Colombia only partially adopting measures to prevent rights abuses -rights panel

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia is only partially adopting necessary measures to prevent members of its security forces from committing human rights violations, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) said on Thursday.

Last year the CIDH, an autonomous arm of the Organization of American States, made 41 recommendations to Colombia, following a visit to investigate largely peaceful anti-government protests which left more than two dozen people dead.

Since 2019 a series of demonstrations against the unpopular government of President Ivan Duque, who leaves office in August, have led to at least 40 civilian deaths, according to government figures.

Victims’ families, their lawyers and human rights groups say many of the deaths are driven by heavy-handed policing and that prosecutions of those involved are rare and slow.

The defense ministry had no comment on the CIDH report, while the presidential office for human rights did not immediately respond.

The CIDH had urged the government to impartially and thoroughly investigate all alleged abuses by representatives of the state and implement intensive human rights training.

Dozens of investigations into alleged security force abuses, including extrajudicial executions – some committed as far back as 2002 – are under way, the CIDH said in its annual report, citing information provided to it by Colombia.

Colombia also reported that 18,696 officials received human rights training in 2021.

“This recommendation is considered partially completed,” the CIDH said.

The commission had also asked the Andean country to suspend members of the security forces under investigation for abuses from active duty until their cases are cleared up.

Colombia has provided no information about suspensions, the CIDH said, but civil society organizations have reported scant progress into investigations of 2020 protest deaths, even when evidence shows victims were killed by security force munitions.

“The commission considers this recommendation incomplete and calls on the state to diligently investigate all these occurrences, sanction the intellectual and material authors and suspend from active service the security agents investigated,” the report said.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota; Editing by Matthew Lewis)