In Colombia, a country where generations of people have been traumatized by the decades-long armed conflict, the situation for Indigenous Peoples is particularly dire. This week, James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, completed a 5-day visit to that country, finding that the human rights of Indigenous Peoples have been fundamentally compromised by the conflict.
In fact, even as the Special Rapporteur gathered evidence that Indigenous Peoples are targeted by combatants, displaced in massive numbers and targeted with assassination, the murders continued. During the days of James Anaya’s visit, IPS reported that multiple Indigenous people were abducted and killed.
La Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia (ONIC), a Colombian Indigenous Peoples’ rights organization, has worked to document this disturbing trend of violence against Indigenous Peoples. In 2009 alone, ONIC has counted 60 politically-motivated killings of Indigenous people.
In preparation for his trip, MADRE provided support to ONIC in their efforts to gather information and testimonies from the Indigenous community. In particular, MADRE helped to facilitate the travel of a group of Indigenous women to the capital, where their voices would be heard, and supported the inclusion of testimonies by Indigenous women in the report submitted to the Special Rapporteur.
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