International Tribunal of Opinion
Violation of Human Rights in Colombia
As a State Crime
European Parlament Brussels, September 15, 16, 17, 2008
Today’s Colombia is the scenario for a State apparatus to play its role of an accomplished performer that displays an unusual ability to create a favorable opinion. The Democratic Security policies of current Head of State, Álvaro Uri be Vélez, have led the collective imagination of Colombians to read reality as if a decade long conflict were not present any longer. The deeply rooted socio-political crisis that affects Colombia today comes not only from the political-paramilitary alliance, a notorious element of the conflict whose complexity is not merely a question of individual behavior. This crisis also compromises a vast array of financial and industrial interest groups nationwide: multinational corporations, public and private armed forces, and the executive, legislative, and, judicial branches of the State. An all encompassing allegiance of political forces, business groups, vast landowners, and extreme right paramilitary groups legitimized their violations by means of hard-line anti-guerrilla rhetoric, achieving impressive levels of manipulation in the majority of the population.
Officially, 70 congressmen have gone public about supporting the paramilitary. In 20 years, human rights organizations have recorded over 30,000 forced disappearances, 3,000 extrajudicial assassinations of Union leaders alone, and a series of illegal arrests of Human Rights Defenders. However, key actors in the financial sector cemented their relations with the mass media in order to produce a caricature of the national reality, in spite of their role in the violations already mentioned. The interests behind genocide, forced displacement, and forced disappearance of Union workers, First Nations’ Peoples, Afro Colombians, university students, marginalized women, and intellectuals can as well be understood in terms of the demographic destabilization that currently is taking place, compliments of agro-businesses, multi-national mega-projects, and drug-trafficking. These are the signs of model of exacerbated neo-liberal development that consolidates the concentration of economic and political power, with the subsequent privatization of social services and rights of the State. The legitimacy and credibility crisis of the public institutions and political parties, on the one hand, and the indisposition of the insurgency to come to the negotiating table, on the other, synthesize the magnitude of the conflict.
Over the last five years, three International Tribunals of Opinion have taken place in Bogotá. The first one was convened in November 2006, and it focused on the murder of youth, forced recruitment, and militarization of civil life due to the influence of paramilitary groups, military and police forces in Bogotá. The following year, the second Tribunal zeroed in on forced displacement. The State was found responsible for over 4 million internal refugees. In April 2008, the testimonies of the relatives of the forcefully displaced were publicly compiled in three sessions during the third International Tribunal. Regional public hearings took place before the formal sessions, and the grave crimes of multinational corporations were exposed.
These regional hearings are the basic tools of investigation in preparation for the Brussels Tribunal; which wants to be the space where the voice of the victims may be heard. Irrefutable proofs shall be presented before the jury, consisting of professors, intellectuals, and human rights defenders from around the globe. Written evidence shall also be presented from the testimonies of several other witnesses, to open the path so as to permit the entrance of justice. The State has previously been responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of its citizens, especially those of political dissenters and members of disfavored populations. The presentation of the information as proof of such violations has precise figures and first hand witnesses that present the grim effects of Uribe’s Democratic Security. However, the mere exposition of concrete figures is insufficient. Apart from the theoretical background, the physical presence of both witnesses and the international community is necessary in the process of social transformation. Witnesses include Human Rights Defenders, participants of various social organizations, and direct victims and their families.
This is how the construction of alternative international networks is achieved, through the direct interaction of the victims with the mainstream global voices worldwide. Surveillance of the international community over the Colombian government is the ideal mechanism for the preservation of human rights. The effort these victims make to arrive to a foreign continent to expose the magnitude of their tragedy should be compensated by a genuine interest from both participants and observers. This Tribunal also is effort to pursue the freedom of hostages and political prisoners. We openly invite observers and participants to the International Tribunal of Opinion on the Violation of Human Rights in Colombia, which will be held in Brussels, 15 to 17 of September, 2008. The Tribunal shall meet in the European Parliament and give a final verdict on its the last session. The most representative cases of the regional hearings shall be presented at the Tribunal.
Sponsored by:
Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (ASFADDES)
Coordinación Nacional de Desplazados (CND)
Red de Organizaciones Sociales de Ciudad Bolívar
Proyecto Justicia y Vida
Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Cazucá y Comuna 4
Mesa de Organizaciones Sociales de Cazucá
Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Ciudad Bolívar (FECODE)
Federación Colombiana de Educadores (FENALTRASE)
Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Estatales
Asociación Distrital de Educadores (ADE)
Asociación Nacional de Servidores Judiciales (ASONAL JUDICIAL)
Asociación de Abogados Demócratas
Asociación de Abogados Laboralistas
Comité Colombia de Lucha Contra el ALCA
Asociación de Afro colombianos Desplazados - Afrodes
Comisión Inter.-Franciscana de Justicia y Paz y Reverencia con la Creación
Movimiento Continental de cristianos con Justicia y Dignidad
Movimiento Gaitanista
Organización Femenina Popular
Organizaciones Indígenas de Colombia (ONIC)
Movimiento por los Derechos de los Niños y las Niñas
Campaña contra la Brutalidad Policial
Corporación Humanidad Maestra Vida
Campaña Prohibido Olvidar
Asociación para la Investigación y Acción Social (NOMADESC)
Circulo del Pensamiento Critico Latinoamericano
Cátedra Camilo Torres Restrepo, Universidad Nacional
Universidad Distrital, Tejer
Dignidad Educativa
Sindicato de las Empresas Públicas de Cali (SINTRAEMCALI)
Sindicato de la Empresa de Teléfonos de Bogotá (SINTRATELEFONOS)
Minga
Corporación Creciendo Juntos
Iglesia Menonita de Ciudad Berna
Movimiento de Victimas de Crímenes de Estado
Cabildo Indígenas de Toribio Tacueyo y San Francisco
Asociación Proyecto Nasa
Sindicato de Trabajadores Universitarios de Colombia (SINTRAUNICOL)
Corporación de Servicios Profesionales Comunitarios (SEMBRAR)
Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria (FENSUAGRO)
Central Unitaria de Los Trabajadores CUT-VALLE DEL CAUCA
Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Minería en Colombia (SINTRAMINERCOL)
Sintramin
Sintraminergetica el paso
Fenasintrap
Sintradepartamento Antioquia
Sintrametal Yumbo
FCSPP Valle del Cauca
Asociación para el Desarrollo Social Integral ECATE
Zona Marginal
Colectivo Teatral Luz de Luna
Casa de la Memoria Tiberio Fernández Mafla
Fundación Guagua
Palenque Regional El Congal
ICES - Instituto Cerros del Sur
COS-PACC Corporación Social para la Asesoría y Capacitación Comunitaria
PCN - Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia
Colectivo Otra Colombia es Posible
RED - CUNDECON Victimas del Sector Financiero
Comité de Amistad y Solidaridad con la Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela
Polo Democrático Alternativo
Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Senado
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT)
Poder Ciudadano
Colectivo Otra Colombia es Posible
Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Cámara
Comisión de Paz del Senado.
INFORMATION : get in touch with
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tel. (571) 285-8912
(571) 382-3571 y (571) 382-3572
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