Colombia Senate approves controversial military justice reform in spite of UN objections
Colombia Senate approves controversial military justice reform in spite of UN objections
Oct 30, 2014 posted by Joel Gillin
Colombia’s Senate approved a controversial bill Wednesday that would give military courts greater jurisdiction and could increase impunity for the already slow-moving convictions of military atrocities, according to local media.
In the second of eight Senate debates, the legislative body approved the bill that domestic and international critics say would remove independent accountability for the military and its role in the killing of thousands of civilians during what has become known euphemistically as the “false-positives” scandal.
FACT SHEET: False positives
This “false positives” scandal is centered around the extrajudicial killings of more than 4,000 civilians by members of the armed forces who dressed their victims as guerrillas in order to present them as combat kills and thus inflate the military’s apparent effectiveness in the war against leftist rebel groups like the FARC and ELN.
The United Nations (UN) and human rights groups have consistently bashed the past and current proposals, highlighting the likelihood that it would exacerbate the problem of impunity in the prosecution of those involved in false positives cases.
The UN’s delegate in Colombia, Todd Howland, told the Senate that the proposed reform “is not consistent with Colombia’s international obligations to human rights.”
More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombian-senate-approves-controversial-military-justice-reform/