Human rights defenders need defending

Human rights defenders need defending
Thursday, 03 March 2011 05:35
Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo

From an early age, David Ravelo Crespo has dedicated his life to defending human rights and some of the least-favored sectors of society; social, student, and grassroots leaders, unions, teachers, government employees, and rights workers. Today he is detained in Bogota's La Picota jail, as one of 130 human rights defenders who last year became victims of detentions, judicial processes and/or investigations.

This phenomenon is not new in Colombia. This was highlighted in a recent investigation by the national and international campaign "For the right to defend human rights in Colombia," which focused on the harassment of human rights defenders through legal means ("judicializacion").

This legal persecution of social leaders has historically been a method of repression against social movements in Colombia, aimed at weakening human rights defenders and undermining grassroots organizing.

There are many examples. According to a report by the human rights and peace platforms of the National Bureau of Guarantees, a government body set up to monitor threats against social movements, there are a number of "framings," attacks on human rights defenders and social leaders that originated from sources which have been legally discredited. These sources include information provided by more than 2 million members of the Network of Informants and Collaborators of the Public Security Forces, created under the previous government; data from alleged demobilized guerrillas who were seeking benefits; information obtained from illegal wiretapping and illegitimate intelligence activities (as developed by the DAS); and information supposedly extracted from computers seized from members of guerrilla organizations, and which, due to the failure to preserve the chain of custody, have dubious merit.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/opinion/157-guests/14609-human-rights-defenders-need-defending.html