colombian students at risk

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This report was written by the participants of a Norwegian-Danish student delegation to Colombia in

November 2009. See the appendix for more information.

The report was printed by the Union of Education Norway in April 2010. The pictures were taken by

the delegation.


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Table of contents

1. The human rights situation in Colombia ..............................................................................................4

1.1 An overview ..................................................................................................................................4

1.2 Students .........................................................................................................................................6

1.3 Academics ..................................................................................................................................... 7

1.4 Human rights organisations .......................................................................................................8

2. Call for International Solidarity ............................................................................................................. 8

3. Appendix ...................................................................................................................................................9

3.1 The delegation ..............................................................................................................................9

3.2 The organisations ......................................................................................................................... 9

SAIH .........................................................................................................................................9

The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU) ........................................................10

The Norwegian Association of Students (StL) .................................................................10

Education Students in the Union of Education Norway (PS) ........................................10

School Student Union of Norway (EO) ............................................................................. 11

Colombian Students Watch ................................................................................................. 11

ACEU...................................................................................................................................... 11


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1. The human rights situationin Colombia1.1 An overview

Colombias human rights situation is extremely dramatic. The civil war has been going on for

over 40 years and the country is on the 2nd place in the world after Sudan as far as the number of

internally displaced persons (IDPs)1 is concerned. Colombia has more IDPs than Iraq and the DR

of Congo altogether.2

The military conict has escalated since 2002 when President lvaro Uribe Vlez took ofce. That

year, 400,000 new IDPs were reported in addition to 30,000 politically motivated assassinations, the

highest numbers ever registered.3

1 Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are people forced to ee their homes but who, unlike refugees,remain within their countrys borders.

2 Norwegian Refugee Council3 Ibid.

From a wall at a Colombian university. Governments policy called democratic security is criticizedhere as harmful to the civilian population.


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The present government nonetheless doesnt admit the existence of the military conict, in order

to avoid recognizing the guerrillas as a part in the conict. These are referred to by the authorities

as terrorist groups. In this way the government justies its use of force and can legitimately

reject negotiations. Right wing paramilitary groups are important actors in the conict too. The

government claims to have dismantled them, and the so called demobilization process ofcially

ended in 2006; however human rights groups have extensively documented that the process hasgranted impunity to most paramilitaries4 and that many have regrouped under new paramilitary

groups or become soldiers. The death threats signed by paramilitary groups continue to stream

in at present. The report Paramilitaries Heirs: The New Face of Violence in Colombia released

by Human Rights Watch in February 2010, documents widespread and serious abuses by the

regrouped paramilitaries: massacres, killings, forced displacement, rape, and extortion.5 The report

states that human rights defenders are often the target of these groups.

The so called parapolitica affair that started in 2006 has also demonstrated close links between

many politicians from the collation that supports the President lvaro Uribe Vlez and paramilitarygroups, leading to investigation of 62 members of congress. Until 2008, 33 of these were awaiting

trail while in jail, including Mario Uribe Escobar, President Uribes cousin and former President

of Congress. Those proven links and the impunity granted to many paramilitaries prompted the

International Federation of Human Rights, a coalition of 155 NGOs from all over the world, to ask

the International Criminal Court to investigate those guilty of crimes against humanity committed

in Colombia since 2002.

A delegation of seven British Labour Party members of parliament and 10 union leaders from the

United States, Canada and Britain said they were in a state of shock over what they heard duringtheir fact nding mission in Colombia in April 2009. We have no doubts, given the evidence

received, that the Colombian government of lvaro Uribe and the security forces are accomplices

in human rights abuses, their statement says.6

The human rights nding mission from the Asturias government (Spain) concluded in February

2010 in a press statement that Colombia is going through one of the worst humanitarian crisis of

its history. 7

The student delegation behind this report has published a press statement where it denouncedthe tragic human rights situation Colombia and stated that Colombian students and union leaders

who are ghting for their cause are experiencing threats, killings and disappearances. 8 According

to International Labour Organization (ILO), Colombia is the most dangerous country for organized

workers in the world. Out of every ten union leaders assassinated on a global scale, nine are Colombian.

4 92% of the 30,000 demobilized paramilitaries have beneted from a de facto amnesty declared bydecree. IFHR. Paramilitary Demobilization in Colombia

5 www.hrw.org/node/880606 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46467 Presentacin pblica de las primeras conclusiones de la VI Delegacin Asturiana de vericacin de

la situacin de los DDHH en Colombia8 http://saih.no/Artikler/7769.html


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1.2 Students

All the students we talked to during our stay in Colombia, mostly students representing Asociacin

Colombiana de Estudiantes Universitarios (ACEU) and the second largest national student union

Federacin de Estudiantes Universitarios (FEU), had received threats through pamphlets, emails,

phone calls or personally. Many of them were displaced, including the present leader of ACEU. One

of the students we met had been awaiting trial for terrorism after participating in a demonstration

at the university campus. The delegation also witnessed violent repression against a peaceful

demonstration of students. Moreover, we were presented materials that documented links between

university authorities and paramilitary groups.

