Mr. Peter Bunting:

I thank committee members for the invitation to address them. I also thank Oireachtas staff members for their assistance.

Let me introduce my colleagues. Mr. Tom Geraghty is a member of the executive council of ICTU and general secretary of the Public Service Executive Union, PSEU; Ms Aileen Morrissey is also a member of the executive council of ICTU and a member of the Mandate trade union; while Mr. Jack O'Connor who needs no introduction is a former president of ICTU and the current president of SIPTU. We were part of a joint British-Irish delegation that travelled to Colombia in July and would like to share some of what we witnessed and experienced.

Some 2,500 trade unionists have been assassinated in the past 15 years in Colombia which holds the unenviable status of being the most dangerous country on Earth in which to be a trade union organiser, activist, official or member. It also holds another unacceptable record - a 1% conviction rate for such murders. However, concern about its abysmal human rights record and capacity to honour international agreements is neither new nor the sole preserve of trade unions. In the context of these hearings, it is worth recalling that the original US-Colombia free trade agreement, the model for the current deal with the European Union, was postponed by US lawmakers because of their unease and anger at Colombia's record.

It was only rescued when a labour action plan was drawn up and signed in 2011 to guarantee and underpin trade union and human rights in Colombia. Under the plan, the Colombian authorities gave firm undertakings in key areas related to human and trade union rights, but, to date, they have failed to honour these commitments, according to the Colombian and US labour movements and US lawmakers. A 2013 report by two Democratic members of a congressional monitoring group - George Miller and Jim McGovern -– concluded that: "The Government of Colombia is woefully falling short of compliance with the Labor Action Plan, and in many cases, these shortfalls have made working conditions for workers worse than before it came into effect".

For us, this gives rise to some crucial questions. If Colombia cannot or will not honour commitments made to the US Government, what capacity does the European

Union have to hold its government to account? Second, what is the big rush to ratify the agreement and what is the reason for the undue haste to ratify the

FTA? The European Commission has confirmed that there is no firm deadline for this process. Given the widespread concerns raised in all quarters, we surely owe it to the people of Colombia to take a little more time and explore how we could use this process to help them to bring about positive change in their country. We should remember that under the proposed FTA, we would have even less capacity to call the Colombian authorities to account for human rights violations than under existing

conditions.

Trade unionists in Colombia have endured murder and arbitrary detention and forcibly disappeared. To this day, Colombia retains its unenviable reputation as the world’s "most dangerous country" in which to be a trade union activist. There is an extremely high level of impunity in the assassination of trade unionists. These murders did not occur in the distant past; between 2011 and 2014, under the rule of President Santos, some 73 trade unionists have been murdered, while a further six have forcibly disappeared and 1,000 are under death threat. On Monday of this week an NGO worker who had been protecting trade unionists trying to organise in an oilfield was murdered by paramilitaries.

In addition, some 75 land rights activists have been murdered in the past four years. We travelled to Putumayo where we heard testimony from the families of four young men who had been murdered not years ago but early this year. Following our visit, on 14 September, another person whom we had met in Putumayo was murdered. Less than 1% of the target agreed by the government for the return of land within two years has been achieved, while the authorities routinely renege on agreements with rural communities and indiscriminate bombings by the military are used to forcibly displace campesinos from their land and sever water supplies.

There is a need for an independent commission to investigate state assassinations of trade unionists, politicians, students, land rights activists and progressives unconnected with the guerrillas and state conflict. To date, there has been no place on the agenda of the ongoing peace talks in Havana for key issues such as state crimes and collusion with right-wing paramilitaries. The state has attempted to portray itself as a minor actor in the conflict. The military budget has increased, despite the peace and conflict resolution process being at the core of official government policy. A proposed truth commission has been replaced by an historical commission. As we all know on this island, truth recovery is an imperative for those progressive social organisations which have been stigmatised and brutalised for fighting for democratic inclusiveness.

A total of seven million workers in this very wealthy country have no social security benefits. Eleven million of the 18 million workers operate in the informal economy. A total of 58% of public sector workers are on temporary contracts where collective bargaining is not permitted in the public service. If a person is one of the 11 million on temporary contracts, under the labour code, he or she is not allowed to join a trade union. Companies force workers into a "collective pact", which ensures organised labour in some enterprises receives lower wages and terms of conditions through collective bargaining. The practice of collective pacts is illegal under Colombian law but only three cases have ever been brought to court since 2011.

Riot police are used to oppress trade union activists in the workplace. On 7 July a trade union leader was so badly beaten that he lost his eye. Trade unions are stigmatised and excluded organisations and union density is below 4% owing to years of state and paramilitary attacks on union leaders and members. A law giving protection to workers in co-operatives who are akin to temporary agency workers in the European Union or granting compensation to such workers who have accidents at work has never been applied, although it is contained in the labour action plan signed by the US Government.

Corruption is rife. A former agricultural Minister under former President Uribe has been jailed for 17 years for channelling subsidies meant for peasants to land owners. President Santos who views multinational corporations as "engines of the economy" has failed to deliver on promises to reform the criminal code in respect of collective pacts and failed to halt the arbitrary imprisonment of trade unionists. The proposed FTA contains are no binding clauses to protect the health and safety of workers.

I will pass over to my colleagues, Ms Morrissey and Mr. Geraghty, for their observations.