Ms Mariela Kohon:

The situation in Columbia is critical. The peace agreement signed in November 2016 between FARC and the Colombian Government faces significant challenges and more so since the election of President Iván Duque. The implementation of the agreement has been slow and there have been attempts to change the agreement by the current Administration. The implementation of the chapters dealing with the root causes of the conflict - comprehensive rural reform and political participation - have seen little progress. The chapters dealing with the consequences have been subject to attempts to change their nature and have been under-resourced by the state.

The current Government, led by President Iván Duque, is from a party, Centro Democratico, which has openly attacked the peace agreement and challenges the transitional justice model as agreed, which would affect the rights of all victims of the conflict. He was elected on such a platform, and the polarisation seen during the election remains.

As mentioned, I am currently the senior international officer at the TUC. Between 2016 and 2018, I was an adviser in the peace process, liaising with the international mechanisms established to verify the implementation of the agreement, with the UN Verification Mission, with the UN Security Council, and with other mechanisms. I participated in the negotiations and advised in the CSIVI, the implementation, monitoring and oversight commission, made up of three government ministers and three FARC representatives. Prior to that, I was director of Justice for Colombia, and led an initiative to take cross-party representatives involved in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement and trade unionists to share their experiences in Colombia and Havana during the process.

The agreement was not for the benefit of FARC but for that of all the people of Colombia. While FARC has complied with its obligations, its disarmament was verified by the UN Verification Mission, its members have appeared before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, and there is the transitional justice process known by its Spanish acronym, JEP, the Government has not implemented crucial areas of the agreement and has attempted to change the JEP's scope. We have seen a significant and alarming number of social leaders and former FARC combatants assassinated with little effective action taken by the Government.

At the heart of the agreement is the transitional justice process, including the JEP, as well as a truth commission and a unit to search for the disappeared. The JEP has been subject to repeated attacks by the ruling party, to attempts to change its scope, and to being undermined by the former Attorney General. Despite that, the JEP has heard several cases since it started to work: case 001 related to kidnappings, and the entire former leadership of FARC appeared before the court; case 002 related to acts of war; and case 004 related to the humanitarian situation in Urabá. Case 007 about the recruitment of minors is being prepared.

Both the parliament and the constitutional court excluded the mandatory jurisdiction of the JEP over civilian state agents such as politicians and public administrators, and third parties such as funders and organisers of paramilitary groups, limiting the mandatory jurisdiction to former combatants, members of the public security forces and former guerrillas. The attacks on the system raise the question whether there are sectors afraid of the truth being revealed and putting an end to the impunity many have enjoyed for decades.

On 10 March 2019, the President expressed six objections to the draft statutory law of the JEP. The international community strongly pronounced its support for the law, and finally, on 8 April, the Government's objections were rejected by Congress. The JEP has received significant international support. Repeated Security Council sessions on Colombia have called for its autonomy to be respected. The UN Secretary General, in a press statement to announce the publication of the UN Verification Mission's latest report stated: "I call upon all parties to ensure that any reforms undertaken respect the commitments made to those who laid down their arms in good faith and on the basis of provisions in the Peace Agreement, a principle that the Security Council has itself underscored."

There is also concern over funding for the system. The truth commission lacks resources and has been forced to rely on international support for its functioning. The chapter of the agreement dealing with political participation, where political exclusion and a lack of democratic space has been recognised as a cause of the conflict, has several areas which have not been implemented. Crucially, the 16 seats in the House of Representatives agreed for civil society representatives from the regions most affected by the conflict have not been established.

In the area of comprehensive rural reform there is also slow progress. The Government's own national development plan sees less than 1% of its budget dedicated to investment in the countryside. One of the main concerns for peasant organisations is the creation of the strategic zones of comprehensive intervention, which many perceive as a return to the old war on drugs, where the main responsibility in terms of eradication of crops will fall on the Ministry of Defence. That is far removed from the measures stipulated in the peace agreement. Many compare the zones to the consolidation areas, which were areas of military control and operation under the previous Uribe Administration, raising concerns about the potential for human rights abuses. The security conditions of those who work in the programme to substitute illicit crops is worrying. There are reports of approximately 50 workers murdered so far. The President has announced intentions to return to the fumigation of crops, which causes significant environmental damage and health risks and goes against the roadmap established in the peace agreement to deal with the problem of coca and other crops for illicit use in a sustainable way.

The reincorporation of former combatants remains of concern. There is still an urgent need to purchase land. Support for the areas for training and reincorporation is due to finish in August 2019. The uncertainty caused by the lack of economic reincorporation, combined with the killings of former combatants, creates a worrying panorama. According to FARC, 135 former members have been murdered, and 11 forcibly disappeared. Since I wrote this statement, two more were killed in the past three days. One of the most recent to be killed was Dimar Torres, a FARC member who is alleged to have been murdered by a Colombian soldier, who then appears to have intended to forcibly disappear his body. A recent statement by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions and the UN working group on enforced disappearances urged the Colombian Government "to cease inciting violence against demobilised individuals of the FARC-EP and to meet the guarantees that were made to them during the negotiations in Havana, most importantly respect of the right to life". The Minister responsible for peace implementation, Emilio Archila, reacted by calling the statement "badly intentioned" and rejected the conclusions.

The UN Verification Mission's report covering the period 26 March to 26 June stated that during this reporting period "14 former FARC ... members were killed, including the second recorded killing of a female former combatant, Lucero Jaramillo Alvarez, on 4 April ...". The figures of killings of human rights defenders and social leaders is similarly alarming. Figures vary. Some human rights organisations estimate that since the signing of the peace agreement in November 2016, 591 social leaders have been assassinated, 193 of these in the past ten months since President Duque took office. These include human rights defenders, trade unionists, social leaders and community leaders promoting coca crop substitution and others defending the peace process. A human rights monitoring programme, Somos Defensores, identified that between January and March there were 245 different aggressive acts against human rights defenders, a 66% per cent increase from the same period last year. The ITUC’s just published Global Rights Index shows that 34 trade unionists were killed in Colombia last year, meaning the majority of trade unionists killed are Colombian, with little action being taken to bring those responsible to justice. It is listed as among the ten worst countries to be a worker and where workers have no guarantee of rights. This all occurs in the context of upcoming local elections in October this year. The non-governmental electoral observation mission warned in a 27 May report that violence and intimidation against local candidates may increase during this period. It noted that already incidents against potential candidates are 50% higher than in the equivalent period in previous local elections in 2015.

Despite the challenges many brave Colombians remain committed to the peace process. The current situation in Colombia means the role of the international community is increasingly crucial if we want to see a lasting and sustainable peace. The peace agreement was signed not just by the Santos Administration but by the Colombian state. It is an official document circulated in the UN Security Council and the state, regardless of the ruling party’s opinion, has an obligation to implement it.