Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/pc/text/humanrts/colombia.txu

Text File | 1996-01-04 | 25KB | 479 lines

TITLE: COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE: FEBRUARY 1995




Guerrilla incursion, military counterinsurgency operations,
guerrilla and paramilitary conscription, and land seizures by
narcotics traffickers often forced peasants to flee their homes
and farms.  In October the Episcopal Bishop's Conference
published a comprehensive study on the phenomenon of internal
forced displacement and put the total number of such persons at
600,000.  The report said that the single greatest cause of
displacement is guerrilla incursion into the rural civilian
population.  Members of the army's V Brigade threatened and
harassed the Peasant Farmer's Refuge, a local refugee center in
Barrancabermeja, in March.  The incident highlighted the
dilemma faced by displaced persons in Colombia; they cannot
stay in conflict zones for legitimate fears for their safety,
yet they are not wanted and perceived as an economic drain in
the regional and major cities that are their most common
destinations.

The law provides for unrestricted emigration and repatriation
by expatriates.

Section 3  Respect for Political Rights:  The Right of Citizens
           to Change Their Government

Colombian citizens exercise this right in regular, secret
ballot elections that have historically been considered fair
and open.  Presidential elections are held every 4 years.  The
Liberal and Conservative parties have long dominated Colombian
politics, with one or the other customarily winning the
presidency.  The President serves only one term and may not be
reelected.  All citizens are enfranchised at age 18.  Public
employees are not permitted to participate in campaigns but,
with the exception of the military, may vote.  All parties
operate freely without government interference.  Political
parties which fail to garner 50,000 votes in a general election
may lose the right to present candidates and may not receive
funds from the Government.  But they may reincorporate at any
time by presenting 50,000 signatures to the National Electoral
Board.

Colombia held national presidential and congressional
elections, as well as gubernatorial and mayoral elections, in
1994.  Liberal Party presidential candidate Ernesto Samper
narrowly defeated Conservative Party hopeful Andres Pastrana by
just 1.73 percentage points in a June runoff election.  For the
first time, Colombians also elected a vice president, Humberto
de la Calle, who ran on Samper's ticket.  Liberal Party
representatives also dominated the congressional elections in
both the upper and lower houses.  However, bipartisan
coalitions were still often necessary for the Liberals to enact
legislation.

In 1990 the M-19 guerrilla movement signed a peace accord with
the Government and became a legal political party, Democratic
Alliance M-19 (AD/M-19).  In 1994 the AD/M-19 fielded a
presidential candidate and several congressional candidates,
all of whom were defeated.

The elections were relatively peaceful, but numerous incidents
of violence occurred.  Unknown assailants assassinated Senator
Manuel Vargas Cepeda, the only national UP representative, in
Bogota in August.  At least 10 candidates were assassinated and
10 others kidnaped preceding the October 30 local elections.
President Samper postponed elections in 10 municipalities due
to guerrilla violence during the campaigns.  Elections
proceeded normally in most districts, and the postponed
elections were held successfully in December.

There are no legal restrictions, and few de facto ones, on the
participation of women or minorities in the political process.
There are 7 female senators and 18 female representatives
serving in Congress, including 1 black Congresswoman.  The
Ministers of Labor and the Environment are both women, as is
the President's international affairs adviser and his adviser
for social policy.  Two seats in the 102-seat Congress are
reserved for representatives of the indigenous population.
Both the black and indigenous populations continued to expand
their social and political agendas and an indigenous politician,
Jesus Pinacue, ran as vice presidential candidate on the
unsuccessful ticket of former M-19 guerrilla leader Antonio
Navarro-Wolf.  Piedad Cordoba de Castro, a black female, is a
senior member of the Liberal Party national committee and
served as a member of the Government's delegation to the Cairo
International Conference on Population and Development.

Section 4  Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
           Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
           of Human Rights

The Center for Investigations and Popular Research, the Andean
Commission of Jurists, the Intercongregational Commission for
Justice and Peace, the Permanent Committee for the Defense of
Human Rights, the Episcopal Bishops Conference, the "Jose
Alvear Restrepo" lawyers collective, and others are among the
many human rights groups active in Colombia.

NGO's investigated and reported on a number of human rights
abuses, including the army's extrajudicial assassination of two
Socialist Renewal Current spokesmen in 1993, the army's coverup
of the Rio Frio massacre, and the FARC's January massacre of 35
townspeople in La Chinita.  Often these reports criticized,
justifiably, the Government's failure to investigate and punish
those responsible.

The Government generally did not interfere with the work of
human rights NGO's, which were often the targets of threats and
intimidation by the guerrillas, paramilitary groups, or
individual members of the police and military forces.  Many
prominent human rights monitors, including lawyers Eduardo
Umana, Carlos Alberto Ruiz, Raul Barrios Mendivil, and
children's rights activist Jaime Jaramillo, work under constant
fear for their physical safety.  Unknown assailants assassinated
human rights lawyer Laura Simmonds in Popayan in May.

