Forced disappearances remain a persistent practise in Colombia, the United Nations Human Right’s Council concluded in a debate Tuesday, reported Radio Caracol.
The Council discussed a report published by the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, which found that of 284 identified disappearances, “impunity was found in almost all cases.”
The Colombian delegation assured the council that the country is committed to “continue working to define what happened in each of them.”
The Working Group questioned the validity of this statement and found it “alarming that many cases of enforced disappearance continue being heard by military courts.”
The Working Group called on the Colombian government “to absolutely exclude all felony violations of human rights, including disappearances, from military jurisdiction.”
The report was submitted to the 47 countries which make up the United Nations Human Right’s Council, of which Colombia is not a member.
Over the course of Colombia’s almost 50-year old conflict, tens of thousands of Colombians have gone missing. Last month, Medellin’s Ombudsman said that since 2009, more than 2,300 people had disappeared in his city alone.
