In April 2012 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) published its 2011 Human Rights Report. It continued to recognise Colombia as one of the countries of concern and the Colombia section details the major human rights challenges that the country faces, as well as the work carried out by the FCO on human rights in the Colombia. ABColombia members and partner groups have appreciated the extensive work that the UK Embassy in Colombia has done on human rights over the last year.
COCOMOPOCA is made up of 43 Afro-Colombian communities who after a 12 year struggle were finally presented with land title to 73,000 hectares on 17 September 2011. They achieved this with the support of ABColombia members Christian Aid, CAFOD and SCIAF and their partners Pastoral Social and the Diocese of Quibdó. In 1999 Cocomopoca presented their formal application for the collective land title to their ancestral territory, an extension of 172.000 hectares.
Colombia once again experiences a humanitarian disaster with torrential rains causing nearly 1m hectares (3,860 sq miles) of farmland to be flooded. Colombia has experienced abnormal rains over the last two years leading to some of the worst flooding in its history. According to meteorologists last year’s rainy season was seven times heavier than the average. These floods have destroyed farmland and flooded houses, leaving millions homeless. According to the Economist 4 million people have been affected by flooding in the past two years, across 23 of Colombia’s 32 departments.
Colombia está envuelta en un conflicto armado interno en cuyo corazón se encuentra la disputa sobre la tierra. Forman
parte de este conflicto, que ha durado más de 40 años, grupos guerrilleros de izquierda, grupos paramilitares de derecha,
que han sido los responsables de la mayoría de las violaciones a los derechos humanos y de infracciones al derecho
internacional humanitario (DIH), y las fuerzas armadas nacionales. El desplazamiento forzado masivo es quizás uno de los
ejemplos más evidentes de la profundidad de la crisis humanitaria existente en Colombia; 5,2 millones de desplazados
Colombia is involved in an internal armed conflict, at the heart of which is a dispute over land. This conflict, has lasted
for more than forty years, it involves left-wing guerrilla organisations, right-wing paramilitary groups, which have
been responsible for the greatest number of human rights abuses and infractions of international humanitarian law
(IHL), and the national armed forces. Mass forced displacement is perhaps one of the most obvious illustrations of
the depth of the humanitarian crisis that exists in Colombia with 5.2 million persons internally displaced since 1985,
