Colombia: News & Updates

Trade unionist Ruby Castaño is a leader in the FENSUAGRO agricultural trade union and a human rights defender. Colombia remains the world’s deadliest country for trade unionists, with at least 20 killed between March 2020 and April 2021, according to the International Trade Union Confederation. No trade union has been more violently targeted than FENSUAGRO, which has seen around 35 members killed since Colombia’s peace agreement was signed in late 2016. However, its members continue to campaign tirelessly around the labour, human and social rights of rural communities. In our interview with Ruby, she discusses her life as a trade unionist and human rights defender, and why Colombia is so dangerous for those who fight for a fairer society. (source: Justice for Colombia’s ongoing series that focuses on the important work of women activists in Colombia and the challenges they face.)

Please see a summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries. We join with civil society groups in Latin America to: (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, and (3) bring human rights criminals to justice. IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.

Environmental defenders in Colombia continue to face high levels of violence over their opposition to resource extraction, land appropriation and current drugs policies, according to a new study by the El Espectador newspaper which documented the murders of ‘at least’ 44 environmental defenders between 20 July 2020 and 30 April 2021, a period of under ten months.

Please see a summary of the six letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, El Salvador, and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries. We join with civil society groups in Latin America to: -protect people living under threat -demand investigations into human rights crimes -bring human rights criminals to justice IRTF’s Rapid Response Network volunteers write letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn, or ask us to mail you hard copies.