The Colombian Government is moving forward in the implementation of the Peace Accord with the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (FARC) political party and is working to secure a peace deal with the National Liberation Army (ELN). However, both processes are experiencing difficulties.

On 31 January 2018, ABColombia held an Event in Westminster Palace hosted by Baroness Jean Cousins and the Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG) to discuss the progress and obstacles to sustainable peace in Colombia, with particular emphasis on the current situation in Chocó on the north-western Pacific coast of Colombia. Two Colombian human rights defenders (HRDs) from the Chocó region, Bernadino Mosquera, an environmental human rights defender and Río Quito community leader, and Father Sterlin Londoño from the Dioceses of Quibdó, provided first-hand insight into the continued risks that HRDs and ethnic communities face along the River Atrato

• Date: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
• Venue: Committee Room 4, Westminster Palace, London SW1A 0AA
• Time: 18:00-20:00
• Tickets: Free event. Email registration is required, please contact events@abcolombia.org.uk.
  

Chair

• Baroness Jean Coussins, crossbench peer in the House of Lords and member of the International Relations Select Committee

Speakers

• Padre Sterlin Londoño, director of the Diocesan Pastoral Action work with Afro-descendant communities in the Diocese of Quibdó and has been a key figure throughout some of the worst years of the conflict. The Diocese of Quibdó, at the request of the Colombian Government and the ELN Guerrillas, are engaged in supporting the ELN – Colombian Government Peace Talks.
• Bernadino Mosquera Palacios, president of the Community Council of Paimadó, which is Afro-Colombian collectively owned territory. He is on the front-line of the struggle to protect human, community and environmental rights in Paimadó. He has tried to stop illegal miners who are protected by illegal armed groups from damaging the community’s territory, and to get state institutions to fulfil their obligations to protect community rights. Last year he was appointed as one of 14 Guardians of the Atrato River, an institution set up following a court order by the Colombian Constitutional Court.
• H. E. Nestor Osorio, Colombian Ambassador to the UK (tbc)
• Nigel Baker, Deputy Head of the Americas, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (tbc)
• Louise Winstanley, Programme and Advocacy Manager, ABColombia

Discussion

• The progress and the obstacles to sustainable peace in relation to the FARC and ELN Peace Processes.
• Hear first-hand from Bernadino Mosquera Palacios, an environmental defender and community leader, about his community’s experience in their attempt to achieve peace with social justice.
• Get up-to-date information from Father Sterlin (Diocese of Quibdó) on the Peace Processes. The Diocese of Quibdó is engaged at the request of the Colombian State and ELN in supporting the Peace Talks in Quito.
• Find out how the UK and UK politicians can support the achievement of sustainable peace in Colombia.