The Procuraduria investigates some allegations of human rights
abuses by members of the state security apparatus, drawing upon
a network of government representatives who serve as human
rights ombudsmen in 1,041 municipalities.  However, the
Procuraduria can only recommend administrative sanctions; as
noted in this report, police and military personnel are rarely
punished commensurately for human rights abuses.  The Office of
the Defender of the People has the constitutionally assigned
duty to ensure the promotion and exercise of human rights, but
is severely underfunded.  The President has a Special Adviser
for human rights issues, who investigates allegations of abuse
and disseminates human rights education and information.

Since President Samper's August inauguration, he and the
Government publicly admitted that the human rights situation
reflected a "shameful and troubling reality."  President Samper
requested that Amnesty International establish a permanent
observer office in country and invited the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Colombia.  He also
pledged to work closely with representatives of the ICRC and
the Colombian Red Cross, and declared an "open door" policy
with respect to international and local human rights NGO
cooperation.

Section 5  Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
           Disability, Language, or Social Status

The Constitution specifically prohibits discrimination based on
race, sex, religion, disability, language, or social status.

     Women

The Constitution provides that women may not be subjected to
any form of discrimination and specifically requires the
authorities to "guarantee adequate and effective participation
by women at the decisionmaking levels of public administration."
Even prior to implementation of the 1991 Constitution, the law
had provided women extensive civil rights.  Despite these
constitutional provisions, however, discrimination and violence
against women persist.  The quasi-governmental Institute for
Family Welfare (ICBF) and the presidential adviser's Office for
Youth, Women, and Family Affairs published a report that
criticized high and pervasive levels of spouse and partner
abuse throughout the country.  The ICBF runs programs and
provides refuges and counseling for victims of spouse abuse,
but the level and amount of these services are dwarfed by the
magnitude of the problem.  According to the National Forensic
Office, a total of 440 females reported they had been raped in
the first 2 months of the year alone.  In a much publicized
decision in May, the Supreme Court mandated that a husband
abstain from physical aggression against his wife and children
and ordered the local police to enforce its dictum by
monitoring the individual.

Women earn, on average, 30 to 35 percent less than men for
similar work despite being legally entitled to equal
remuneration.  They constitute a high percentage of the
subsistence labor work force, especially in rural areas.
Women's groups such as Promujer and the Association of
Twenty-first Century Women reported that the social and
economic problems of marginalized single mothers remained great
throughout the year, despite government efforts to provide
training programs in parenting skills, reproductive rights, and
birth control.

     Children

Despite significant constitutional and legislative commitments
to the protection of the rights of children, these are only
marginally effective in practice.  The Constitution provides
for the fundamental rights of children and mandates that the
family, society, and the State are obligated to assist and
protect children, to foster their development, and to assure
the full exercise of these rights.  A special Children's Code
sets forth many of these rights and establishes services and
programs designed to enforce protection of minors.

The reality is that children's rights are frequently abused.
Vigilante gangs often linked to the police killed hundreds of
street children in several major cities in the social cleansing
killings described earlier.  Merchants and citizens' groups
allegedly hire off-duty police agents and contract killers to
rid neighborhoods of children suspected to be beggars and
thieves; the Office of the Defender of the People reported
clear complicity by police officers in some of these killings.
In conflict zones, children were also frequent victims of cross
fire by the security forces, paramilitary groups, and guerrilla
organizations.  Deadly land mines known as "leg breakers" laid
by guerrillas killed or mutilated many children in conflict
areas.

Both forced and uncoerced child prostitution is commonplace in
the five major cities of Colombia.  The Procuraduria for the
Family reported in September that in the preceding 15 months,
2,190 minors were killed violently, 3,125 were kidnaped, and
452 were reported to have been sexually assaulted.  In all of
these cases, the authorities detained only 45 perpetrators.  In
March the Government sentenced a former police agent to 41
years in prison for having shot a minor girl for refusing to
dance with him at a party.

     Indigenous People

There are approximately 82 distinct ethnic groups among the
800,000 indigenous inhabitants.  The Constitution gives special
recognition to the fundamental rights of indigenous people.
Under its provisions, two senatorial seats are reserved
exclusively for indigenous representation and a special
criminal and civil jurisdiction, based upon traditional
community laws, functions within Indian territories.  The
Ministry of Government, through the Office of Indigenous
Affairs, is responsible for protecting the territorial,
cultural, and self-determination rights of Indians.  Ministry
representatives are located in all regions of the country with
indigenous populations and work with other governmental human
and civil rights organizations to promote Indian interests and
investigate violations of indigenous rights.

