The Minister of Defense, Diego Molano Aponte, presented the Human Rights and Military Forces report 2021. It is the first document of this type in the history of the Defense Sector through which the actions and results related to guarantee and respect Human Rights are visible.
At the University of Rosario, Minister Molano said that this report was made possible thanks to the implementation of the Observatory of Human Rights and National Defense that in the same way was presented today through which progress is made in the promotion and protection of human rights in the Defense sector.
This report addresses the Resources and achievements of the Military Forces, as well as progress in human rights training, and administrative measures to maintain discipline and respect for human rights and International Humanitarian Law.
“Today there is not a single soldier or policeman who has not received rigorous instruction on what should be the commitment to respect Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law,” said the Minister.
He said that during 2021, in the framework of the Annual Training Plan, more than 95,570 members of the Military Forces were trained and another 433,340 received instruction.
The Minister was clear in stating that there is zero tolerance for the violation of rights, and that individual actions cannot be generalized.
Given this, he said that, the denunciations of excessive use of Force, in the context of social protests in 2021, made the Police to initiate 231 disciplinary inquiries; of which, 193 were closed and 38 are ongoing. Of those closed, 23 were requested and transferred to the Office of the Inspector General of the Nation.
He in the same way said that 9 disciplinary sanctions have been reported, and the Inspector's Office initiated 188 proceedings: 184 preliminary inquiries and 4 disciplinary investigations.
In the same way, as stated by the head of the ministry of Defence, taking into account the commitment to work for and respect Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, [the institution] has assisted 226 early warnings issued by the office of the Ombudsman - 29 in 2021 – in 323 municipalities, in the frame of Decree 2124/17.
The minister highlighted the work of the Military Forces in places where in many opportunities, the State had not arrived and recalled the operational results through which it has neutralized the threat of several men included in the Symbols of Evil, ringleaders of armed groups and also the arrest of people as alias Otoniel.
“I have witnessed how the Military and Police are the main human rights defenders in Colombia. Their work in each territory of the country is a guarantee of respect for the rights of communities.”
This report, which consists of 10 chapters in 60 paragraphs, identifies three areas of institutional assistance in human rights and International Humanitarian Law during the last year, such as: the COVID-19 pandemic, organized crime and its illegal income and social protest activities.
This study was led by the Vice-Ministry for Defence and Security Policies, with the Directorate for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law of the Ministry of Defence, and with the participation of the Human Rights offices of the Military Forces and the National Police.
The Defense Sector interacts permanently with humanitarian agencies and human rights in Colombia, receiving information from cases and technical assistance to define policy guidelines in matters of education, prevention and protection of Human Rights.
Source: Defence Sector Communications Office – Ministry of National Defence
