Colombian vice president, speaking ahead of review of country's rights record at U.N., also said protecting human rights was part of Colombia's quest for peace.
By Anastasia Moloney
BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Bridging Colombia's wide gap between rich and poor, ending impunity and tackling overcrowding in prisons are key challenges the country faces in improving its human rights record, the Colombian vice-president said.
Angelino Garzon, speaking before a review of Colombia's rights record at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council next week, also said protecting human rights was part of Colombia's quest for peace.
"We've made a commitment to improve our human rights situation," Garzon told an audience of journalists, diplomats, officials and rights campaigners in Bogota on Tuesday.
"I’m not going to Geneva, though, to say Colombia is a paradise. We have some very big challenges in terms of human rights. Firstly, how to combat social inequality and poverty is the biggest challenge we have," he said.
"It’s an embarrassment that we are one of the most unequal countries in the region. We are not a poor country. The other big challenge it that impunity reigns in Colombia and impunity is about the lack of prompt justice."
Known as the Universal Periodic Review, the U.N.-led process is a peer assessment of the human rights record of all its 193 member states.
When Colombia had its last review in 2008, it accepted dozens of recommendations including the need to provide greater protection to human rights defenders, tackle sexual violence against women, implement initiatives to prevent armed groups from recruiting children and prosecute those who have carried out human rights abuses.
Nearly five decades of conflict between government troops, drug-running rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and right-wing paramilitaries initially created to fight leftist rebels but later heavily involved in the cocaine trade - has seen all sides commit human rights abuses.
PEACE TALKS
The use of child soldiers, forced displacement, extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and violence against women have been long-standing features of Colombia’s conflict, rights groups say, with indigenous and black communities bearing the brunt of violence.
In 2012, at least 40 human rights defenders and community leaders and 20 trade union members were killed in Colombia, according to rights group Amnesty International.
"Some Colombians would say they feel an improvement in the country’s human rights situation. Others living in areas where the armed conflict is going on would say they don’t feel any improvement and that there’s no change to their daily lives," said Todd Howland, the head of the U.N. human rights office in Colombia.
Garzon said much more needs to be done to stem overcrowding in prisons and speed up the justice system so that tens of thousands of inmates are not languishing indefinitely in jails, waiting for their trial date and or to be released.
"There’re all types of human rights violation going on in prisons. It’s shameful," he said.
Garzon also talked about ongoing peace talks between the government and FARC rebels in the Cuban capital, Havana.
Colombians hope a peace deal would result in a significant drop in rights violations and the number of child soldiers.
"Human rights are part of our quest for peace. I don’t believe there’s anyone in Colombia who wants the peace talks to fail," Garzon said.
(Editing by Katie Nguyen)
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