1. Almost five million displaced persons in Colombia
require protection of their rights
In 2009, more than 280.000 persons were displaced in Colombia, the country suffering the greatest
forced displacement crisis in the world, with an approximate total of 4.9 million internally displaced.1
Additionally, it is estimated that 350.000 persons have fled seeking protection in neighboring countries
such as Venezuela, Panamá, Costa Rica and Ecuador. 2
Forced displacement in Colombia is the consequence of serious and systematic violations of human
rights and breaches of humanitarian law committed by the parties in the internal armed conflict (State
security forces, paramilitary groups, and guerrilla groups), such as forced recruitment, and the
involvement of boys and girls in the hostilities, the use of antipersonnel mines, the taking of hostages,
as well as various forms of involving the civilian population in the hostilities.
The State security forces are responsible for displacement by carrying out military operations in
inhabited places, which generates fear among the civilian population at imminent or occurring combat.
Other actions by the State security forces that generate displacement are restrictions in the movement
of the civilian population and the circulation of foodstuffs and fuel; and programs for the eradication of
illicit crops involving aerial fumigation accompanied by air and land military operations.
In the face of the worsening forced displacement, the Constitutional Court declared in 2004 the existence
of an unconstitutional state of affairs regarding the situation of the displaced population.3 Nevertheless, displaced
people continue to suffer grave violations of their rights. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on
the situation of human rights defenders observed that “(t)he leaders and activists who work in favor of displaced
persons and peasants who defend their lands have also been subjected to persecution.”4
The Colombian Commission of Jurists has learned about 118 cases of displaced persons who became
victims of violations of the right to life between January 1 2007 and September 30 2009. 5 At least eight
of the victims are persons who were demanding the return of the land.6
The Colombian government has acknowledged that between 2007 and the first semester of 2010, 1,499
homicides7 of displaced persons were documented, as well as 354 cases of forced disappearance. 8
1 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Internal Displacement Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2009, May 2010, page 13.
2 UNHCR estimates that 135,000 Colombians are living in Ecuador. See: www.acnur.org/t3/operaciones/situacion-colombia/la-situacion-en-
los-paises-vecinos/.
3 Constitutional Court, Sentence T-025 of 2004, Bogotá, January 22, 2004, main exponent: Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa.
4 United Nations, Human Rights Council, Thirteenth session, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human Rights defenders,
Margaret Sekaggya. Addendum Mission to Colombia (7–18 September 2009), A/HRC/13/22/Add.3, 1 March 2010, par. 27.
5 Colombian Commission of Jurists, Informe de seguimiento a la situación del derecho a la vida de las víctimas del desplazamiento forzado en Colombia, March
25, 2010. Available at http: //www.coljuristas.org
6 According to the Listado de víctimas de violaciones al derecho a la vida en contra de personas en situación de desplazamiento - 1° de enero de 2007 a 30 de
septiembre de 2009- drafted by the Colombian Commission of Jurists, in cases where the alleged generic perpetrator is known (52 victims),
90,38% of the cases were attributed to State responsibility: either for direct action by State agents, 21,15% (11 victims), or for tolerance or
support of the violations committed by paramilitary groups, 69,23% (36 victims). 9,62% of the cases (5 victims) were attributed to
perpetration by the guerrilla groups.
7 Sistema Nacional de Atención Integral a la Población Desplazada - SNAIPD -, Informe del Gobierno Nacional a la Corte constitucional sobre la
superación del estado de cosas inconstitucional declarado mediante la sentencia T-025 de 2004, Bogotá, July 1 2010, p. 131.
