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VIOLENCE AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
WOMEN IN THE ARMED
CONFLICT IN COLOMBIA
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
1.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter the "IACHR"
or the "Inter-American Commission") has repeatedly expressed its concern
over the serious impact on the human rights of men and women of the
armed conflict that has affected the Republic of Colombia over four
decades. The conflict has severely affected the civilian, non-combatant
population, particularly groups at greater risk such as women, children,
indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombian communities, social leaders and human
rights defenders. The IACHR has adopted a report which addresses the
impact of the armed conflict on women and the way in which it deepens
and aggravates the discrimination and violence they suffer, and
formulates conclusions and recommendations.
2. This
report is based on the results of the on-site visit to Colombia
undertaken by the former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women of
the IACHR (hereinafter "Rapporteur" or "IACHR Rapporteur"), Ms. Susana
Villarán, between June 20-25, 2005. The primary objective of the visit
was to assess the impact of the armed conflict on Colombian women and to
receive information about the legislative, policy, institutional and
judicial measures taken by the State to safeguard the rights of women
within this sociopolitical context. During her stay, the Rapporteur
visited the cities of Bogotá, Valledupar and Quibdó, where she met State
authorities, as well as a number of victims, relatives of victims, civil
society organizations–including indigenous and Afro-Colombian
organizations–and intergovernmental agencies working to defend and
promote the rights of women. The report is also based on information
gathered by other official entities and intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations.
3. Violence
and discrimination affect the lives of women during times of peace and
degenerate during internal armed conflicts which impact the civil
population. In its report, the IACHR analyzes the discrimination and
violence against women in the context of the Colombian armed conflict
and the way in which the circumstances that have historically exposed
women to discrimination and subjected them to social stereotypes, an
inferior treatment and the civil, political, economic and social
consequences of these disadvantages, are exploited and manipulated by
the actors of the armed conflict.
4. Violence
against women is employed as a strategy of war by the actors of the
armed conflict in their struggle to control territories and communities
in different areas of the country. On the basis of firsthand
observations and the testimonies received, the IACHR has identified four
main manifestations of violence that especially affect women within the
armed conflict. First, the actors in the armed conflict employ
different forms of physical, psychological and sexual violence to “wound
the enemy” by dehumanizing the victim, injuring her family circle and/or
spreading terror in her community, thus furthering their control of
territories and resources. In these cases, women can be direct targets
or collateral victims, as the result of their affective relationships as
daughters, mothers, wives, partners or sisters of any of the members of
the groups that participate as actors in the conflict. Second, the
violence destined to cause the forced displacement of women from their
territory and the consequent removal from their homes, daily lives,
community and family. Third, sexual violence can be part of the forced
recruitment of women, which is destined to make them render sexual
services to members of the guerrilla or paramilitary forces. Fourth,
the violence intended to make them a constant object of social control
measures imposed by the illegal armed groups in the communities that
inhabit territories these groups control.
5. The
IACHR stipulates in this report that the physical, psychological and
sexual violence exercised by the actors in the armed conflict against
women, has the objective of wounding, terrorizing and weakening the
enemy to advance in the control of territories and economic resources.
Acts of physical, psychological and sexual violence purport to
intimidate and punish women for having affective relationships with
members of the opposing faction, for disobeying the norms imposed by the
armed actors or for participating in organizations perceived as
enemies. These aggressions additionally serve as a tactic to humiliate,
terrorize and wound the “enemy”, whether the victim’s family nucleus or
community.
6. The
crimes perpetrated against women and girls during these manifestations
of violence result in: (1) attacks, massacres and homicides committed
against communities intended to cause their displacement; (2) homicides,
acts of torture and markings against women who sustain affective
relationships with supporters or combatants or because they or their
relatives are involved in political activities; and (3) home searches
and kidnappings to obtain information, terrorize, punish, intimidate or
coerce the women. Both men and women are the victims of crimes
perpetrated by all the actors in the armed conflict, but in the case of
women, acts of physical and psychological violence are joined by
aggressions and crimes of a sexual nature.
7. Regarding
women as victims of displacement, the figures indicate that they
constitute approximately half of the population affected in Colombia.
State figures confirm that four out of ten displaced families are headed
by women. The report of the IACHR analyzes the impact of displacement on
women in terms of the radical, traumatic and sudden change in their
family structure and roles, geography, culture, community and
socio-economic standing, and their exposure to threats, violence and
discrimination based on their gender by either the actors of the
conflict that caused the displacement, as well as the receiving
populations.
8. The
IACHR also addresses the recruitment of women and girls-either forced or
voluntary-by the illegal armed groups, with the intention that they act
as combatants, escorts, sexual slaves, informants, guides and
undertakers of domestic duties.
