The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) ordered the Presidential Council for Stabilisation and the National Protection Unit (UNP) to resolve 101 requests for protection that have not yet been dealt with before 31 December 2021.
The SJP issued new orders to the Presidential Council for Stabilisation and the National Protection Unit as 296 signatories of the Final Peace Agreement have been killed, there have been 67 attempted murders, 21 forced disappearances and other types of events such as forced displacement, death threats and serious stigmatisation.
The decision was announced by the Section of Absence of Recognition on 18 November after the end of the public hearing to monitor the precautionary measures for the protection of ex-combatants of the former FARC-EP.
Upon hearing the reports presented by the Consejería, the UNP and the representatives of the Comunes party, the Section announced that within 60 days the Consejería Presidencial para la Estabilización must present a report that evidences the coordination of necessary actions with the Mesa Técnica de Seguridad y Protección, and the authorities with direct responsibility, so that they can adjust and approve the protection plan with a gender, ethnic and territorial approach.
At the beginning of the hearing, Judge Reinere Jaramillo said that “the priority must be the protection and security of ex-combatants, communities affected by the conflict, social leaders and human rights defenders”, citing the words of UN Secretary General António Guterres on the call for full compliance with the Final Peace Agreement.
Likewise, the magistrate Gustavo Salazar made a call to the entities: “The situation is very serious, to that extent in no way can we speak here of an improvement in the situation. More than 46 homicides in 2021 is a very serious situation. The state is not complying (with the ex-combatants)”, he affirmed and told the director of the UNP, Alfonso Martínez, that when talking about human lives, the data on the percentage of petrol and the per diems used by the Comunes party are “irrelevant”.
At the end of the interventions of the entities and the representative of the Comunes party, Magistrate María del Pilar Valencia told the Council for Stabilisation and the UNP: “I do not see a strategic proposal for sustainability, this is a state commitment, not a government commitment, I want clarity on this strategy”.
For his part, Judge Raúl Eduardo Sánchez asked the Comunes party and the Council for Stabilisation how often the Commission for the Promotion and Verification of Implementation (CSIVI) meets and what the scope of these meetings is. It also requested clarity from the UNP as to what is needed to resolve the 101 requests for protection that have not been resolved. The Section therefore ordered the Unit to resolve these requests for protection by 31 December.
In addition, the Section ordered the UNP to submit a compliance report on the protection plan within 60 working days and to guarantee the allocation of the budget for the Specialised Sub-Directorate for Security and Protection.
“As long as it guarantees the sustainability of the individual and collective protection measures that are approved and the administrative staffing required to comply with the decongestion plan and the increasing number of requests,” explained the magistrate’s office.
The Section also summoned the UNP and the Council for Stabilisation to a reserved hearing to review, one by one, the different situations of the ex-combatants killed in the framework of the protection route.
At the end of the proceedings, carried out by the full Section for the Absence of Recognition, Judge Alejandro Ramelli, president of this section, called for the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement.
“I insist on expressing our deep concern about the attacks that almost 300 signatories of the Peace Agreement have already suffered. This is an unacceptable situation whose dynamic seems to have no end, which seriously affects the consolidation of peace in Colombia,” said Judge Ramelli.
