PUBLIC PRESS RELEASE

The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) and the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES) express our dismay, indignation and solidarity in the face of the facts that recently violated the organizational process of the collective reparation organization LA COMADRE, formed by Afro-Colombian women victims of the armed conflict who, from various territories of the country, lead processes of enforceability, truth, memory and reparation.

In the framework of the meeting of the Enlistment Phase of the Collective Reparation Route led by the Victims Unit, there was an act of intimidation against one of the leaders of the organization, which generated collective fear, altered the development of the event and affected the emotional and physical integrity of the 60 participants. The spaces designed to advance in the reparation cannot be a source of new affectations, therefore, it is essential that the institutional responses are effective; this reparation process must be a path of care, containment, recognition and real guarantees.

The State must guarantee the real conditions of participation and protection to those who work in defense of human rights, and within the framework of Sentence SU 546 of 2023, in which the Honorable Constitutional Court orders government institutions to rectify the Unconstitutional State of Affairs  and protect the Right to Defend Human Rights.

LA COMADRE is a process of collective construction that represents the collective resistance and dignity of black women; it was born from the shared pain of Afro-Colombian women who survived the armed conflict, but it is sustained by the firm decision not to be silenced. The women who make up this subject of reparation have created a collective path to heal, resist and transform; their work has been oriented to the construction of memory, enforceability of rights, community strengthening, political participation and dialogues in processes of truth and reparation.

Consequently, Race and Equality and CODHES request the competent authorities to immediately adopt measures to guarantee truth, justice, protection and non-repetition in relation to the facts denounced.

By virtue of the above:

• We reject any manifestation of intimidation, harassment or threat that threatens the life, integrity, autonomy and political work of Afro-Colombian women.
• We demand that the Colombian State urgently adopt collective protection measures, with an intersectional ethnic-racial, gender and transformational approach, with responsibility and diligence that recognizes and responds to the specific risk conditions faced by Afro-Colombian women human rights defenders.
• We urge the entities responsible for the implementation of the collective reparation policy to strengthen the channels of dialogue, inter-institutional coordination and preventive actions that avoid the repetition of events of this nature and guarantee real conditions for dignified and safe participation.

To the women of LA COMADRE, we reiterate our absolute support and our recognition for their struggle, resistance and leadership. And to civil society, we call on you to surround, make visible and recognize this organizational process as one of the necessary and powerful expressions of a Colombia that is still indebted to comprehensive reparations and racial and gender justice.