The U.S. Office on Colombia, an organization with which CPT works in coalition, has recently sent out the below call to action.  The issues of sexual violence and loss of culture are ones that CPT Colombia witnesses in most of the communities it accompanies and writes about.  CPT recently signed onto a coalition letter regarding Resolution 1224 that was sent to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Now, CPT is asking its U.S. constituents to do the same by clicking the link below and telling their representatives to support Resolution 1224.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND ASK HIM/HER TO CO-SPONSOR THIS RESOLUTION

While armed groups have internally displaced around ten percent of Colombia’s population, women, Afro-Colombian, and indigenous communities have been disproportionately affected.  These groups attack and rape women IDPs with impunity and rip Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities from their ancestral land, causing them to lose central aspects of their culture.  The Colombian government rarely takes these impacts are into consideration when it formulates public policies for IDPs.

The Colombian Constitutional Court has worked tirelessly to address this troubling situation, declaring in 2004 a State of Unconstitutional Affairs and ordering the Colombian government to address the needs and rights of displaced populations.  Following this ruling, the Court produced a series of orders that addressed the situation of women, Afro-Colombian and Indigenous IDPs and called on the Colombian government to create public policies that specifically address the different traumas of the most vulnerable sectors of the IDP population.  Sadly, the Colombian government has yet to comply with the vast majority of these recommendations. 

Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia and twenty-two other Representatives are sponsoring Resolution 1224 to mobilize U.S. government support for the work of the Colombian Constitutional Court and to urge the Colombian government to comply with these rulings.  We need the help of U.S. citizens to ensure the success of this very important resolution.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND ASK HIM/HER TO CO-SPONSOR THIS RESOLUTION