Global Ministries advocates for the renewal of the U.N. Verification Process regarding Colombia’s Peace Accords

Global Ministries advocates for the renewal of the U.N. Verification Process regarding Colombia’s Peace Accords

Global Ministries’ Co-Executives, the Reverend Doctor Julia Brown Karimu and the Reverend Doctor Karen Georgia Thompson, signed a petition to the United Nations Security Council to renew the verification process as stated in the 2016 Peace Accords.

The Accords put an end to the conflict for more than 50 years between the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian Government. Brown Karimu and Thompson were signatories along with more than 250 national and international organizations seeking oversight of the peace process in Colombia. The petition occurred in a context where a report sponsored by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia (UNHCHRC) revealed 33 massacres in the country, 97 murders of human rights defenders, and 41 murders of people in the process of reincorporation all through the first half of 2020. In the same period, the UNHCHRC reported a 10% increase in murders against defenders in the territories, compared to the same period in the year 2019. According to the Mission, that situation represents 215 former combatants killed since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016.

The report points out that these violent events represent significant humanitarian impacts and are also taking place in territories where there is a presence of illegal armed groups. According to U.N. representatives, these organizations “generate violence, illegal economies, poverty, and signaled a reduced presence of the State.” This is a situation that, for the UNHCHRC, requires immediate action. It is necessary to advance and deepen the comprehensive implementation of the Peace Agreement, “especially its chapter 34 on security guarantees.” That chapter offers mechanisms and instruments for prevention, protection, and security.” At the same time, UNHCHRC indicated that it is essential and urgent that the National Commission for Security Guarantees advance in the design and implementation of public policy for dismantling criminal organizations. That effort should be worked “as part of the efforts to consolidate the deployment and comprehensive action of the State, especially in the most vulnerable and specific areas due to the conflict.”

To learn more:

Petition signed by Global Ministries and other international and Colombian organizations

News on the UNHCHRC findings