area.
Here is the full text of the question submitted on 17 February, which can be found on the European Parliament’s website at this link. Social organisations will be following up on the European Commission’s response.
European economic interests are undermining human rights in Buenaventura
Thanks to the PBI report ‘Who bears the cost?’, we have learned that in Buenaventura (Colombia), European companies operating in the port and logistics sector may be involved in serious human rights violations.
Buenaventura’s environmental wealth and strategic location have historically attracted foreign investment against a backdrop of intertwined licit and illicit economies, including illegal mining and drug trafficking. This increases the risks to collective rights and environmental sustainability, and fuels the ongoing human rights violations.
The impact on the local population is not limited to urban areas, but also affects rural municipalities, especially the territories belonging to the community councils of Málaga Bay and Naya River, where important initiatives are being put in place to preserve biodiversity and build territorial peace.
In view of this:
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.