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Physical accompaniment
Additionally, PBI promoted the large number of virtual and in-person events in which accompanied organisations were participating. Through our social networks, we published numerous photographic and written publications which focused on the work of women human rights defenders accompanied by PBI Colombia, as well as the different risks and impacts they suffer because of the fact that they are women. We published interviews with, among others, Berenice Celeita (Nomadesc), Jani Silva (Adispa, accompanied by JyP), Yanette Bautista (Fneb), Claudia Julieta Duque and Julia Figueroa (Ccalcp).
To mark the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Peace Accords in Colombia, PBI Colombia published five testimonial videos featuring accompanied human rights defenders, in which they gave their impressions and reflections on the socio-political violence and armed conflict in Colombia.
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The videos were disseminated on social networks and published on the blog on International Human Rights Day, achieving wide visibility and reach.
Webinars
During 2021, webinars and virtual seminars were once again a popular advocacy tool as an alternative to face-to-face events. We continued to have a high level of participation by accompanied defenders in both public and semipublic webinars. One example is the series of webinars PBI held about tackling the lack of guarantees for the exercise of social protest, in which members of Nomadesc, Dh Colombia, CSPP and Ccajar participated. It is also important to note that several of PBI’s projects collaborated on events held at the climate change summit (COP26) that took place in Glasgow in November 2021. The events aimed to draw attention to the work of environmental defenders and the fight against climate change in the various countries that PBI has projects.
Diakonia Colombian National Human Rights Award
This year PBI Colombia nominated three candidates for the awards. Nomadesc and Daniel Prado were finalists in the categories “Best Collective Process of the Year: Grassroots Level” and “Lifetime Achievement”, respectively. The third organisation nominated by PBI, the campaign “Defender La Libertad: Asunto de Todos” (Defending Freedom: Everyone’s Business)1, won the award in the category “collective experience or process of the year”. It is worth noting that a fundamental part of their work has been to denounce arbitrary detentions, judicial persecution and the criminalisation of social protest in Colombia, and that winning the award means that the work has received significant public recognition and wide spread media coverage2 .
1. The Defending Freedom: Everyone’s Business Campaign is organised by a network of organisations working to denounce arbitrary detentions, judicial persecution and the criminalisation of social protest in Colombia. It includes social, student, cultural, community and human rights organisations, and includes active leadership by CSPP, Ccajar and Dh Colombia, organisations accompanied by PBI Colombia. In 2021, the Campaign carried out coordinated work to confront the illegal use of force as a mechanism of persecution against those who demanded human rights in Colombia through social protest movements. 2. Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos Colombia (@PremioNalDDHH): tweet, 22 October 2021.
In 2021, the Area to Support the Reconstruction of Social Fabric (ARTS) accepted 100% of the workshop requested by our accompanied organisations. The workshops focused mainly on the following topics utilizing an integrated gender-focused methodology: digital security, psychosocial support and self-care. Throughout the period, ARTS coordinated 56 workshops lasting a total of 127 days, of which 18 (40 days) were workshops with Colombian organisations and 38 (87 days) were internal capacity-building workshops. During the first semester, the ARTS team provided psychosocial support and self-care tools virtually and was able to follow up on several of the processes accompanied during 2020. Of particular note were the virtual workshops conducted with a group of women from Movice in Buenaventura, in which they worked on the impacts of socio-political violence, as well as organisational capacity-building for their process of searching for missing and disappeared family members. The work was carried out from a psychosocial, gender, and protection perspective. The second half of the year was characterised by the gradual return to face-to-face spaces and the opportunity to rebuild relationships of trust with the organisations. ARTS promoted the creation of long-term work agendas concentrating on the different processes within the organisations. The methodologies they developed sought to include an intersectional gender, community and peasantfarmer focused perspective.
The return of this face-to-face work has taken place along two interlinked fundamental lines: on the one hand, protection and security, and on the other, self-care and psychosocial accompaniment, both implementing a transversal gender approach.
