Reports

Left Undefended

Killings of Rights Defenders in Colombia’s Remote Communities

The 127-page report, “Left Undefended: Killings of Rights Defenders in Colombia’s Remote Communities,” documents killings of human rights defenders in the country in the last five years, as well as serious shortcomings in government efforts to prevent them, protect defenders, and hold those responsible to account. Over 400 human rights defenders have been killed in Colombia since 2016, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

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  • “The Guerrillas Are the Police”

    Social Control and Abuses by Armed Groups in Colombia’s Arauca Province and Venezuela’s Apure State

    This report documents violations by the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Patriotic Forces of National Liberation (FPLN), and a group that emerged from the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

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  • The War in Catatumbo

    Abuses by Armed Groups Against Civilians Including Venezuelan Exiles in Northeastern Colombia

    This report documents killings, disappearances, sexual violence, recruitment of children as soldiers, and forced displacement by the National Liberation Army (ELN), Popular Liberation Army (EPL), and a group that emerged from the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

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  • Recycled Violence

    Abuses by FARC Dissident Groups in Tumaco on Colombia’s Pacific Coast

    This report shows how flaws in the demobilization of FARC guerrillas – and in their reincorporation into society – helped prompt the formation of these new dissident groups.

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  • On Their Watch

    Evidence of Senior Army Officers’ Responsibility for False Positive Killings in Colombia

    This 95-page report presents evidence strongly suggesting that numerous generals and colonels knew or should have known about false positive killings, and may have ordered or otherwise actively furthered them.

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  • The Crisis in Buenaventura

    Disappearances, Dismemberment, and Displacement in Colombia’s Main Pacific Port

    This 30-page report documents how many of the city’s neighborhoods are dominated by powerful criminal groups that commit widespread abuses, including abducting and dismembering people, sometimes while still alive, then dumping them in the sea.

  • The Risk of Returning Home

    Violence and Threats against Displaced People Reclaiming Land in Colombia

    This 184-page report documents killings, death threats, and new incidents of forced displacement committed against displaced Colombians in relation to their efforts to recover their land.

  • Rights Out of Reach

    Obstacles to Health, Justice, and Protection for Displaced Victims of Gender-Based Violence in Colombia

    This 101-page report documents how recent improvements in Colombia’s laws, policies, and programs on rape and domestic violence have not translated into more effective justice, healthcare, and protection for displaced women and girls. More than half of the country’s roughly four million displaced are female.

  • Paramilitaries’ Heirs

    The New Face of Violence in Colombia

    This 122-page report documents widespread and serious abuses by successor groups to the paramilitary coalition known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC).

  • Breaking the Grip?

    Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia

  • Breaking the Grip?

    Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia

    This 140-page report assesses Colombia’s progress toward investigating and breaking the influence of paramilitaries’ mafia-like networks. It also describes government actions that pose serious obstacles to continued progress.

  • Maiming the People

    Guerrilla Use of Antipersonnel Landmines and other Indiscriminate Weapons in Colombia

    This 34–page report is accompanied by an extensive photo and audio slideshow, and documents the impact on civilian survivors of guerrillas’ use of antipersonnel landmines in Colombia, as well as the difficulties that such survivors face in obtaining needed assistance from the government.

  • Colombia: Displaced and Discarded

    The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Bogotá and Cartagena

    The families interviewed for this 60-page report described fleeing their homes after receiving threats, being subjected to torture, or seeing relatives or neighbors killed.

  • Smoke and Mirrors

    Colombia’s demobilization of paramilitary groups

    Drawing on interviews with numerous demobilized paramilitaries, the report is the first to document the Colombian government’s mishandling of the recent paramilitary demobilizations.