On 9 September 2024 the Government of Colombia presented the No es Hora de Callar Fund -Law 2358 of 2024 to finance programs aimed at preventing, protecting and assisting women journalists and communicators who are victims of violence. This was as part of the Government’s compliance with the Judgment issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Jineth Bedoya. Due to the work of Jineth Bedoya explaining the law to Congress men and women, this law passed unanimously, one of very few laws that has counted with this level of support.

No es Hora de Callar (Now is not the time for silence) was a movement led by Jineth Bedoya who campaigned against the severely high levels of impunity for sexual violence in Colombia and to raise awareness of the high level of hidden violence against women and girls in Colombia. This campaign and the openness of Jineth Bedoya talking about kidnap, torture and sexual violence, has enabled many other survivors of sexual violence to speak out.  

The Fund is an instrument that recognises a social and historical debt with Colombian women journalists, who because of their gender and their profession, are exposed to systematic violence, which requires attention, cross-cutting actions and a differential approach. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in the case of Bedoya Lima and Another vs. Colombia, as part of the reparation to Jineth Bedoya, established at her request – not to award a sum of money to her, but to set up this fund – as a way of accompanying journalists in the regions and increasing their protection.

The Fund’s resources will be used to finance research to monitor the prevalence and types of gender-based violence against journalists and it will invest in prevention, protection and assistance programs.  The results of these studies will be an input for the design of effective policies and intervention strategies to combat this crime.

The creation of the Fund, which is part of the reparation measures is an historic milestone for since it is the first time that the State has created concrete and financed actions and measures to fully guarantee the human rights of women journalists and communicators. It will have an annual amount of five hundred thousand dollars.

“With the delivery and implementation of the No Es Hora de Callar Fund, the Government demonstrates its commitment to comply with its international obligations and advances in the implementation of this sentence that contemplates thirteen collective and individual reparation measures, five of which have already been fully complied with”. Government of Colombia.

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The Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared the Colombian State responsible for the violation of the right to personal integrity, personal liberty, honour and dignity, and freedom of thought and expression of Colombian journalist, Jineth Bedoya. On May 25, 2000, Jineth visited “La Modelo” prison in Bogota before entering the prison she was abducted, kidnapped and taken to a warehouse where she was tortured and raped by several men for reasons related to her profession.

The IACtHR considered that the State violated its obligation to guarantee Jineth Bedoya’s safety because it did not implement effective protection measures, even when it was aware of the risk she faced because of the issues she covered and because she was a female journalist.