Healing Colombia – Manifesting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in the Republic of Colombia

€ 18,99

Since protests erupted in April 2021, the police response has been brutal in Colombia. At least 43 protesters have been killed by officers, according to local human rights monitor, Temblores, with mounting reports of arbitrary detention, torture and sexual abuse of protesters at the hands of police. Forty-six people have suffered eye injuries, prompting speculation that police were intentionally seeking to blind protesters. Colombia, with its vast and entrenched inequality, has long been defined by class boundaries. Cities are divided into strata, or estratos, with the intention that utility bills and other services can be adjusted accordingly. But in reality, the estratos serve as castes that make social climbing impossible, with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities most often trapped. The pandemic has only exacerbated inequality. Amid one of the longest lockdowns in the world, the number of Colombians living in extreme poverty grew by 2.8 million people last year. Red rags were hung outside homes, in a desperate signal that those inside were hungry. “If you’re from estrato 1, the only thing you can dream of is getting out,” said Yuliana Ospina, an out-of-work manicurist in Siloé, a downtrodden neighbourhood that straddles the city’s western hills. “It would be so beautiful to dream of something else." "[...] A large part of the Colombian establishment doesn’t understand that these calls for change are coming from the people in the streets of cities, and not from an armed guerrilla group in the countryside", said Carlos González, a professor of sociology at the Universidad del Valle in Cali. Civil society organizations also reported 142 victims of mistreatment, nine victims of sexual violence and 56 reports of people disappearing in the context of the demonstrations. In addition, there were reports of attacks against journalists, including acts of physical violence, arbitrary arrests, and the deletion of journalistic material. These human rights violations and crimes under international law committed by the security forces in Columbia are not isolated or sporadic events, but fit a consistent pattern in the modus operandi and the kinds of violations committed across the country. Therefore it is imperative that President Iván Duque Márquez and his government put an end to police violence in Colombia - and counteract inequality and poverty - so that fundamental freedoms and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) can be restored in Colombia.