There are some 334 designated Indian reserves that are run by
traditional Indian authority boards which handle national or
local funds and are subject to fiscal control by the national
Comptroller General.  These boards administer their territories
as municipal entities, with officials locally chosen or elected
according to Indian tradition.  Indigenous communities are free
to educate their children in traditional dialects and in the
observance of cultural and religious customs.  The
Constitutional Court reaffirmed in March that indigenous men
are not subject to the national military draft.

Despite protective efforts by the Government, Indians were
frequently the victims of violence throughout the year, by
government security forces, paramilitary groups (often
sponsored by landowners), narcotics traffickers, and guerrillas
(see Sections 1.a. and 1.g.).  In zones where the guerrillas
are active, such as the Sierra Nevada and Valle de Cauca, the
security forces often suspected the indigenous population of
complicity with narcotics traffickers and guerrillas.  Most of
the incidents in which Indians were attacked or threatened
stemmed from land ownership conflicts concerning the designated
Indian reserves.  The National Land Reform Institute estimated
that some 40 indigenous communities had lost the legal title to
land they claimed as their own and that roughly 100 other
groups had title claims that were not recognized or reconciled.

The Zenu tribe in particular saw at least seven of its
community leaders assassinated during the first several months
of the year.  Unknown gunmen also killed well-known Indian
rights activist Laureano Inampue.  In response the Government
provided bodyguards to many Zenu and other indigenous leaders.
In September there was a rash of attacks against indigenous
communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region.  FARC
operatives executed four Indians from that community as
suspected collaborators with the army.  Most of the attacks
were unsolved by year's end, and the regional land conflicts
that spawned them remained largely unresolved.

     National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Two million black citizens live primarily in the Pacific
department of Choco and along the Caribbean coast.  They
represent roughly 4 percent of the general population.  Blacks
are entitled to all constitutional rights and protections but
have traditionally suffered from economic discrimination.
Despite the passage of the Afro-Colombian Law in 1993, little
concrete progress was made in expanding public services and
private investment in the Choco or other predominantly black
regions.

     People with Disabilities

The Constitution enumerates the fundamental social, economic,
and cultural rights of the physically disabled, but serious
practical impediments exist to prevent disabled persons' full
participation in society.  There is no legislation that
specifically mandates access for people with disabilities.  The
Constitutional Court ruled in September that physically
disabled individuals must be given access to and assistance at
the voting stations.  In August the Constitutional Court ruled
that the Social Security Fund for Public Employees (Cajanal)
cannot refuse to provide services for the disabled children of
its members, regardless of the cost involved.

Section 6  Worker Rights

     a.  The Right of Association

The law recognizes the rights of workers to organize unions and
strike.  The Labor Code provides for automatic recognition of
unions that obtain at least 25 signatures from the workplace
and comply with a simple registration process at the Labor
Ministry.  The law penalizes interference with freedom of
association.  It also stipulates union freedom to determine
internal rules, elect officials, and manage activities, and
forbids the dissolution of trade unions by administrative fiat.
According to Labor Ministry estimates, only about 8 percent of
the work force is organized.  Unions freely establish
international affiliations without government restrictions.

The 1991 Constitution provides for the right to strike by
nonessential public employees and authorizes Congress to pass
enabling legislation that would define "essential", which it
has not yet done.  In the absence of this definition, existing
legislation which prohibits public employees from striking is
still in force.  Before staging a legal strike, unions must
negotiate directly with management and--if no agreement results
--accept mediation.  By law, public employees must accept
binding arbitration if mediation fails; in practice, public
service unions decide by membership vote whether or not to seek
arbitration.

In 1993 the International Labor Organization (ILO) criticized
10 provisions of Colombian law, including:  the supervision of
the internal management and meetings of unions by government
officials; the presence of officials at assemblies convened to
vote on a strike call; the suspension of union officers who
dissolve their unions; the requirement that contenders for
trade union office must belong to the occupation in question;
the prohibition of strikes in a wide range of public services
which are not necessarily essential; various restrictions on
the right to strike and the power of the Minister of Labor and
the President to intervene in disputes through compulsory
arbitration; and the power to dismiss trade union officers
involved in an unlawful strike.

The most important strike in the private sector in 1994 was the
66-day work stoppage by the 4,000 employees of Acerias Paz del
Rio, a steel plant in the department of Boyaca.  Collective
bargaining on salaries and benefits broke down when the union
refused to affiliate with the new private pension system.  In
addition, the Government's ongoing privatization plans provoked
significant labor protests in several public enterprises.
Petroleum workers opposed the Government's plan to divide the
state petroleum company Ecopetrol into four smaller companies,
a move they fear is a prelude to privatization.  The
authorities arrested and threatened union leaders during the
longstanding Ecopetrol conflict, and the rank and file
authorized the union leadership to call a national strike.