The Area to Support the Reconstruction of Social Fabric has resumed the following initiatives: • ARTS developed processes to create security protocols, utilizing a psychosocial and gender focused approach, with the organisation
JustaPaz, and the accompanied organisation
Corporación Jurídica Libertad (CJL). Given that Nomadesc and Fneb have played a leading role in the participation and accompaniment of victims of police violence during the National
Strike in Cali and Bogotá, the same process of developing security protocols and psychosocial support were also initiated with the women from those organisations. • ARTS held a workshop with members of Finca la Europa as part of an emergency response to threats where work was carried out developing tools to work on four levels: mind, emotions, body and spirit, linking each of these areas with protection techniques. • Movice resumed its Escuelas de la Memoria (Schools of Memory) in which PBI plays an active role in the emotional accompaniment of the group. PBI accompanied the schools in
Valle del Cauca, Meta and Barrancabermeja.
The methodology was worked on jointly with colleagues from Movice and Ccajar and brought together Movice’s history of activism,
Ccajar’s educational and legal experience and
PBI’s knowledge of protection and psychosocial issues. The Valle del Cauca School was especially shaped by the impacts of the repression of protest and violence experienced in Cali during the National Strike, where ARTS provided psychosocial accompaniment to several of the victims. The schools in Barrancabermeja and Meta, on the other hand, had more to do with peacebuilding, given that they worked on memory and the search for reparation measures.
• ARTS worked to strengthen links with the internal Council of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, in an effort to strengthen the accompaniment process with young people and the organisational capacity of the Community. • The women of Movice in Buenaventura were accompanied in various face-to-face spaces to counteract the weakening of the cohesion of the women’s group which had occurred as a result of the pandemic context and the upsurge in violence in Buenaventura. • PBI signed a new agreement with the Karisma Foundation to facilitate digital security spaces. During the second half of the year, two collective spaces were held in which 26 human rights defenders participated from 14 accompanied and unaccompanied human rights organisations. In these spaces, the digital security capacities, mechanisms and strategies of the defenders and organisations were strengthened. Also through Karisma, emergencies caused by digital security attacks were successfully resolved with Ccalcp, Nomadesc and Cospacc. • Throughout 2021, PBI’s regional strategy and the articulation of organisations accompanied by the different PBI projects in Latin America has been strengthened. This achievement was possible thanks to the continuous contact with defenders from the Latin America Regional Program (LARP). PBI’s coordination with civil society organisations in Colombia has also been strengthened through their participation in the Psychosocial Roundtable. The exchange meeting that ARTS held with the head of the Centre for Studies on Conflict, Violence and Coexistence (CEDAT) at the invitation of the University of Caldas was also a positive experience. At this meeting, PBI presented their work in Colombia and the theoretical and methodological framework within which ARTS works. The aim of this meeting was to create alliances with actors that address the psychosocial approach within academia in order to share lessons learned and challenges from the work that PBI Colombia carries out in the field, thus reinforcing their theoretical vision with practical experience.
Coming together, listening to one another, observing and transforming are words that we use on a daily basis to talk about our work Supporting the Reconstruction of Social Fabric. Our main working method involves starting by gathering together in the same space. The magic of sharing happens when we can see each other and be together in the moment. Sharing experiences allows us to identify with each other, to understand that we share similar lives and feel similar pain. It allows us to recognise the paths we have taken, and to share what we have done to get to this point.
Transforming pain is sometimes an arduous and painful task, and other times it’s a pleasant learning process. Yet we keep moving forwards, building contexts of peace despite the violence, getting up every day even though we are exhausted, and sharing whenever we can despite the mistrust that violence breeds.
Some of us met for the first time, others had known each other for decades, but it had been almost a year and a half since they had all been able to spend time together. We had to start at the beginning: who are we? how are we? We began talking about new horizons: what do we want? where are we going? We did it with drawings, dance and theatre, drawing on all the tools that have been developed in Latin American community work for decades. We created symbols, and wrote poems and songs to give us strength and hope. In the end, meeting each other gives us just that, hope. Knowing that we are not alone, re-learning how to move forward and share what we have built in these spaces with others. Understanding our differences, learning to express our experiences creatively and reconstructing the relationships that allow us to continue to claim our rights.
