In collaboration with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), María Eugenia Mosquera made a statement on Monday to the UN Human Rights Council.
You can watch her statement starting at 2:35:59 (Presentation #102)
UN Web TV: 4 General Debate (Cont’d) – 34th Meeting, 46th Regular Session Human Rights Council
The full text of her statement:
Madam President,
The Final Peace Agreement was an important step towards overcoming the social and armed conflict. However, the government’s unwillingness to implement it has made the human rights situation increasingly deplorable.
According to the report presented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “In 2020, 76 massacres were documented, involving the death of 292 people, and 248 peace signatories have been killed”. 1
My name is María Eugenia Mosquera Riascos, family member of a victim, human rights defender and member of the Association of Victims Communities Building Peace in Colombia 2.
In this opportunity we present a situation that requires the Council’s attention, the case of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, where human rights violations, threats, assassinations, forced disappearances, extortion, displacement, dismemberment, confinement, recruitment, sexual violence and expropriation of collective territories are on the rise. Terror is imposed by paramilitary-type structures that operate despite heavy militarisation.
In this context, in January I received threats 3, which are directly related to my work of accompaniment and defense of human rights in this part of the country.
We call on the Member States and the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to pay attention to these situations of violations in Buenaventura, an area where there are many foreign economic interests; to exhort the national government to implement the Peace Agreement, to dismantle the remaining paramilitary structures; to comply with the Acuerdo del Paro Cívico de Buenaventura 4, to prioritise social investment and not militarisation.Thank you.
[Translated from the original in Spanish]
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https://www.hchr.org.co/documentoseinformes/informes/altocomisionado/HRC46-Informe-anual- 2020_traduccion-no-oficial.pdf
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CONPAZCOL https://comunidadesconpaz.wordpress.com/
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FOR Peace Presence y otras organizaciones escribieron una carta pública sobre estas amenazas
A look at the deeper context:
We also worked with CONPAZ-COL to release a statement for international agencies and diplomatic entities about the current violence in Buenaventura, which we’ve translated to English.
[gview file=”https://peacepresence.org/wp-content/uploads/CONPAZCOL-Buenaventura-Letter-English-1.pdf”]