WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

 

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre - IDMC

http://www.idpvoices.org/80257297004E5CC5/(httpPages)/05EBB49A68E7297DC12572F700308D23?OpenDocument

 

COLOMBIA - RIGHTS & VOICES OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED WOMEN

 



Women represent between 49 and 58% of the total displaced population in
Colombia;

Women informed the (UN) Representative during his mission to
Colombia that reasons for their displacement include: assassination of their spouses; protection of themselves or their children from sexual or gender-based violence; protection of their children from forced recruitment by armed groups. There were also cases of young girls having to leave their communities because of forced sexual relations with members of the armed forces or armed groups.(1)

Displaced women and girls are often in especially vulnerable situation and should be granted adequate protection and treatment according to Guiding Principles 4, 18 and 23.



Guiding principle 4

These Principles shall be applied without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, legal or social status, age, disability, property, birth, or on any other similar criteria.

Life here is very difficult. For example, I feel here as if my wings had been clipped. I can’t take flight, because I feel less ... it’s not that I’m incapable of doing things, but that I feel very insecure. I used to be a very open person. I participated in meetings. I was a person that was invited, that spoke, shouted, laughed. I’m not the same anymore. Why? The feelings, the courage: all that has receded, it’s disappeared. I can’t express how it’s disappeared in me. It’s as if my courage had gone to sleep or had been taken away from me.
Blanca


More Women Testimonies:

Life story of Lilia
Life story of Leydi
Life story of Mileinis
Life story of Ana Dilia
Life story of Sofía
Life story of Blanca


(1) Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Walter Kälin, Addendum: Mission to Colombia, A/HRC/4/38/Add.3, 24 paragraph 15.