Coming together is the first step towards creating different paths of resistance. However, two years ago the pandemic arrived to join the ongoing violence in the country, making it difficult for us to see each other, hold each other, and move together. This has been especially difficult for the communities where the presence of armed groups in the neighbourhoods and communities has increased. It’s also been difficult to meet up with each other virtually because of the lack of internet access for many and people’s concerns about the need to care and support their families during the most restrictive moments of the pandemic. This year, resuming face-to-face spaces has required a great deal of effort on the part of both ARTS and especially for the people and communities we accompany. It is the result of a shared desire and a firm commitment to continue building collectively and for peace, in spite of the difficulties. Thanks to their commitment to this process, we were able to meet with the women from the MOVICE chapter in Buenaventura and with women and men from the Finca la Europa in Sucre.
There are many challenges ahead of us, including the implementation of the precautionary measures for the San Antonio estuary for the women of Buenaventura, or the growing insecurity in rural areas, but we continue to focus on strengthening the invisible links of the communities, like those who strengthen the roots of a tree before it starts to grow.
On 28 April 2021, the social uprising known as the National Strike began. Nation-wide demonstrations were held to protest against the announced Tax Reform. On 28 April, PBI accompanied CSPP in several verification committees in Bogotá, and Cospacc in Yopal (Casanare). Although the Tax Reform itself was withdrawn, millions of people continued to protest throughout Colombia, demanding improvements in public policies and opposing the strong repression with which the Colombian State reacted to the mass protests. Following the visit of the IACHR to Colombia between 8 and 10 June 2021, during which PBI accompanied organisations while they voiced their concerns to those present, the Commission expressed having received information “concerning serious human rights violations and the presence of various obstacles to securing the right to social protest”1 .
Cali, Valle del Cauca
The department of Valle del Cauca and its capital, Cali, soon became the epicentre of the protests and, in turn, of police violence. In the first 24 days of the National Strike in Cali, 44 people were killed, mostly young adults2 .
PBI accompanied Nomadesc on a permanent basis for five weeks between May and June. The organisation carried out verification work in city’s marginalised neighbourhoods and in areas where protesters had gathered, such as Puerto Relleno, which is now known as “Puerto Resistencia” or Resistance Gate.
Every day more people were reported to have been allegedly killed by state agents, and many others reported missing. Nomadesc led the effort to establish the facts and locate these people through their extensive coordination with communities, civil society organisations and some state institutions, including Medicina Legal (Forensic Medicine). PBI was accompanying Nomadesc on 3 May, the day of the Siloé massacre3 in which at least five people were killed and 33 were seriously injured4 . Likewise, on 9 May, while PBI was accompanying Nomadesc to a meeting between civil society organisations and the Indigenous Guard at the University of Valle, armed civilians attacked the Indigenous Minga in the Ciudad Jardín neighbourhood, located to the south of the University5 . Eight indigenous people were wounded that day6 . Following these serious events, PBI has accompanied Nomadesc both physically and politically during acts of commemoration with the victims of socio-political violence and police repression. In August 2021, PBI coordinated an advocacy tour in Bogotá for Nomadesc and victims of state repression to share their testimonies with various embassies. In December, PBI organised an overseas advocacy mission to the United States for Berenice Celeita, Nomadesc’s director, where she held meetings with civil society organisations in order to raise international awareness of the organisation’s risk situation and, more generally, the poor security conditions for human rights defenders in Colombia. Additionally, several meetings were organised with US congressmen, including Representative McGovern. PBI also accompanied the Justice and Peace Commission (JyP) in Cali during the visit of the S.O.S. Colombia Mission in July 20217 .
The number of serious human rights violations in the city of Bogotá reflect the difficult circumstances in which the organisations accompanied by PBI were forced to carried out their work during the National Strike
Among other human rights violations, in the city of Bogotá alone, there were 6 homicides of civilians, 790 people injured by disproportionate police response, 171 human rights defenders attacked in the course of their work, genderbased violence committed against 25 women, and 75 people who disappeared during the protests8 .
Despite these high figures of violence,the international accompaniment provided by PBI to Nomadesc, JyP, CSPP and Cospacc can be considered to have been valuable to the extent that, through physical accompaniment and national and international advocacy, a certain level of guarantees was maintained so that the accompanied organisations could continue to carry out their work of investigation, denunciation, demand for rights and accompaniment of victims of socio-political violence.
