In a series of groundbreaking rulings in early 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Colombia set new precedents that significantly enhance protections for human rights defenders across Latin America.
Camila Zuluaga is an international advocacy lawyer at the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ). She spoke to ISHR about her history of activism and hope for Colombia, which is about working to make a safer country for human rights defenders.
On 22 and 23 March 2023, the Human Rights Council held a general debate on human rights situations requiring the Council’s attention. States and NGOs spoke, and the High Commissioner spoke on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They drew the Council’s attention to a number of country situations of concern. ISHR delivered a statement, highlighting the human rights situation in four countries: Burkina Faso, Colombia, El Salvador, and Saudi Arabia.
UN committee releases findings on socio-economic rights in China, calling for a clear regulatory framework for companies operating overseas. Prior to China's review, ISHR and the CICDHA coalition submitted a report looking at the human rights impact of 14 Chinese projects in 9 Latin American countries.
This report submitted to the UN explores 14 business ventures in Latin America in which companies and banks under China's jurisdiction have not complied with international human rights, labour and environmental standards.
ISHR and partners called for government-wide reforms in a third-party intervention in a case where the country’s highest court will analyse the general situation of human rights defenders in Colombia.
ISHR, along with multiple other NGOs, released a joint statement condemning the criminalisation of women human rights defender Milena Quiroz and calling for her right to a fair trial and her right to defend human rights to be guaranteed.
On 16 March 2022, ILEX Accion Juridica and ISHR made a joint statement during the Human Rights Council 49th session, calling upon the Colombian government to to guarantee the Afro-Colombian population’s right to be statistically visible in official information sources.
More than 300 NGOs have called on the Human Rights Council to demand that Colombia respect the right to peaceful protest; investigate violations committed against protestors and defenders in recent weeks and respond to protestors’ demands to deal with poverty, systemic racism, inequalities and impunity in the country.
In two third party interventions, in relation to a case filed by a group of Colombian human rights defenders alleging violations of their constitutional rights, ISHR sought to strengthen legal protections for human rights defenders across the country.