Labor leaders throughout the country continue to be the target
of attacks by guerrillas, paramilitary groups, narcotics
traffickers, the military, police, and their own union rivals.
They also suffer from the high level of violence and the
pervasive use of firearms that negatively affect the lives of
all Colombians.  In the department of Antioquia alone, unknown
perpetrators murdered at least eight labor leaders.  In a
single month (July), they killed Luis Guillermo Marin
Echavarria, education secretary of the Antioquia Labor
Federation; Luis Efren Correa, vice president of the Textile
Workers Union; and Jairo Leon Agudelo, president of the
Antioquia Agricultural Workers Union.  In the banana-producing
region of Uraba, organized workers historically belonged to the
extreme left wing of the Colombian labor movement but refused
to cooperate with the FARC.  As a result, guerrillas killed
labor leaders and union members, including the January massacre
of a whole neighborhood--La Chinita--in Apartado, Antioquia.

The list of killings, intimidations, and arbitrary arrests of
labor union leaders includes the abduction of Domingo Rafael
Tovar Arrieta, a member of the board of the Single Federation
of Workers of Colombia (CUT), who was also the victim of
threats and arbitrary arrest; the July murder of Trina Soto
Xastellanos, treasurer of the Market Sellers Union in Cucuta,
and her sister; the July killing of Alberto Alvarado, vice
president of the Graphics Workers Union in Bogota; and numerous
threats against other labor leaders.

     b.  The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

The Constitution protects the right of workers to organize and
engage in collective bargaining.  Workers have been most
successful in organizing larger firms and public services, but
these unionized workers represent only a small portion of the
economically active population.  High unemployment, traditional
antiunion attitudes, and weak union organization and leadership
limit workers' bargaining power in the private sector and in
agriculture.

The law forbids antiunion discrimination and the obstruction of
free association.  Government labor inspections theoretically
enforce these provisions, but because of the small number of
inspectors and workers' fears of losing their jobs, the
inspection apparatus is weak.  The authorities fined a few
transgressor companies, and some workers successfully sought
redress in the courts.  The new Labor Code increases the fines
levied for restricting freedom of association and prohibits the
use of strike breakers.

The Labor Code also eliminates mandatory mediation in private
labor-management disputes and extends the grace period before
the Government can intervene in a conflict.  Federations and
confederations may assist affiliate unions in collective
bargaining.

Labor law applies to the country's seven free trade zones
(FTZ's), but these standards are difficult to enforce.  Public
employee unions have won collective bargaining agreements in
the FTZ's of Barranquilla, Buenaventura, Cartagena, and Santa
Marta, but the garment manufacturing enterprises in Medellin
and Risaralda, the most important in the country in terms of
numbers of employees, are not organized.  National labor
leaders claim that in these FTZ's the provisions of the Labor
Code dealing with wages, hours, health and safety are honored
in the breach.

     c.  Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

The Constitution forbids slavery and any form of forced or
compulsory labor, and this prohibition is respected in practice.

     d.  Minimum Age for Employment of Children

The Constitution bans the employment of children under the age
of 14 in most jobs, and the Labor Code prohibits granting work
permits to youths under the age of 18.  This provision is
respected in larger enterprises and in major cities.
Nevertheless, Colombia's extensive informal economy remains
effectively outside government control.  Some 800,000 children
between the ages of 12 and 17 work, according to Labor Ministry
studies.  These children work--often under substandard
conditions--in agriculture or in the informal sector, as street
vendors, in leather tanning, and in small family-operated
mines.  Working children are exposed to the same risks
affecting adult workers, including exposure to toxic substances
and accidental injuries, all of which contribute to impaired
physical development.

     e.  Acceptable Conditions of Work

The Government annually sets a national minimum wage which
serves as a benchmark for wage bargaining.  It set the current
minimum wage--about $130 (107,000 pesos) per month--in December
1993 after the National Labor Council, a tripartite advisory
board, again failed to reach agreement among government, labor,
and private sector representatives.  The minimum wage, earned
by over one-quarter of the population, is consistent with the
Government's anti-inflation policies, but falls far short of
providing an adequate standard of living for a worker and
family.

The law provides for a standard workday of 8 hours and a
48-hour workweek, but does not specifically require a weekly
rest period of at least 24 hours, a failing which the ILO
criticizes.  Legislation provides comprehensive protection for
workers' occupational safety and health, but these standards
are difficult to enforce, in part due to the small number of
Labor Ministry inspectors.  In addition, unorganized workers in
the informal sector are protected by social insurance systems
and fear that they will lose their jobs if they exercise their
right to denounce abuses, particularly in the agricultural
sector.  According to the Labor Code, workers have the right to
withdraw from a hazardous work situation without jeopardizing
continued employment.  In general, low levels of public safety
awareness, inadequate involvement by unions, and lax
enforcement by the Labor Ministry result in an unacceptably
high level of industrial accidents and on-the-job situations
that jeopardize workers' health.