1. IACHR: Observaciones y recomendaciones de la visita de trabajo de la CIDH a Colombia, June, 2021. 2. El Tiempo: Las 44 personas asesinadas en los primeros 24 días del paro en Cali, 22 July, 2022. 3. Amnesty International: Cali: en el epicentro de la represión, 2021. 4. El Espectador: Lo que pasó anoche en Siloé (Cali) fue una matanza: líder social, 4 May, 2022. 5. IACHR: Observaciones y recomendaciones de la visita de trabajo de la CIDH a Colombia, June, 2021. 6. El Espectador: ¿Qué pasó en el sur de Cali el 9M?, 11 June, 2021. 7. Campaña Defender la Libertad – Asunto de Todas: Informe Final Misión SOS Colombia, 7 October, 2021 8. Campaña Defender la Libertad – Asunto de Todas: Boletín Informativo Bogotá: #PARONACIONAL, 27 July, 2021. 9. El Tiempo: ¿Qué está pasando con el Portal Américas?, 20 May, 2021.
Between May and July 2021, PBI frequently accompanied JyP to the Portal de las Américas in the area of Kennedy, in the south of Bogotá. In this part of the city, the police intervened with harsh repression against the demonstrations. As a peaceful response to police violence, the young people set up a Humanitarian Space called “Al Calor de la Olla” . PBI provided essential visibility and protection that allowed JyP to accompany this process. JyP were also accompanied by PBI in Usme during the visit of the SOS Colombia Mission in July.
Throughout 2021, PBI Colombia provided integral accompaniment to the human rights organisation Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (Cahucopana) in several humanitarian commissions in the rural area of Northeastern Antioquia, a region particularly adversly affected by the armed conflict. Given the lack of guarantees provided by state authorities, the humanitarian commissions are part of the self-protection mechanisms developed by the communities that Cahucopana accompanies. Through this type of activity, the communities continue to demand guarantees for life, security and protection for the civilian population.
In Remedios and Segovia, municipalities where Cahucopana works in Northeastern Antioquia, there has been a sharp increase in violence, with threats and murders of human rights defenders and social leaders, several massacres1, and multiple selective assassinations2 .
In light of this context, the work carried out by Cahucopana is fundamental to strengthening the peasant organisational process, as well as for the construction of a stable and lasting peace. In April, PBI Colombia accompanied Cahucopana on a humanitarian mission in the rural area of Remedios, where they met with the area’s Community Action Board leaders to analyse the situation together, and gather information on human rights violations by armed actors. Using the information they were able to confirm during the humanitarian missions, Cahucopana produced a report on the human rights situation3 in the area which was formally presented in July in Carrizal (Remedios), in the presence of the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office4 . Cahucopana later also presented their findings and the community leaders’ demands in a virtual humanitarian mission which was attended by several multilateral organisations, embassies and national entities. PBI accompanied Cahucopana on both occasions, guaranteeing the security and protection of their members, and bringing their concerns about human rights violations to the attention of international bodies. One of the most important outcomes of PBI’s physical and political accompaniment this year was the success of the international mission to Carrizal in October 2021. PBI facilitated the attendance of the German and Norwegian Embassies, the MAPP-OEA and the Ombudsman’s Office,to whom the rural communities were able to give details of the human rights violations of which they continue to be victims. Both the Norwegian5 and German6 Embassies publicly expressed their support for the full implementation of the Peace Agreement, and through their attention, increased international awareness of communities’ demands. In Northeast Antioquia, a forgotten region of Colombia, the peasant farmers are resisting and proposing a territorial approach to peacemaking. Despite the fact that the international community’s attention to the region has been limited, PBI stresses the accompaniment provided to Cahucopana has allowed the organisation to continue its protection and capacity building activities and has raised awareness of its work outwith the region.
1. Indepaz: Informe de masacres en Colombia durante el 2020-2021, 7 February, 2022. 2. PBI Colombia: (@PBIcolombia): tweet, 20 July, 2021 3. Cahucopana: Informe de Derechos Humanos y Derecho Internacional Humanitario del año 2020, 20 July, 2021. 4. Cahucopana: (@CAHUCOPANA): tweet, 21 July, 2021. 5.The embassy of Norway in Bogota (@NoruegaenCOL): tweet, 27 October, 2021. 6. Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Bogotá: (@ EmbAlemaniaenCol): tweet, 28 de octubre de 2021.
