Jineth Bedoya Lima
On April 6 Government institutions announced their “final” decision to endorse the destruction of the natural course of the Bruno...
Emblematic Cases
ABColombia Emblematic Cases: Overview
Buenaventura
Buenaventura is Colombia’s most important port city. Despite its significance for international trade and tax revenue, Buenaventura is one of Colombia’s least developed cities and communities are affected by the lack of basic services and the presence of illegal armed groups.
COCOMOPOCA
COCOMOPOCA (Consejo Comunitario Mayor de Alto Atrato) is made up of 43 Afro-Colombian communities who under Law 70 (1993) made an application for collective ownership of their land title. They struggled for 12 years to have their land-rights recognised. A struggle that saw them forcibly displaced from their territory and their leaders threatened and killed.
The Wounaan Indigenous People
The Wounaan People are one of the Indigenous peoples in Colombia that are at risk of extinction due to displacement and violence. They live on the River San Juan near a dense rainforest in a particularly bio-diverse region in the South of Chocó. The Wounaan have been forcibly displaced on several occasions.
Jineth Bedoya Lima
Jineth Bedoya Lima is a Colombian journalist and Human Rights Defender. The violent sexual attack against her is one example of the way in which sexual violence is employed as a means to intimidate and punish women defenders for their work.
The Zenú Indigenous Peoples
The Zenú Indigenous Peoples from the Alto San Jorge Resguardo in Cordorba belong to the Indigenous Groups at risk of physical or cultural extinction. They have been raising the issue of the alleged impacts of the nearby BHP Billiton Cerro Matoso Ferro Nickel mine and processing plant on the health of the Zenú People and the contamination of the environment.
The Linea Negra, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
The Linea Negra for Indigenous Peoples is the “Heart of the Earth.” It is a ring of 54 sacred sites around the base of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta that form the boundary of the ancestral territory of the region’s four Indigenous Peoples: Kogui, Arhuaco, Wiwa, and Kankumano. They are direct descendants of the Tayrona culture who built the pre-Columbian cities.
News on Emblematic Cases
World Water Day 2022
While Colombia experiences three times the global average of rainfall per country, the water distribution is uneven. The large majority of freshwater is located in the Amazon Basin and the department of Chocó. According to Water Aid 1.2 million people in Colombia live without access to clean water.
Criminalisation of Colombian Human Rights Defenders in Jiguamiandó and Curvadó
17 February 2021 Human rights defenders and community leaders in Uraba, are not only being killed but they are now...
Human Rights Defender Luz Marina Arteaga’s Body found discarded in the River Meta
On 18 January 2022, Luz Marina Arteaga, a doctor, social leader and land-claimant was killed. This vibrant and active social...
Indigenous Sacred buildings repeatedly burnt in Sierra Nevada
On 14 December 2021 in the Wiwa Indigenous village of Arimaka, sacred buildings were burnt. This follows the burning on...
Kankaumo Indigenous Peoples Sacred Places Burnt
It is powerfully striking that these events were carried out coincidentally just a couple of days after launching our campaign...
Colombia signs first major deal made at COP26 to end and reverse deforestation by 2030
Over 110 world leaders including Colombia, at COP26 Climate Summit sign the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use...
Does Colombia take Sexual Violence Seriously?
On 17 March 2021, the Colombian State objected to the Judges, the line of questioning, and way of conducting the...
Environmental Activists in Ibague and Cajamarca
In 2021, the UK will host COP26, this important event cannot happen at a more crucial moment for climate change,...
Chancleta and the Cerrejón Mine
Chancleta is an Afro-descendant community in La Guajira, Colombia that was forced to relocate when the Cerrejón mine, owned by...
Cerrejón Accused before the OECD of Human Rights Abuses and Environmental Damage
On 19 January 2021, ABColombia together with Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP), the Colectivo de Abogados ‘José Alvear...
Digging Deep: Mining in Colombia & the urgent need for a UN Binding Treaty
Virtual Side Event: To mark the 6th Session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business...