Paris – Geneva, October 17, 2006. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a programme jointly undertaken by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), is pleased with the issuing of an admissibility report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on October 10, 2006, in the framework of a case on allegations concerning the international responsibility of the Colombian State for the attacks, acts of intimidation and harassment, and death threats that have been subjected upon members of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyer’s Collective (Corporación Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo – CCAJAR).

 

 

Paris – Geneva, October 17, 2006. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a programme jointly undertaken by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), is pleased with the issuing of an admissibility report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on October 10, 2006, in the framework of a case on allegations concerning the international responsibility of the Colombian State for the attacks, acts of intimidation and harassment, and death threats that have been subjected upon members of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyer’s Collective (Corporación Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo – CCAJAR).

The Observatory is very satisfied with the issuing of the admissibility report (No. 55/06) in the framework of case 12.380 in reference to a petition presented by CCAJAR on April 19, 2001, before IAHCR on allegations concerning the international responsibility of the Colombian State for the attacks, acts of intimidation and harassment, and death threats that have been subjected upon their members since 1990.

This case is in keeping with a context of generalised vulnerability faced by human rights defenders in Colombia, which has been documented by different inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations dedicated to the protection and defence of human rights, including the IACHR and the United Nations.

IACHR’s decision indicates that the case is admissible, as it meets the requirements established by the American Convention on Human Rights, which means that the IACHR may know a petition concerning human rights violation. In accordance with the report, the case is exempted from exhausting domestic remedies, inasmuch as the Colombian State “has not justified, being its procedural obligation, the reason to date why not one person has been linked to the several open investigations, nor what concrete measures have been adopted to establish the facts.”

Based on this report, the merits stage is initiated in which the IACHR should come to a decision on whether the Colombian State is internationally responsible for violation of the rights to the life, personal integrity, judicial guarantees, free association, freedom of expression, honour and dignity, and freedom of movement and residence, in connection with the general obligation of the State to respect and guarantee the rights established in the American Convention on Human Rights, to the detriment of all of the members and employees of CCAJAR.

The Observatory, which has not ceased in denouncing the situation of violence and grave insecurity faced by the members of CCAJAR (see the Observatory’s annual reports from 1998 to 2005), is pleased by IACHR’s decision and hopes that this decision contributes to putting an end to this situation as soon as possible.

Press contact: Gaël Grilhot (FIDH): +33 1 43 55 25 18; Eric Sottas (OMCT): +41 22 809