A Global Humanitarian Agreement to protect lives
From the beginning of 2021, the Justice and Peace Commission (JyP), accompanied by PBI Colombia, warned about the escalation of military operations in Bajo Atrato. Inhabitants of this geostrategic zone of the department of Chocó are victim to strong social control by the Gaitanista Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AGC), a successor group to paramilitarism1 that remains in conflict with the National Liberation Army (ELN)2 . The Canadian multinational Muriel Mining Corporation has nine mining exploration and exploitation titles covering some 16,000 hectares, impacting the region’s ancestral territories3 . So far, the actions of this company have ignored the due consultation process, and pose the risk of potentially causing severe environmental damages to the territories inhabited by the indigenous Embera communities, should extractive mining operations finally begin4 . Due to the severity of the humanitarian situation5 in 2021, which included the installation of landmines and military operations by the army including active combat, several of the indigenous communities are now in forced confinement6. They have repeatedly demanded an immediate ceasefire and a Global Humanitarian Agreement to guarantee their survival and right to remain in their territories7 .
Despite the fact that several of the ethnic communities are beneficiaries of protection measures from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in September 2021 two indigenous leaders from Bajo Atrato were assassinated by armed groups: the former Embera governor of Chidima-Tolo, Efrén Antonio Bailarín8, and Dilio Bailarín9, leader of the UradaJiguamiandó Resguardo.
Within this difficult context, PBI’s international accompaniment has made it possible for the accompanied organisation JyP to return to their territorial activities as well as allowed them to be able to access and provide accompaniment to new communities such as those of Chageradó (Murindó) and the Cuti Resguardo (Unguía). PBI also carried out an immediate activation in two cases of extreme risk in September 2021, and continued to raise awareness of the multiple appeals for protection measures for the Embera indigenous reserves of the Bajo Atrato region. At the community’s request, in August 2021 we accompanied JyP on its first visit to the community of Chageradó (Río Murindó indigenous reservation). This visit resulted in a petition before the IACHR for precautionary protection measures for the community. Subsequently, on 1 February 2022, the IACHR granted these measures for the families of Río Murindó and Río Chageradó10. In the same month, we accompanied the process of installing signposting that today demarcates the Humanitarian Zones of the Uradá-Jiguamiandó Indigenous Reservation. The signs, which were financed by the Irish Embassy as part of its support for the protection of the leader of the Resguardo Argemiro Bailarín11, constitute an important dissuasion tool. They reaffirm that the rules relating to the Humanitarian Zones and the community’s pursuit of an internationally supported strategy of peaceful resistance, is supported internationally.
Furthermore, in July 2021, PBI resumed its accompaniment of JyP12 in the Cacarica Humanitarian Zones, where it had not entered since the beginning of the pandemic. The objective has been to guarantee the security of JyP and its work, which is mainly centred on strengthening the ability of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities that have opted for a peaceful solution to the conflict to remain in their territories.
1. JyP: Paramilitares maltratan, amenazan y saquean a indígena, 21 February, 2021 2. JyP: ELN ordena toque de queda en comunidades Embera, 20 November, 2020. 3. PBI: El pueblo embera en defensa de su territorio sagrado, 9 February, 2022. 4. JyP: Minería nueva actuación que profundiza los riesgos de Emberas y Afros.7 October, 2021. 5. JyP: La perpetúa crisis de derechos humanos y humanitaria que padecen Embera,18 April, 2021. 6. Comisión de Justicia y Paz: Declaración de confinamiento del Resguardo Urada Jiguamiando CAMERUJ, 25 September, 2021. 7. JyP: Carta Abierta 32 – A pesar de los pesares, el país si está cambiando, 2 October, 2021. 8. El Espectador: Asesinan a líder indígena en Acandí, Chocó, 17 September, 2021. 9. Infobae: No se detiene el desangre: cae asesinado líder indígena en Chocó, 21 September, 2021.. 10. CIDH otorga medidas cautelares a favor de familias del pueblo indígena Embera Eyábida en Colombia, 3 February, 2022. 11. Embajada de Irlanda en Colombia y Panamá (@IrelandColombia). Tweet. 24 May, 2020. 12. Para saber más de Cacarica: PBI 2000, El retorno a Cacarica, 3 December, 2019.