9. The
report discusses the problem of the imposition of forms of social
control over the living conditions of women that inhabit territories
controlled by the illegal armed groups. One form of control is
displayed in the general imposition of daily behavioral standards and
codes of conduct in communities, where the armed actors intervene in
family and community conflicts and even in the lifestyle of community
members, imposing punishments that can include murder, torture and forms
of cruel and degrading treatment. In this context, the actors in the
conflict regularly monitor the behavior and dress of women and
adolescent girls and use sexual violence as a punishment and a general
warning to the female population within the community under control.
These forms of control promote culturally-rooted gender stereotypes and
crimes against women which tend to remain in impunity for different
reasons.
10. Colombia
stands out for the organizational experiences of groups of women who
want to participate and influence the public agenda, both in areas
traditionally linked to the specific needs of women, as in issues
related to the resolution of the armed conflict. However, in the case
of Colombia, this type of participation has become an extremely
dangerous activity in which women’s rights defenders and their loved
ones are exposed to violence and displacement. In fact, armed actors
find that the leadership exercised by women’s rights organizations
challenges the extent of their social and territorial control, which–the
IACHR believes–has resulted in the systematic intimidation, persecution,
kidnapping, torture and sexual abuse, among other crimes, of members of
organizations such as the
Organización
Femenina Popular-OFP, Asociación Nacional de Mujeres Campesinas, Negras
e Indígenas- ANMUCIC,
the Liga de
Mujeres Desplazadas and the Casa de la Mujer.
11. The
Convention of Belém do Pará stipulates that when a State acts with due
diligence, it should take special account of the vulnerability to
violence that may affect women on the basis of their race and ethnicity,
among other risk factors. Through this provision States acknowledge
that discrimination, in its different manifestations, does not always
affect all women to the same degree. There are women who are
particularly exposed to the infringement of their rights and to suffer
discrimination on the basis of more than one factor.
12. In
this respect, the IACHR’s report indicates that the situation of
indigenous and Afro-Colombian women is particularly critical, as they
are victims of multiple forms of discrimination on the basis of their
race, ethnicity and the fact that they are women, a situation aggravated
in the context of the armed conflict. They face two layers of
discrimination since they are born: first, for belonging to their racial
and ethnic group and second, because of their sex. Being exposed to two
forms of discrimination historically, they are doubly vulnerable to
abuse and mistreatment by the armed groups in their struggle to control
resources and territories. In the case of indigenous and Afro-Colombian
women, the armed groups have more than one factor of social disadvantage
to exploit and manipulate as part of their strategy of war against the
civil population.
13. The
Rapporteur of the IACHR could verify during the visit that the situation
of Afro-Colombian women living on the Pacific coast is particularly
precarious and alarming. Both State authorities and non-State sources
confirm that the Afro-Colombian population has been subjected to a
history of discrimination, exclusion, invisibility and social
disadvantage, both economic and geographic. The armed conflict has
worsened this situation, since the armed actors profit from these
disadvantages in their struggle to control territories and resources.
In the particular case of Afro-Colombian women, their condition as women
adds another layer of discrimination and vulnerability to their lives
and exposes them to greater abuse by the actors of the conflict.
14. The
impact of forced displacement on Afro-Colombian women is significant and
manifests itself in various ways, due to their worldview, culture and
traditions, identification with their territory and their condition as
women. According to the information and testimonies gathered,
displacement leads Afro-Colombian women to suffer from discrimination
because they are women, because of their Afro-Colombian origin, and
because of their status as displaced persons. The change in roles and
family structure faced by displaced women may be even more intense and
radical in the case of Afro-Colombian women living in rural areas who
move to urban zones, because of the community life that they used to
lead, the traditional correlation of their activities with those of
their husbands or fathers, and the uprooting of this social model.
Furthermore, Afro-Colombian women who are displaced suffer acts of
racism, ridicule and stigmatization by the receiving communities. Their
race, as well as the low levels of education and poverty of displaced
women in general, challenges their adequate access to work and to
different forms of economic subsistence.
15. In
regards to the situation of indigenous women, the report stipulates that
the same is especially critical due to the history of discrimination and
exclusion they have faced on the basis of their condition as women and
indigenous and the serious effects of the armed conflict. In fact, the
pressure exercised by armed groups over indigenous lands, whether for
reasons of military strategy or economic interests, impacts the lives of
indigenous women in a particularly alarming way. The testimonies
gathered by the IACHR indicate that indigenous women perceive their
ancestral lands as essential places for their existence, culture, and
family. Therefore, they consider that their security and the very
existence of their peoples will be endangered while the integrity of
their lands is threatened by the conflict. Regarding forms of violence
perpetrated against indigenous women, the report states that armed
actors use women as “spoils of war” and as objects of sexual aggression
in which armed patrols kidnap indigenous women, collectively use them
sexually and later abandon them, with impunity.