During the short 10-day stay in Colombia, ACEU received two pamphlets signed by a paramilitary

group called Black Eagles with death threats against 15 students mentioned with name and

surname. Another student received an oral threat personally during the same period. Yet another

reported being followed in public places.

In a report for the period 2002 to 2006, ACEU documented nearly 600 assaults on students, including

14 murders. Among the murdered in this period were the very founders of the organization.

According to the numbers quoted in the UNESCOs report Education under attack publishedin February 20109, human rights violations against students have increased dramatically over the

9 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001868/186809e.pdf

A death thread pamphlet signed by the paramilitary group Black Eagles received while the delegationwas in Colombia.


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last three years. The report says that ve students were killed in the rst half of 2009 alone. It also

reports that the former president of ACEU, Diego Marin, was granted political asylum in Norway

after a series of death threats against him. Also, the former president of FEU is in political asylum in

Sweden. At the same time, the current presidents of both organizations continue to receive threats.

1.3 Academics

The representatives of ASPU, Asociacin Sindical de Profesores Universitarios, the only national

trade union for university professors in Colombia, stated that the human rights situation at

the universities is dramatic because the authorities try to eliminate every critical voice amongthe professors. They underlined that the fact that between 70 and 80% of the professors at the

Colombian universities have temporary contracts makes them more afraid of losing their job, and

ASPUs campaign for academic freedom with faces of professors who got disappeared, imprisoned or killed.


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thus it silences their criticism. ASPU quoted cases of university teachers who got red or prevented

from teaching through disciplinary processes, and others who were put on trial because of supposed

links to the guerrillas, imprisoned, disappeared or murdered. During our stay in Colombia,

ASPU was preparing a campaign focusing on the academic freedom of speech. They made posters

with faces of professors who disappeared or got killed because of their courage to be critical.

According to UNESCOs report Education under attack, the number of violations in the teaching

sector in Colombia increased from 193 in 2006 to 260 in 2007. These include assassinations,

kidnappings, forced disappearances, illegal detentions, torture and threats. Police gures indicate

that 90 teachers were assassinated between 2006 and 2008.

1.4 Human rights organisations

The representatives of human rights organizations told us they often received threats. We were told

too that it became more difcult lately to receive a so called humanitarian visa for foreign human

rights defenders to come to Colombia.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya,

stated after her visit to Colombia in 2009 that she was in particular deeply concerned about

the widespread phenomenon of threats from unknown authors against human rights defenders

and their families and about the impunity of crimes against them. Moreover she reminded that

human rights defenders have been repeatedly accused by high levels government ofcials of being

or colluding with terrorists or guerrillas. Sekaggys nal report dedicated the whole addendum

3 to the situation in Colombia. Sekaggy stresses that harassment and persecution against human

rights defenders continues in Colombia.

2. Call for International SolidarityFor as long as we can remember, Colombia has been a country with severe internal conicts

and countless human rights violations. It is now, more so than ever, time for students, the

civil society and decision makers all over the world to acknowledge that Colombians will con-

tinue to suffer without our joint solidarity and attention. As described in this report, the

human rights situation is not improving, and there is no more time nor lives to spare before we

join hands and resources for the sake of all the current and future generations of Colombians.

Today, the student movement, mainly representing the next adult generation in Colombia, are sys-

tematically silenced and oppressed. They are given no room to be the agents of change who are

badly needed in the Colombian society today. Also their teachers and professors, some of them who

have given most of their lives to the ght for justice and democracy, still face an insurmountable

wall of challenges in their work and personal struggle. It is time to stop observing and start acting.

The international community of the human rights defenders need to join forces and refuse to accept

the atrocities that are being done and accepted by the Colombian government.


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3. Appendix3.1 The delegation

As a component in the development program of the Students and Academics International

Fund (SAIH), Academic freedom and academic rights for students and academics in the South,

a delegation of student representatives was put together to visit Colombia in November 2009.

SAIH established a contact with the Colombian student organisation ACEU approximately

ten years ago. In 2003 Colombia and ACEU was one of two cases in SAIHs campaign, Student

struggle a resource or a threat. ACEU won the Student Peace Prize in Norway in 2005, and are

still actively involved in the cooperation between the former peace prize winners. In 2007 ACEU

applied to SAIH for funds to document and create a report about the wide spread human rights

abuses directed at students. This report was completed in 2008; its summary was translated to

English and distributed in Norway and other European countries.

The student delegation to Colombia consisted of representatives from the National Union of Students

in Norway (NSU), the Education Students in Norway (PS), the Norwegian Association of Students

(StL), School Student Union of Norway (EO), the Students and Academics International Assistance

Fund (SAIH), SAIHs local chapter in Trondheim, and Colombian Students Watch from Denmark.

