Colombian Human Rights Defender Speaks on the Situation in Colombia

7 p.m. Friday, June 25th
Free and Open to the Public
Predolin Hall, Edgewood College
Sponsored by The Colombia Support Network, The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, The Immigrant Workers’ Union, Pax Christi and The Progressive Magazine

NANCY FIALLO ARAQUE has been working to defend human rights for the last 20 years.  As a Colombian woman with a degree in Political Sciences, with an emphasis on International Humanitarian Law, she has worked with different prestigious Colombian human rights organizations such as CINEP, Colombian Commission of Jurists, Reiniciar, and the Permanent Assembly of Civil Society for Peace.  In recent years Nancy has focused on peace issues and on lobbying national and international agencies and embassies to support a Humanitarian Agreement and a negotiated solution to the armed conflict. Nancy has denounced human rights violations against the civilian population and has taken action to help women who have been raped by the violent illegal armies.

Nancy has recently published a book, The Peace Inheritance, based on her latest research.  This book is a collection of interviews and testimonies of victims in the peace process, and contains 100 stories. As a result of her work, Nancy has endured threats and harassment, and was made an internally displaced person in 1996. In 2008 Nancy was forced into exile in Spain for one year and was protected by Amnesty International. Nancy is currently protected by the precautionary measures of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, and her family is living in exile in Canada.

At 7 p.m. on Friday, June 25, Nancy will talk about the Campaign to Defend Human Rights in Colombia and about a Continental Meeting Against the Militarization in Colombia.  The event will be held in Predolin Hall at Edgewood College, and will be free and open to the public