March-April 1996:
Campaign for a Special Rapporteur

Congress of the United States
Washington, DC 20515

February 12, 1996

Warren M. Christopher
U.S. Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

Dear Mr. Secretary:

As members of the United States Congress, we are deeply committed to promoting human rights and democracy around the world. We are writing today to express our appreciation for the steps the Colombian government, under President Ernesto Samper Pizano, has taken to address the long- standing problem of human rights violations in Colombia. But despite all these measures by the recently elected government, the human rights situation in Colombia continues to be of serious concern. Since 1988, an average of ten people per day have been victims of human rights abuse in Colombia, one of the worst human rights records in our hemisphere.

The international community has long been concerned about the human rights situation in Colombia. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Special Rapporteurs on Internally Displaced People, Extrajudical Executions and Torture visited Colombia in October of 1994, offering critiques and urging the implementation of recommendations to change the situation. One of these recommendations called for the naming of a Special Rapporteur for Colombia. The Inter-American Commission of the OAS has passed resolutions on 12 specific cases declaring the Colombian state responsible for human rights violations. The European Union expressed its concern over the gravity of the human rights situation and called on the government of Colombia to apply the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial Executions and Torture in their joint January 1995 report.

In August of 1994 the newly inaugurated President of Colombia, Ernesto Samper Pizano, publicly recognized the gravity of the human rights situation in Colombia and announced a series of measures to combat it. This signified a positive new step in the Colombian government's attitude towards human rights. However, virtually now progress has been made in confronting the serious problem of impunity for state agents implicated in human rights violations, or in reducing the number of human rights violations. According the the State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994, "The overall human rights situation in Colombia remained critical, with a variety of violent actors - including the police and security forces - continuing to commit abuses such as political and extrajudicial killings, disappearance, torture, and other physical mistreatment."

The Colombian government recognizes the persistent human rights crisis and has expressed a will to change though it has at times vacillated and faces many difficult obstacles to reform. The United Nations Commission can help the Colombian government overcome these obstacles to reform and can contribute to end the human rights violations and impunity.

We therefore urge you to include Colombia on the agenda under item 12 "Questions of Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Any Part of the World" during the upcoming meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva. We request the naming of a Special Rapporteur for Colombia who would closely monitor the human rights situation. The naming of a Special Rapporteur should not be regarded as a sanction of the Colombian government but rather as a measure designed to recommend, supervise and support initiatives to overcome the present limitations to positive reform in Colombia.

Sincerely,

Jim McDermott (D-WA)
Tom Lantos (D-CA)
John Edward Porter (R-IL)
Doug Bereuter (R-NE)
George Brown (D-CA)
Peter DeFazio (D-OR)
Ronald Dellums (D-CA)
Lloyd Dogget (D-TX)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Sam Farr (D-CA)
Victor Frazer (I-VI)
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
Steve Horn (R-CA)
Joseph Kennedy (D-MA)
Gerald Klexzka (D-WI)
Scott Klug (R-WI)
Jim Leach (R-IA)
William Lipinski (D-IL)
Marty Meehan (D-MA)
Carrie Meek (D-FL)
David Minge (D-MN)
Joe Moakley (D-MA)
Constance Morella (R-MD)
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
James Oberstar (D-MN)
John Olver (D-MA)
Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Esteban Torres (D-CA)
Robert Torricelli (D-NJ)

cc. John Shattuck, Assistant Secretary for Human Rights, U.S. State Department
Madeleine Albright, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. Representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights

United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

February 9, 1996

The Honorable Warren Christopher
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

Dear Mr. Secretary:

We are writing to express our deep concern over the abysmal state of human rights in Colombia, and to urge the U.S. to support the naming of a Special Rapporteur for Human Rights for Colombia in the upcoming meeting in Geneva of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

The Department of State and all the major human rights organizations agree that the situation in Colombia is critical. While statistics fail to convey the horror of individual cases of abuse and torture, it is particularly disturbing to note, for example, that by the Colombian government's own figures fourteen children per day are murdered on the streets of Colombian cities. Reputable human rights observers have suggested that many of these children, having entered a juvenile justice system on paper designed to protect and reform are, once identified as "undesirables," victims of an informal "social cleansing" policy tolerated by the government.

These murders are apart from the reported ten per day politically- motivated killings, which are an offshoot of Colombia's internecine warfare. It is not surprising, then, that Colombia's murder rate of 77.5 per 100,000 (by comparison, the U.S. rate is 8 per 100,000) is among the highest in the world.

We recognize that Colombia's difficulties are not purely the result of government policy or intent. Many of the abuses spring from a litany of other social problems: weak government institutions, a military unable to establish itself as the sole legitimate purveyor of force, the influence of narco-trafficking on state and culture, a history of violence, and the class inequities common to Latin America. We also do not underestimate the role of guerrilla groups working to undermine government stability.

But -- and despite the Samper government's oft-stated commitment to curbing human rights abuses -- we continue to receive reports of atrocities perpetrated by the military or by paramilitary groups with ties to the Colombian armed forces. Furthermore, we are troubled by the apparent impunity for these acts, and are concerned that it reflects complicity by the government.

For example, the reputable Andean Commission of Jurists has documented that 75% of abuses in 1995 were conducted by the paramilitaries, the armed forces or state security organs. Moreover, in those cases where a state perpetrator has been identified, they calculated that a punishment follows only in 3% of the cases.

The international community has responded in recent years. In October 1994, the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) dispatched its Special Rapporteurs on Internally Displaced People, Extrajudicial Executions and Torture to Colombia. They found the Colombian government cooperative and offered a number of critiques and recommendations to improve the situation, including the naming of a Special Rapporteur for Colombia for Human Rights. The OAS' Inter-American Commission has pending twenty resolutions on specific cases of human rights abuses in Colombia. The European Union has also expressed its concern over the grave human rights situation in Colombia, and urged the Samper government to adopt the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial Executions and Torture.

These steps seem to have had an effect on the Colombian government. For example, the Samper administration has created human rights units in security forces and named a commission to investigate the 1990 massacre of 107 people in the town of Trujillo.

We believe that a more permanent international "spotlight" on Colombia -- namely a Special Rapporteur for Human Rights -- would encourage further improvement. Such a step does not have to be considered a sanction, but rather can be a measure designed to recommend, supervise and support initiatives for positive reform. The fact that the Colombian government invited the "thematic" Special Rapporteurs to visit Colombia in 1994 suggests it may be amenable to this next step.

On a bilateral basis, we believe there are measures the United States could take as well. Specifically, we would urge the US Agency for International Development to review its funding of the special "regional courts" in Colombia. While we support efforts to improve the judicial system in Colombia, the regional courts have clearly moved away from their original purpose, and now appear to be used by the government to target union leaders, students and others opposed to government policies or who have, ironically, raised complaints over human rights abuses. We are sure you will agree that using the courts to stifle dissent and abuse due process of law is not a policy we should encourage, and that ensuring governmental respect for the rule of law is the first step in restoring respect for human rights.

We know, Mr. Secretary, that you share our concern and are committed to democracy and human rights in Colombia, and strongly encourage you to support the naming of a Special Rapporteur for Human Rights to that troubled land.

We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Russell D. Feingold
Paul Simon
Tom Harkin

cc. The Honorable John Shattuck
The Honorable Geraldine Ferraro