8 Ibídem, p. 137
Calle 72 # 12 – 65 piso 7 | www.coljuristas.org | info@coljuristas.org | teléfono: (+571) 376 8200 | fax: (+571) 376 8230 | Bogotá, Colombia

2. One of the main risk factors for the life of the displaced population in Colombia is the extremely high
level of impunity in cases of human rights violations which, in the case of the crime of forced
displacement, reaches 99,98% of the cases investigated.9
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed its
concern because the security conditions are not given for their return and because displaced people in
Colombia have no access to their land. 10 In fact, forced displacement has been the tool by which the
paramilitary structures have dispossessed Afro-Colombian and peasant families, as well as indigenous
communities, of more than six million hectares of land. 11
The incoming government in Colombia must design and implement a program for the restitution of
the property of the victims of displacement, in accordance with the recommendations of UNHCR12
and of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the human rights of internally displaced
persons13 with regard to State obligations to protect the lands of displaced persons and to return them
to their rightful owners. In September 2010 the government presented Congress with a bill for the
restitution of lands seized illegally.14 However, this legal initiative does not satisfy the human right
standards established in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement15 and Guiding Principle 29 (2)
on the restitution of the homes and properties of refugees and displaced persons.16
For the above reasons, it is very important that the work of UNHCR in Colombia be strengthened,17 in
particular with regard to actions on the ground involving displaced populations and support to the
Constitutional Court.
October 4, 2010
9According to the Attorney General´s Office, up to September 2009 there were 2,649 active cases related to the crime of forced displacement
in the framework of Law 600 of 2000, of which 96,68% (2.561 cases) the presumed perpetrator(s) had not even been identified, since they are
at the phase of preliminary investigation, and 3,32% (88 cases) in initial examination. In the framework of Law 906 of 2004, there were 5,536
active cases of which in 99,87% of the cases (5,529) the perpetrator had not yet been individualized and were in the initial examination phase;
0,02% (1 case) is under preliminary investigation, 0,09% (5 cases) were in the trial phase, and 0,02% (1 case) ended abruptly.
10 Colombia, segundo en desplazados, El Tiempo daily newspaper, June 17, 2008, p. 1 to 6.
11 A government study estimates that in ten years the victims of forced displacement had abandoned 6.8 million hectares of land. See Red de
Solidaridad Social and World Bank, Protection of patrimonial assets of internally displaced populations in Colombia, February 22, 2005.
12 UNHCR/ACNUR, Balance de la política pública para la atención integral al desplazamiento forzado en Colombia, enero 2004 - abril 2007, Bogotá,
August 2007.
13 Human Rights Council, 4th period of sessions, Report Presented by the Secretary General´s Representative on the human rights of the
internally displaced, Mr. Walter Kälin. Addition Mission in Colombia, A/HRC/4/38/Add. 3, January 24, 2007.
14 Legislative Bill 157, 2007, Senate – 044, 2008, Chamber “Por la cual se dictan medidas de protección a las víctimas de violaciones de la legislación penal, de
normas internacionales de derechos humanos y del derecho internacional humanitario en el marco del conflicto colombiano” [“by which protective measures are ordered for
the victims of violations of criminal legislation, of norms of international human rights and international humanitarian law in the framework of the Colombian armed
conflict.”]
15 United Nations Human Rights Commission, 54th period of sessions, Report presented by the Secretary General’s Represetative, Mr. Francis M. Deng,
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, E/CN.4/1998/53/Add. 2*, February 11 1998, E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2*, February 1, 1998.
16 United Nations Human Rights Commission, 57th period of sessions, Definitive Report by the Special Rapporteur, Sr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro –
Principles on the restitution of housing and property of refugees and displaced persons, E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/17, June 28, 2005.
17 The Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1999 with the Colombian government establishes that the UNHCR’s realm of action
consists in providing the State and NGOs technical cooperation with regard to forced displacement. The three strategic lines to contribute to
the prevention of forced displacement; to promote the protection and assistance to displaced persons; and to promote lasting solucions, are: a)
Consolidation of the legal and public policy framework and strengthen institucional capacity; b) Strengthening of the capacities of the
communities of displaced persons; and c) Reinforcement of the State’s mechanisms for supervision and compliance.