Ms Michelle Foley:

Yes. Senator Craughwell asked a question on recruiting in the government and if the FARC are still actively recruiting. Concerning the neo-paramilitaries in the rural departments, even the human rights defenders on the ground do not have a clear understanding of the make-up of the groups. One of our asks of Ireland at the UN Security Council is to call for the formation of a group of experts to look at neo-paramilitarism on the ground. The Colombian Government often resorts to rhetoric that puts all the focus on drug-trafficking and neo-paramilitary groups and does not look at the responsibility of the Colombian state. Ultimately, the state is responsible for human rights defenders and their lives. If we keep passing the blame onto this neo-paramilitary group, it distracts from the fact 199 human rights defenders were killed last year and the Colombian Government is not doing enough to protect them. There are many mechanisms in place but the political will to make them function properly is not there, as human rights defenders on the ground tell us. There is a special investigations unit and there are lots of different programmes, and they keep creating more programmes, but they are not implemented effectively so they are not having any effect for defenders who are working on the implementation of the peace process.

We will be five years into the implementation process come November and it is defenders at the forefront of implementing it in rural departments who are most at risk. Those working in the juntas or community action boards are vulnerable to attacks and killings. The 199 killings do not take into account the huge number of attacks against defenders where defenders are not killed.The situation on the ground is incredibly tense. There is narco-trafficking and paramilitary groups but when the special investigations unit looks at the crimes, it tackles the material authors of the crime and not the intellectual authors. It keeps happening and is getting worse. With elections to come in May 2022, the violence is already escalating in the departments. There are 16 seats, called curules de paz, allocated in the peace agreement for victims of the conflict. As people vie for these seats in the Senate, there will be more violence. These people will be putting their heads above the parapet and be vulnerable to attack.