COLOMBIA: BOGOTÁ, Jan 23 (IPS) - "The actors in the Colombian armed conflict, in
particular the paramilitary groups and the guerrilla, employ physical, sexual
and psychological violence against women as a strategy of war," stated the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Women Suffer Abuse Behind the Front Lines
Helda Martínez
Some 50
civil society organisations presented updated statistics and more detailed
testimonies to add to the Rapporteurship's information, during a visit to
Colombia by the IACHR's Víctor Abramovich, from Jan. 16 to 20.
The
report, "Violence and Discrimination against Women in the Armed Conflict in
Colombia", says that "violence against women is used as an instrument to
intimidate and spread terror to communities, thereby provoking the displacement
of hundreds of families."
"Acts of violence against women include
homicides, acts of torture and markings against women who sustain affective
relationships with combatants and to obtain information. Both men and women are
the victims of crimes perpetrated by all the actors in the armed conflict, but
in the case of women, acts of physical and psychological violence are joined by
aggressions and crimes of a sexual nature," the document says.
According
to statistics from the non-governmental Colombian Commission of Jurists, "during
the January 2002 to June 2006 period, one woman a day, on average, died in
Colombia" as a result of the political violence.
"Too many violations
are being perpetrated against girls, teenagers, and adult women in Colombia
under the shadow of the conflict, and yet there is very little awareness of this
in society, or in the media, which could help to raise awareness on this issue,"
Claudia Mejía, the head of Sisma Mujer, told IPS.
The IACHR report
addresses the problem of the recruitment of girls and young women by irregular
armed forces, such as the ultra-rightwing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia
(AUC) and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
"Girls are raped by members of the armed groups, subjected to forced
abortions and forced to use intrauterine devices. Paramilitary leaders 'order
the search' of girls between the ages of 12 and 14 to live with them, provide
sexual services and perform domestic duties," the report says.
"Everyday
violence against women soars in wartime," Mejía emphasised. But while crime
rates go up, the phenomenon continues to be ignored.
In the report, the
Rapporteur states that women victims are not taken seriously, or may even be
mistreated, by the judicial branch when they come forward to make complaints,
which promotes impunity and perpetuates crime.
This statement is in
agreement with a 2004 report from the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR).
The UNHCHR document says that
"the majority of violations of the rights of women and girls remain unpunished,
due to a lack of official investigations, the low number of complaints because
of shame, lack of credibility of the justice system, and underreporting in cases
of death or sexual violence."
There is an "absence of training
programmes for court officials on gender issues, and there are sexist practices
in the justice system, especially in penal matters," the UNHCHR report adds.
The IACHR Rapporteur's report, in addition to calling for improved
treatment and protection for women, acknowledges that officials recognise the
existing challenges, and that the Colombian state has advanced in the adoption
of a legislative and public policy framework designed to protect women's rights
over the last decade.
One of the government efforts mentioned was the
concern to gather reliable statistics on crimes against women through the work
of the National Institute of Legal Medicine, the Department of National
Statistics and the Presidential Advisory Office on Gender Equality (CPEM), among
others.
But there is still much to be done, according to the
recommendations of the IACHR Rapporteur, the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
and even the CPEM, which oversees government policies on women's issues. In its
2003 report "Women - Builders of Peace and Development," the CPEM acknowledged
that women as a group suffered from high levels of inequality.
Marta
Lucía Vásquez, the head of the CPEM, told IPS that "the advances in protection
that have been achieved should be recognised," for example gains through
"government policies such as 'Democratic Security' and the reactivation of
President Álvaro Uribe's social policies."
She also pointed out that
deaths of men and women occur in the ratio of three to one, and that there are
other Latin American countries with higher rates of violence against women than
Colombia's.
Even so, according to official statistics, women account for
half of those displaced from their homes because of the civil war, and four out
of ten displaced families are headed by women.
The IACHR report on
Violence and Discrimination Against Women said that "on (women's) shoulders
falls the reorganisation, care and daily hygiene tasks of the family and even
the community. Men feel unable to solve these problems and unable to do the work
they ordinarily do in their fields. This situation sometimes leads to family
conflicts."
"When resettlement is in shelters, women's privacy is
affected. Their health needs regarding menstruation and family planning are not
taken into account," according to the report "Chocó: Territory of Wealth and
Survival", given to Rapporteur Susana Villarán by women's groups during her June
2006 visit to Quibdó, the capital of the western province of Chocó on the
Pacific coast.
While the official figures for the number of displaced
persons in Colombia are already high, the non-governmental Consultancy on Human
Rights and Displacement (CODHES) affirms that the displaced population is more
than twice the figure published by the state.
CODHES estimates that from
1985 to December 2004, about 3.5 million people, 51 percent of whom are women,
have been displaced from their homes because of the armed conflict.
"I
am a black woman displaced from Chocó 10 years ago. I lost my brother, who
disappeared when the paramilitary forces took him away, just because he took
part in a peasant march. They forced us to leave our lands, they also took my
husband away and three months passed without us knowing whether he was dead or
alive. With the help of the priest in my town I arrived at Barranquilla (on the
Caribbean coast) with my six children. It was very challenging to support
them...," according to a testimony included in the Rapporteur's report.
IACHR Commissioner and Rapporteur Susana Villarán visited Colombia in
June 2005 and interviewed government authorities, victims and their families,
civil society organisations, including indigenous and Afro-Colombian
associations, and women's rights groups, in Bogotá, in Quibdó, where most of the
population is black, and in Valledupar, capital of the northern province of
Cesar.
The Rapporteur talked to indigenous people living in the Sierra
Nevada de Santa María, and after considering all the testimonies she concluded
that within the context of a high degree of violence against women in the
country, black and indigenous women suffered even worse treatment because of
their additional vulnerability as members of ethnic minorities living in areas
of outstanding natural wealth.
Persecution by irregular armed groups is
also directed specifically at women leaders of non-governmental organisations
working to defend women's rights.
"Unionised women were victims of 15
femicides (gender-related murders), 102 death threats, 10 arbitrary detentions,
15 cases of harassment and persecution for union activism, two attempted
murders, seven forced displacements and one kidnapping" in 2005, according to
the National Union School (ENS). The agencies involved in defending women's
rights plan to continue their efforts. "What we need is mass publicity for this
situation, which affects women, and through them their families, and therefore
the country," Mejía
concluded.