The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) would like to share with you the following links to documents written by WOLA and organizations we partner with in Colombia on human rights, labor rights, and Afro-Colombian and indigenous issues.
We encourage you to watch the newest installment of PBS’s “Women, War, and Peace” series tomorrow. It features WOLA’s Afro-Colombian partners Francia Marquez and Clemencia Carabali of the Black Communities Process (PCN) and their important work defending collective land rights and justice in the northern Cauca region.
Human Rights
- Human Rights during the Juan Manuel Santos Administration’s First Year in Office: WOLA and the U.S. Office on Colombia’s report offers analysis on extrajudicial executions, internal displacement, efforts to provide reparations for victims, and sexual violence against women, in addition to the situation of human rights defenders, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous peoples
- Take action to protect human rightsdefenders in Colombia, a petition by WOLA
- Statement by WOLA, CEJIL, and LAWG urging Colombia not to go back on its commitments to truth, justice, and reparations in human rights cases (only in Spanish)
- Human Rights First, WOLA and other NGOs’ letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton concerning the case of human rights defender Principe Gonzalez
Free Trade Agreement
- Labor Action Plan: Just Paper or Real Changes?
- FTA Turns a Blind Eye to Exploitation
- Buenaventura, Colombia: Where Free Trade Meets Mass Graves
Internal Displacement, Afro-Colombians, and Indigenous Communities
- Against All Odds: Experiences of IDP Self-Protection Measures in Colombia
- Proposal for the Decree Law for Afro-Colombian Victims by the National Working Group of Afro-Colombian Organizations (only in Spanish)
- ACSN urges the Santos administration to investigate paramilitary activity and protect the Afro-Colombian communities in Cacarica, Chocó
- Manifesto against the discrimination of refugees: A letter by WOLA, UNHCR, CODHES, the Catholic Church, Ecuadorian authorities, and NGOs calling for an end to discrimination and xenophobia against Colombian refugees in Ecuador
- Remembering Sister Yolanda Cerón (video with English subtitles)
Security and Elections
- A blog by Adam Isacson on Colombia's October 30, 2011 local elections
- Tumaco: March of Despair by INDEPAZ and Asociación Minga written for the CCAI monitoring project of WOLA, CIP, INDEPAZ, and Asociación Minga (only in Spanish)
- “Yes We Can” in the Community Council of Rescate las Varas: A report by INDEPAZ and Asociación Minga written for the CCAI monitoring project (only in Spanish)
Items written by WOLA partners and allies:
Human Rights
- Alternatives to Violence: Hope in Medellín, a speech by Representative Jim McGovern
- Father Giraldo of CINEP's letter to Ambassador McKinley expresses dismay about the U.S. government’s decision on September 15 to certify that Colombia is meeting the human rights conditions linked to U.S. military aid
- Representatives McGovern and Schakowsky’s letter to Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Defense Panetta, Attorney General Holder, and Director of CIA Petraeus requesting accountability for U.S. assistance to Colombia's Department of Administrative Security (DAS)
- Medellin's hip-hop group AK-47 performs for Rep. James McGovern during a trip to the city's Comuna 8 with support of WOLA and Fundación Mi Sangre
Free Trade Agreement
- Representative McGovern’s speech before U.S. Congress on the labor rights situation in Colombia
- Letter from the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) urging members of the U.S. Congress to oppose the FTA
- Statement by the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace opposing the FTA
- Letter from the Black Communities’ Process (PCN) asking U.S. Congress to vote no on the FTA
- Marino Cordoba of AFRODES USA speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference
We encourage you to add WOLA_Colombia on Twitter to receive WOLA commentary and other updates on human rights developments in Colombia.
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