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1 Executive Summary and Recommendations, Colombia I (2005)

handle is hein.icj/exsurec0001 and id is 1 raw text is: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS The Colombian people have suffered the persistence of the internal armed conflict as well as the chronic humanitarian and human rights crisis for more than four decades. In the course of the conflict, the security and armed forces (Fuerza Piiblica) continue to commit serious violations of human rights, including extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances. At the same time, the practice of arbitrary detentions and illegal searches is widespread and systematic. Paramilitary groups that are demobilizing do not respect the cease of hostilities declared in December 2002 and continue to commit many crimes against the civilian population, recruiting new members, including children, and bearing weapons. The armed opposition groups, in particular the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) continue to commit grave breaches of international humanitarian law, such as taking of hostages, kidnapping, child recruitment and indiscriminate use of arms and methods of war. Since Alvaro Uribe was proclaimed President in August 2002, the Colombian State has been promoting a new security policy, in the name of the fight against terrorism. This policy, known as the democratic security policy, is strongly inspired by the measures adopted at the end of the administration of former President Andr~s Pastrana (1998-2002). President Pastrana's administration promoted an internal security policy that involved the use of the civilian population in the armed conflict and promoted restrictions to the capacity of supervisory bodies' and the Judiciary to monitor the Executive's initiatives. The democratic security policy or the democratization of war The democratic security policy is premised on the following: * there is no armed conflict in Colombia, but rather a war against terrorism, thus allowing for avoidance of the application of the principle of distinction between civilians and combatants; * all state apparatus and the population have to be at the service of the military and political efforts to combat terrorists; as a consequence, all public authorities and powers are subordinated to the Executive; * the military forces should be granted wide powers to defeat the terrorist enemy, which implies they may mobilize the civilian population as well as implement draconian restriction of fundamental rights and liberties; * the existing judicial remedies as well as the powers of the Constitutional Court and supervisory bodies should be modified so that they do not hinder the action of the Executive in its fight against terrorism. In the framework of the democratic security policy, a number of legal measures have been adopted and others are in the course of adoption. It is significant that the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional several of these measures and that, in spite of these rulings, the Government announced on several occasions that it would again present these measures to the Congress. Colombia has experienced a military confrontation between the State and armed opposition groups for more than forty years, resulting in the internal displacement of more than three million people, the biggest humanitarian crisis after Sudan and the DRC. Yet the Government of President Uribe insists in denying the existence of 1 Inspector General's Office (Procuradurfa General de la Naci6n) and Ombudsman's Office (Defensorfa del Pueblo). 81A, avenue de Chatelaine, P.O. Box 216, CH-1219, Chatelaine / Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41(0) 22 979 3800 - Fax: +41(0) 22 979 3801 - Website: http:/ /www.icj.org - E-mail: info@icj.org

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