UN criticizes Colombia's human rights record

[Judi Lynn]

UN criticizes Colombia's human rights record
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 21:27 Daniel Brody

The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, Navi Pillay, issued a report on Wednesday which criticized the ongoing violations of human rights and abuses of power taking place in Colombia.

The report acknowledged that while security has improved in the country, a "climate of terror" still exists for certain groups, including union members, indigenous community leaders, Afro-Colombians, representatives of displaced populations, judges, lawyers, and journalists.

Pillay noted that civil society groups in Colombia seeking to defend human rights are often threatened, sometimes by the government.

The Administrative Department of Security (DAS) wiretapping scandal was singled out as an example of abuse of power.

According to Pillay, information obtained illegally by the government body was used to initiate judicial proceedings against political activists, and that even now certain public institutions are using illegally obtained evidence against politicians that disagree with the current government.

The report also criticized the government's portrayal of critical civil organizations as no different from state enemies or even guerillas. Pillay said that government officials who make such statements should be punished.

The report also said that the independence of the country's judicial branch was under attack in the form of verbal threats from the executive branch, as well certain judges being wiretapped by DAS after charging members of the executive branch with crimes.

The report cautioned Colombians to pay special attention to this year's elections to help avoid a repeat of the parapolitics scandal, in which many Colombian politicians were arrested for ties to paramilitary groups.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8635-un-report-criticizes-colombias-human-rights-record.html

[protocol rv]

1. Can't we all learn to get along?

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33273&Cr=judges&Cr1

Decrying what they termed “a blow by President Hugo Chávez to the independence of judges and lawyers in the country,” three independent United Nations human rights experts today called for the immediate release of a Venezuelan judge arrested after ordering the conditional release of a prisoner held for almost three years without trial.

Judge María Lourdes Afiuni was arrested by intelligence police officers after ordering the conditional release pending trial of Eligio Cedeño, whose detention was declared arbitrary in September by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which cited violations of the right to fair trial. His counsel introduced the experts’ opinion before Judge Afiuni earlier this month.

“We are particularly troubled about allegations that President Hugo Chávez attacked both Mr. Cedeño and Judge Afiuni, calling them ‘bandidos’ and accusing Judge Afiuni of corruption,” the UN experts said in a statement issued in Geneva, where they report to the UN Council on Human Rights.

In an appearance before Government officials, broadcast on national television and radio, Mr. Chávez demanded that Judge Afiuni be sentenced to a 30-year prison term, even if new legislation was required to achieve that result, and he instructed the Attorney General and the President of the Supreme Court to punish her as severely as possible to prevent similar actions by other judges.

He also suggested that Mr. Cedeño’s defence attorneys had engaged in criminal conduct in requesting his release. Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz is reported to have given interviews to the press slandering the Judge. Two court bailiffs accompanying Mr. Cedeño out of the court room, and one of his lawyers were also briefly arrested, but soon released.

“Reprisals for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed functions and creating a climate of fear among the judiciary and lawyers’ profession serve no purpose except to undermine the rule of law and obstruct justice,” the experts said. “The immediate and unconditional release of Judge Afiuni is imperative.”