16. Besides
describing the manifestations of violence directed towards women in the
context of the armed conflict, the report of the IACHR addresses the
measures adopted by the State to resolve the crimes perpetrated against
women and to repair their consequences, as well as to prevent their
recurrence. In this respect, the report confirms that State officials
at the national and local level interviewed during the visit of the
Rapporteur of the Rights of Women, recognize both the existing
challenges and that the Colombian State has advanced in the adoption of
a legislative and public policy framework, and in the design of State
programs destined to protect the rights of women. The IACHR also
highlights the efforts destined to gather statistics about crimes
perpetrated against women, including the Observatory of Gender Issues,
the work of the National Institute of Legal Medicine, the incorporation
of gender into the statistics of the Administrative Department of
National Statistics and the Social Solidarity Network. Moreover, the
Constitutional Court has issued a series of notable court decisions over
the last ten years, successfully invoking the recourses of tutela
and inconstitucionalidad to protect the civil, political, social,
cultural and economic rights of Colombian women.
17. Nonetheless,
despite these measures, both State authorities and civil society
representatives expressed their concern over the lack of an integral
State policy addressing the specific impact of the armed conflict on the
human rights of women, applicable to the national and local levels, and
how this void perpetuates the impunity towards violence and
discrimination practices. The Report corroborates noticeable flaws in
the diagnosis, prevention and early warning of different forms of
discrimination and violence against women which are aggravated by the
armed conflict, and gaps in the provision of humanitarian assistance and
multidisciplinary support services for victims. The Colombian State is
obligated to act with due diligence to eradicate violence and
discrimination against women despite the challenges its response faces.
This obligation of the State to act with due diligence has four
fundamental components: prevention, investigation, sanction and
reparation of human rights violations perpetrated against women.
18. On
the other hand, the State’s homogenous view of women as a target group,
beneficiary of public policies, has resulted in responses that fail to
consider the particular needs of different groups, particularly
Afro-Colombian and indigenous women. In consequence there is, both
nationally and locally, a failure to consider the specific and different
needs of indigenous and Afro-Colombian women in public programs and
policies geared towards protecting the rights of women. In this regard,
the report of the IACHR affirms that the State ought to implement
measures to eradicate discriminatory socio-cultural patterns based on
sex, race, ethnicity and social class, and take these differences into
account in the development of public policies to mitigate the effect of
the armed conflict on all Colombian women and in particular over those
belonging to vulnerable groups.
19. In
this context, and even in the presence of certain progress, women still
confront numerous legislative, institutional, cultural and geographic
obstacles to effectively access justice. Among the most notable
challenges are deficiencies in the investigation, judgment and sanction
of acts of violence and discrimination, which result in a mistrust of
the administration of justice; gaps in systems to gather statistics; and
the dearth of human and financial resources to address the persisting
problems. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish sustainable
capacity-building programs for justice officials and to begin programs
to sensitize the population and to promote an increase in the submission
of complaints. Lastly, the report recognizes weaknesses of the
administration of justice in the zones occupied by the armed actors, and
the implementation of principles and practices within the penal
procedures applicable to violence against women that can challenge
women’s access to effective judicial protections and guarantees.
20. Based
on its observations and on the conclusions reached, the IACHR formulates
in its report a series of recommendations geared towards the design of
an integral State policy that will take into account the forms of
discrimination and violence affecting women that are aggravated by the
armed conflict, in order to achieve progress in the diagnosis,
prevention and response to these problems and in the incorporation of
the specific needs of women in the public agenda. Additionally, they
call on the State to implement measures to eradicate discriminatory
socio-cultural patterns based on sex, race, ethnicity and social class
and to take account of these differences in the development of public
policies to mitigate the pernicious effect of the armed conflict on
Colombian women throughout the national territory. The recommendations
formulated herein are of a dual nature: general recommendations and
recommendations by category of attention and response, covering
legislation, public policies, State institutions and programs, diagnosis
and prevention, public services for displaced women, administration of
justice, civic and political participation, and truth, justice and
reparation.
21. The
IACHR in its report reiterates its grave concern over the situation of
Colombian women due to the violence and discrimination aggravated by the
armed conflict and the urgent need to respond to the problem according
to their specific needs to facilitate that Colombian women and girls
enjoy and exercise their rights under the Inter-American Convention on
the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women,
the American Convention on Human Rights, and other international
instruments. The IACHR reiterates its commitment to collaborate with the
Colombian State in the search for solutions to the problems identified.
Some steps adopted to address this situation display an understanding of
the gravity of the existing problems and the commitment of the State and
non-State sectors to consider the specific needs of women in public
policies designed to solve, sanction, prevent and eradicate acts of
violence and discrimination against women.
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