Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 383, October 2017

Case No 1787 (Colombia) - Complaint date: 28-JUN-94 - Follow-up

Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body

1. 29. The Committee last examined this case – which concerns murders and other acts of violence against trade union leaders and trade unionists – at its June 2014 meeting [see 372nd Report, June 2014, paras 20–25]. On that occasion, the Committee: (i) noting the low number of convictions against the instigators of the offences under consideration, urged the Government, in consultation with workers’ and employers’ organizations, to continue to take all necessary measures to combat impunity and to identify both the perpetrators and instigators of all the murders and acts of violence examined in this case; (ii) requested the Government to keep it informed with regard to the actions taken and the results obtained by the Inter-institutional Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Workers’ Human Rights; and (iii) firmly expected that the Analysis and Context Unit, established within the Office of the Public Prosecutor, would make a significant contribution to the identification and punishment of the perpetrators of all the acts of anti-union violence.
2. 30. The Government sent information in communications received in September 2016 and June 2017, which contain a number of elements that are common to both this case and Case No. 2761 (concerning cases of anti-union violence occurred after June 2009).
3. 31. In its communications, the Government refers to several initiatives of the Office of the Public Prosecutor to improve the effectiveness of the investigations into anti-union violence [for further details, see the 2016 and 2017 examinations of Case No. 2761, 380th Report, October 2016, paras 244–271 and 383rd Report, October 2017, paras 171–193], including: (i) the establishment by the Office of the Public Prosecutor’s National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit of a group to follow up on the investigations; (ii) the establishment in late 2016 of an elite group to expedite and follow up investigations, led by the Office of the Deputy Public Prosecutor; (iii) the development of a joint strategy to analyse information on 192 cases of death threats made against trade unionists since 2005; and (iv) the Analysis and Context Unit’s prioritization of four key situations relating to the most serious violations of the right of association in Colombia from the 1990s to the present day, which led to the reassignment of 44 investigations to the Analysis and Context Unit. The Government adds that it currently has 20 prosecutors working on cases involving the murder of trade unionists, 21 judicial assistants, 61 members of the judicial police (investigators) and 67 prosecutors trained to investigate freedom of association offences, and that the Inter-institutional Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Workers’ Human Rights has been conducting a tripartite analysis of the progress made in combating impunity and violence against trade union organizations.
4. 32. The Government states that, thanks to the abovementioned efforts, significant progress has been made in the investigations into the murders examined in this case, with the following results, updated to April 2017, being particularly noteworthy: (i) the Office of the Public Prosecutor received 832 cases of murders, 524 of which are active and in 308 of which investigations have been completed; (ii) there have been 559 convictions in 285 cases, with 436 persons convicted; and (iii) of the 524 active cases mentioned above, 209 are at the preliminary inquiry stage, 148 are at the pre-trial and investigation stage and 167 are at the trial stage. The Government also provides data on all cases of violence against trade unionists reported in the country, stating that, of 1,604 cases: (i) 954 are active, of which 524 are at the preliminary inquiry stage, 192 are at the pre-trial and investigation stage and 238 are at the trial stage; (ii) 396 cases resulted in 748 convictions; and (iii) in this context, 616 persons were convicted and 173 arrest orders issued.
5. 33. In its communication of 2016, the Government states that, pursuant to Act No. 1448 of 2011, the trade union movement has been recognized as a victim of acts of violence and that the Government has an obligation to provide collective legal, political and ethical redress to trade unions. The Government adds that, despite reservations by the trade union movement, meetings were held in 2014 and 2015 with the President of Colombia under the programme to provide collective redress to the trade union movement and that, during those discussions, it was decided to create a high-level round table to discuss the collective redress measures to be implemented. In its communication of 2017, the Government underlines the historical nature of the peace agreements signed in 2016 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) and states that implementation of the agreements will entail the creation of: (i) a special peace court; (ii) transitional justice mechanisms; (iii) a truth commission; and (iv) a national commission responsible for guaranteeing human rights and eradicating human rights’ abuses.
6. 34. The Committee recalls that this case concerns more than 1,580 cases of murders and acts of violence against Colombian trade union leaders and trade unionists that occurred between the submission of the complaint in 1994 and June 2009. The Committee is compelled to reiterate its indignation and its condemnation of those crimes and also wishes to recall that the main objective of the follow-up on this case, having already examined its substance on repeated occasions, is to put an end to impunity in each of the cases submitted to it. The Committee takes note of the information provided by the Government and, in particular, of the general statistics relating to the progress made in, and the outcomes of, the investigations into murders and other acts of violence against trade union leaders and trade unionists examined in the framework of this case and in general. With a view to assisting the Committee in its assessment of the progress made in investigating and levying punishments in the instances of acts of violence reported in this case, the Committee requests the Government to provide further details on the progress made in the investigations and judicial proceedings in general, indicating in particular the cases in which convictions had been handed down and whether the persons convicted are the perpetrators or instigators of the crimes.
7. 35. The Committee notes that the data provided by the Government on all acts of anti-union violence recorded in the country shows a significant increase in convictions handed down since the previous examination of the case (748 convictions recorded in 2017 compared to 579 in 2013), together with a more limited increase in convicted persons (616 compared to 599 in 2013). While welcoming this progress, the Committee cannot fail to observe that these figures are still far from allowing the Committee to conclude that more than 1,500 murders and acts of violence examined by the Committee in this case have been resolved and led to conviction. The Committee therefore once again urges the Government, in consultation with workers’ and employers’ organizations, to continue to take all the necessary measures to combat impunity and identify both the perpetrators and instigators of the crimes that have gone unpunished.
8. 36. The Committee notes with interest the various initiatives taken by the Office of the Public Prosecutor to improve the effectiveness of the investigations and requests the Government to keep it informed of the results obtained in this respect. The Committee requests the Government in particular to inform it of the outcome of the reassignment of 44 investigations to the Analysis and Context Unit, concerning the most serious violations of the right to association in Colombia since the 1990s, and its impact on the identification and punishment of the perpetrators and instigators of the crimes in question. The Committee notes, however, that it still has no specific information on the inclusion of the social partners in the investigative processes in general and, in particular, on the day-to-day functioning of the Inter-institutional Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Workers’ Human Rights. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed without delay in this regard.
9. 37. The Committee further notes with interest that the implementation of the peace agreements would entail the creation of several bodies to resolve and punish the outstanding acts of violence and to prevent any further human rights abuses. The Committee therefore requests the Government, in both this case and in Case No. 2761, to keep it informed of the examination by these bodies of cases of acts of anti-union violence. Lastly, the Committee requests the Government to continue to keep it informed of the progress made in the process to provide collective redress to the trade union movement.