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movement and access to essential services
and food), the forced recruitment of children,
sexual violence, and the use of anti-
personnel mines.
Despite the signing of the Peace
Agreement, the armed conflict intensified in
some areas of Colombia as a result of armed
confrontations between ELN guerrillas,
paramilitary groups and state forces seeking
to fill the power vacuum left by the
demobilized FARC guerrillas. On 27
November, 13 people were killed as a result
of a confrontation between FARC dissidents
and ELN members in Magüí Payán Nariño
department. There were complaints about
the weak state presence in areas that were
historically controlled by the FARC, which
facilitated incursions and control by other
illegal armed groups, putting Afro-
descendant and peasant farmer communities
and Indigenous Peoples at risk.
Paramilitary structures continued to operate
in various parts of the country, despite their
supposed demobilization under the terms of
Law 975, passed in 2005. There were reports
of paramilitary attacks and threats against
leaders of the Peace Community of San José
de Apartadó in the department of Antioquia.
1
On 29 December, armed men attempted to
kill Germán Graciano Posso, the legal
representative of the community. Other
community members disarmed them, but
were injured in the process.
The Peace
Community had sought to distance itself from
the armed conflict by formally refusing to
allow state security forces, guerrilla groups or
paramilitary groups to enter their territory.
Despite their efforts to remain neutral, people
living in San José de Apartadó continued to
be victims of attacks, torture, sexual abuse
and forced displacement at the hands of all
parties to the conflict.
There were reports of paramilitary
incursions in the department of Chocó, in
northwestern Colombia, particularly affecting
Afro-descendant communities and
Indigenous Peoples. On 8 February, a group
of paramilitaries belonging to the Gaitanista
Self-Defence Forces entered the
Humanitarian Zone of Nueva Esperanza en
Dios, in the Cacarica River Basin, department
of Chocó, searching for several people said to
be on a “death list”.
2
On 6 March, a
paramilitary incursion was reported in the
town of Peña Azul, municipality of Alto
Baudó, Chocó, which resulted in the large-
scale displacement of families and the forced
confinement of many people within their
communities near Peña Azul.
3
On 18 April,
residents of Puerto Lleras in the Jiguamiandó
collective territory, Chocó, reported that they
had received threats and that there had been
a paramilitary incursion into the
Humanitarian Zone of Pueblo Nuevo that put
all the inhabitants at risk.
4
Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian
communities continued to be at risk from
anti-personnel mines on their territory; the
laying of such mines is a grave violation of
international humanitarian law. On 11 July,
Sebastián Carpio Maheche, from the
Wounaan Indigenous community of Juuin
Duur in the Embera Wounaan Katio de
Quiparadó Reserve in the municipality of
Riosucio, Chocó, was injured by an exploding
anti-personnel mine.
5
Clashes between ELN guerrillas, the security
forces and paramilitary groups put
Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian
communities at serious risk.
6
According to the
National Indigenous Organization of
Colombia, between 1 November 2016 and
31 July 2017, 3,490 Indigenous people were
victims of mass forced displacements, 827
were subjected to forced confinement, 115
received threats and 30 were killed, including
community leaders.
The ELN abducted two Dutch journalists on
19 June in the area of El Tarra, Norte de
Santander. Both were released on 24 June.
According to the Office of the
Ombudsperson, hostage-taking by ELN
guerrillas continued.
REPARATION FOR VICTIMS
Point 5 of the Peace Agreement created the
“Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-
repetition System”, which included the
Special Jurisdiction for Peace and judicial
mechanisms such as a unit for investigating
and dismantling the criminal organizations
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that succeeded paramilitarism. Point 5 also
defined the position regarding reparations for
the victims of the armed conflict. In this
context, victims of the armed conflict
demanded guarantees of access to justice, as
well as guarantees of the right to truth and
reparation and, especially, of non-repetition
of abuses such as forced displacement and
sexual violence, for Indigenous, Afro-
descendant and peasant farmer communities
at risk. These demands had yet to be met,
and the long-term viability of the Peace
Agreement was threatened due to the
perpetrators of crimes under international
law, including war crimes, crimes against
humanity and human rights abuses not being
brought to justice.
In April Legislative Act No.1 of 2017 was
adopted, to ensure Congress would pass
legislation implementing Point 5 of the Peace
Agreement. One of its provisions provided for
the separate – and privileged – treatment of
state agents before the law, to the detriment
of the rights of victims of crimes by the state
in the context of the armed conflict. The law
also provided for the possibility that the state
would not pursue criminal prosecutions in
certain cases – although how this would be
implemented was not clear – potentially
breaching the obligation of the state to
investigate, prosecute and punish grave
violations of human rights, undermining the
rights of victims to truth and full reparation.
On 27 November, Congress approved the
Special Jurisdiction for Peace.
POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES
There were allegations of deliberate killings
by state forces and allegations of excessive
use of force by the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad
(ESMAD) during protests in Chocó, Valle del
Cauca, Cauca and Catatumbo.
Inhabitants of Buenaventura on the Pacific
coast reported police repression of peaceful
demonstrations which were part of the “Civic
Strike” declared on 16 May to demand that
the Colombian government guarantee
economic, social and cultural rights and the
right of the city’s inhabitants to participate in
the implementation of the Peace Agreement
with the FARC. Police, army and navy officers
were present in the area. Protesters reported
that tear gas was used against peaceful
demonstrators. The Ombudsperson reported
that approximately 205 children as well as 10
pregnant women and 19 elderly people
suffered health complications as a result. In
total, health problems as a result of exposure
to tear gas were reported by 313 people, and
16 people sustained gunshot injuries or
trauma from blunt objects. The “Civic Strike”
ended on 7 June.
One Indigenous man, Felipe Castro Basto,
was reported to have died in the municipality
of Corinto, in the North of Cauca, when
ESMAD opened fire on a demonstration by
200 Indigenous people.
The Association of Community Councils
Mira, Nulpe and Mataje (Asominuma)
reported that, on 5 October, security forces
killed nine peasant farmers by
indiscriminately firing at a peaceful
demonstration in Tumaco (Nariño).
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Human rights defenders continued to be the
victims of threats and targeted killings. The
Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights reported that at least 105
human rights defenders were killed in
Colombia during the year. There was
continuing concern over the increase in the
number of attacks against defenders,
especially community leaders; defenders of
land, territory and the environment; and
those campaigning in favour of the signing of
the Final Agreement with the FARC. There
continued to be an alarming rate of attacks
against defenders of the rights of Indigenous
and Afro-descendant people, peasant
farmers and women, calling into question the
implementation of the Peace Agreement.
According to the organization Somos
Defensores, the number of killings of
defenders increased by 31% in the first half
of the year compared to the same period in
2016. The killings of women exercising any
kind of leadership role increased compared
to 2016, with seven such killings occurring in
the first six months of 2017.