UNHCHR PRESENTS ITS 2003 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON COLOMBIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 002764



SIPDIS



GENEVA FOR JEFF DELAURENTIS



E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/11/2014

TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PINR, PREL, CO, UN

SUBJECT: UNHCHR PRESENTS ITS 2003 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON

COLOMBIA



REF: BOGOTA 1748



Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reasons 1.4 (b)

and (d).



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Summary

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1. (U) On March 10, the Colombia office of the UN High

Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) released its 2003

report on the human rights situation in Colombia. The report

states that although the GOC has made some progress, the

human rights situation remains critical. It also claims that

the GOC has failed to fully comply with a majority of the 27

human rights recommendations published in last year's report,

and includes 27 recommendations for 2004, 23 of which are

carried over from 2003. The GOC said the report did not give

its democratic security policy enough credit for improving

the human rights situation and did not adequately emphasize

the gravity of the threat posed by the illegal armed groups.

We will continue to work with the GOC, UNHCHR, and the G-24

to help with compliance in 2004. End Summary.



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UNHCHR Releases its 2003 Human Rights Report on Colombia

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2. (U) On March 10, the Colombia office of the UN High

Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR),under director

Michael Fruhling, released its human rights report for 2003,

which states that although advances have been made, the human

rights situation in Colombia remains critical. It notes that

the country's three principal illegal armed groups (the FARC,

ELN, and AUC) continued terrorizing the civilian population

through bombings, kidnappings, the recruitment of minors, and

the use of anti-personnel mines. Terrorist organizations

also disregarded international humanitarian law and ignored

the UN's human rights recommendations.



3. (U) The report acknowledged that the Government made some

advances. Declines in homicides, massacres, attacks on

civilians, indiscriminate attacks, hostage taking, acts of

terrorism, and forced displacements were noted positively and

attributed in part to the presence of state security forces

in all municipalities. Still, the UN called for other state

institutions, such as the Inspector General's Office

(Procuraduria) and the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office

(Defensoria),to have a similar presence throughout the

country. The report also acknowledged the Government's

willingness to negotiate with illegal armed groups.



4. (C) UNHCHR remains concerned about an increase in

complaints of arbitrary or illegal detentions, forced

disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and violations of

the rights to due process and privacy. The report reiterated

concerns about: links between paramilitaries and government

officials, particularly by members of the military and the

Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia); significant

paramilitary influence in certain regions of the country; and

paramilitary ceasefire violations. It also expressed its

concern that the proposed "conditional parole" bill would

allow paramilitary members to escape criminal sentences. The

report noted an increase in complaints of torture and

mistreatment by government authorities. (Note: According to

Max Furrer (strictly protect),Protection Coordinator for the

Colombia office of the International Committee of the Red

Cross (ICRC),the ICRC has not seen an increase in official

mistreatment -- including torture -- of detainees in 2003.

End note.) The report also highlighted the critical

circumstances of "vulnerable" populations, such as women,

children, indigenous persons, and Afro-Colombians.



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The 27 Recommendations of 2003

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5. (U) The report acknowledged Government progress on several

of the office's 27 human rights recommendations for 2003, but

noted that the GOC began to implement the recommendations )-

inconsistently -- only in the final months of 2003. UNHCHR

said it has had fluid dialogue with diverse GOC entities,

&but the commitment to put these recommendations into effect

was rejected by some of the highest officials, which limited

satisfactory implementation of the majority of them.8 As

noted in more detail in reftel, the GOC has fulfilled the

recommendation on anti-personnel mines (13),achieved

significant progress in improving the effectiveness of the

Early Warning System (1),and made some, but not enough,

progress in protecting human rights defenders (2),increasing

protection for communities at risk (4),and improving the

public security forces' compliance with international

humanitarian law (12).



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More Recommendations for 2004

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6. (U) The High Commissioner proposed another set of

recommendations for 2004, again grouped under six headings:

prevention and protection; the internal armed conflict; the

rule of law and impunity; economic and social policies; the

promotion of a culture of respect for human rights; and

technical cooperation and advice from his office. Nineteen

recommendations are directed exclusively at the Colombian

state (including Congress and the independent Prosecutor

General's Office),four to illegal armed groups, and four to

the GOC, civil society, and illegal armed groups jointly.

Twenty-three recommendations are carryovers -- some slightly

revised -- from the 2003 list. The four new recommendations

are: 1) the High Commissioner urges all those directly

involved in the internal armed conflict to observe the

humanitarian principles of limitation, distinction, and

proportionality; 2) the High Commissioner exhorts the

Prosecutor General to safeguard and respect the independence

of prosecutors in the performance of all their duties and

guarantee that detentions and searches are supported by

sufficient evidence; c) the High Commissioner calls on the

Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the Human

Rights Ombudsman to promote and instill respect for

procedural guarantees for those deprived of liberty whose

legal situation has not been defined; and d) the High

Commissioner recommends that the Government and organizations

of human rights defenders develop and institutionalize stable

communication channels, at both national and regional levels.





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GOC Response

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7. (U) Carlos Franco, director of the Presidential Program

for Human Rights, responded to the UN's report for the GOC.

He said the report failed to give the GOC enough credit for

human rights progress achieved as a result of President

Uribe's democratic security policy. Franco added that the

report did not sufficiently emphasize the threat posed by

illegal armed groups, which at present makes it practically

impossible for the state to fully "guarantee" civilians'

human rights. Franco reacted favorably to the report's plea

for regular interaction between the GOC and UNHCHR, and was

pleased with the report's acknowledgment of declines in

various categories of human rights violations and the GOC's

willingness to dialogue with illegal armed groups. He

concluded by stating that the GOC believes that strengthening

democratic security throughout the country is the best

guarantee of human rights and that the GOC will continue to

work on implementing UNHCHR's 27 human rights recommendations.



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Comment

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8. (C) Comment: The UN's report was as expected. Although

Fruhling noted some progress by the GOC, he continued to

insist on a strict interpretation of what the GOC must do to

comply with various recommendations. For example, despite

the fact that many representatives of the international

community disagreed, Fruhling maintained that the GOC did not

satisfy a recommendation regarding human rights training

because the training was not conducted specifically by the

Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman. (Note: For 2004, the

reference to the Ombudsman's Office as the only entity

capable of carrying out the training has been removed. End

note.) Among the 23 recommendations carried over to 2004 are

three with which the GOC has repeatedly stated it disagrees,

namely, an independent review of military intelligence files

(although the requirement of a published report has been

removed),a request not to implement the anti-terrorist

statute, and the immediate suspension, in advance of

investigations, of military personnel accused of human rights

violations. End comment.

WOOD