2016 Colombian Caravana - Report on UIA's Participation

The UIA took part in the 5^th Edition of the Colombian Caravana, that visited Colombia from August 20 to 28 2016 to focus on the situation of Colombian lawyers. The UIA was represented at the Caravana by Max Adam Romero.

53 delegates, including Mr. Romero, travelled through several Colombian cities in order to meet with human rights defenders, victims’ groups, representatives of official entities, and national authorities, as well as representatives of foreign states and international authorities. Their goal was to inventory human rights violations, meet victims of such violations and support lawyers condemning such violations. The context in which the Caravana took place was particularly unusual and interesting because of the peace accord that was recently negotiated with the FARC guerrillas.

In the regions visited, the Caravana has also assessed the conditions of detention of prisoners.

In the course of the various meetings held by the Caravana, delegates noted victims' distrust of authorities and governmental institutions. This, is was further noted, was, in part, as a result of very limited resources available in the justice system, a system that works very slowly and is constantly overwhelmed. Impunity rates are still very high and even when proceedings were initiated, sentencing rates were very low. Women and victims from the indigenous population and the afro-descendants population are particularly disadvantaged with regard to access to justice and protection.

Please find below Mr Adam Romero’s report (only in Spanish).

The full report of the Colombian Caravane « The search for peace with justice and human rights in Colombia » is also available below.