The delegation had as its specic objectives to meet with many high proled human rights

activists and organizations, grassroots organizations, teachers trade unions, student

organizations and ordinary students; to visit universities in Bogot, Bucaramanga, Pamplona

and Ccuta; to discuss and plan further cooperation between the European and Colombianorganizations; and to collect data to be used in information work when back home in Norway.

3.2 The organisations

SAIH

SAIH is the solidarity organisation of students and academics in Norway. SAIH focuses on

education in development cooperation, as well as North/South information and political advocacy

in Norway. SAIH supports local organisations and institutions working with higher education,research and capacity building in southern Africa and Latin-America.

SAIHs motto Education for Liberation relates to theories of pedagogy of liberation, in which

participation creates an increased political consciousness as well as increased possibilities for each

participant to nd solutions to their own problems. Education must be seen in a social context where

education is aimed at creating a more just society. As a solidarity organization, SAIH aims to address

challenges faced by people in the South, as well as structures and actions in the North which create and

reproduce an unjust world. Development aid alone cannot create a just world. Wealthy countries in the

North have to change policies that have a negative impact on the development of countries in the South.

www.saih.no


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The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU)

The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU) is the student union for approximately 93 000 students

attending Norwegian universities, academies of art and scientic colleges. NSU has been working for

student rights since 1936. The main priorities of NSU in 2010 are improving student funding, student

housing, improving quality of education and working for international cooperation and solidarity.

Higher education as a public good and public responsibility is a fundamental principle for NSU.

1st July 2010 NSU and The Norwegian Association of Students will merge to one organisation,

aiming at representing all students in Norway under the name of NUS-Norway (in Norwegian:

NSO, Norsk Studentorganisasjon).

www.nsu.no

The Norwegian Association of Students (StL)StL is the largest student organization in Norway, and represents 100 000 students at 30 different

higher education institutions. StL is a non-governmental organization, and sustains as well as

promotes students nancial, academic, cultural, social and democratic interests.

StL inuences and tries to improve the student nancial support system, focuses on improving

teaching and evaluation methods, raises attention to the importance of internationalization within

higher education, and works on improving the student housing and child care situation.

StLs politics and activities are based on four fundamental principles: education is the governments

main responsibility, education must be of high quality, there must be equal rights when accessingand participating in higher education and student participation in all decision making bodies

concerning higher education is a fundamental right.

www.stlweb.no

Education Students in the Union of Education Norway (PS)

The Education Students (ES, in Norwegian: Pedagogstudentene, PS) in the Union of Education

Norway (Utdanningsforbundet) is a politically independent trade union working to promote theinterests of education student and ensure that its members legal rights are secured. ES represents

11 500 students in Norway.

The members of ES include everyone who is studying to become a teacher or a pedagogue working

within the educational system. As an organization, the Education Students has a clear opinion

about the education of the students it represents and what it takes to improve this education. High

quality within the educations is important. Therefore, the Education Students tries to be a visible

political participant, not only when it comes to the education of its members, but also in discussions

involving the future professions of its members.

www.pedagogstudentene.no


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School Student Union of Norway (EO)

The School Student Union of Norway (SSUN, in Norwegian: Elevorganisasjonen, EO) was founded

in 1999. SSUN is an organization working for and with students, and consisting of them, with

about 350 member schools. It is the only organization in Norway representing secondary school

and lower secondary school.

The School Student Union of Norway has local boards in all the Norwegian counties. They are

affecting the local educational systems, and cooperate with the student councils at each member

school. On a national level the Central Board, consisting of 16 people, is working with national

policies and the SSUN as an organization. SSUN is not connected to any political party or religion.

The School Student Union of Norway is an important part of the educational debate in Norway, and

works close up against the government and other educational organizations, among school student

organizations internationally.

www.elev.no

Colombian Students Watch

Colombian Students Watch is a network of Danish students and student organizations which

deals with the students situation in Colombia. The idea of the network is that students at each

end of the world can exchange ideas and information, as well as experiences from the work for

free, democratic and high quality education. The Danish students can offer assistance in terms of

international attention to the Colombian students situation.

www.colombianstudentswatch.eu

ACEU

Asociacin Colombiana de Estudiantes Universitarios (Colombian Association for University

Students), established in 1998, is the biggest Colombian student organization. ACEU ghts for

student rights and human rights in a country where such work is dangerous. Violence, narcotics and

decades of civil war, have contributed to making Columbia a very challenging country. Members

of the non-violent ACEU have been arrested, tortured and killed, all because they raise their voicesand bring attention to existing problems und injustices in society.

ACEU works for an autonomous, democratic and free public higher education, and they ght for

their right to organize in a union. ACEU also work to nd a political solution to the conict and

peace and justice for the Colombian civil society.

www.aceucolombia.org


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