Colombia is “firmly and genuinely committed to human rights,” President Juan Manuel Santos told an Inter-American seminar on human rights on Wednesday.
At the Bogota opening of the Seminar on Strengthening the Inter-American Human Rights System, the Colombian president said that much has changed in the context of human rights and that his government aspired to grow in line with these developments.
Human rights is “not a matter for discussion, ambiguities or musings, it is the very heart of our democratic system,” stressed the president.
Santos said that Colombia’s 1991 Constitution is one of the most progressive policies in terms of civil and political liberties and that no exceptions of middle ground was allowed in the human rights framework.
At the seminar, Santos affirmed that Colombia is not afraid to admit past mistakes while adding that his government was a pioneer in designing and implementing the administrative and judicial measures to provid care and compensation for victims.
“We work jointly with all the branches of state to pay a moral debt to Colombia’s most vulnerable, those who have suffered the consequences of violence, and we are fulfilling it with enthusiasm and good will,” said the president of the State.
The forum in Bogota was the first in a series of events on Strengthening of the Inter-American Human Rights System to be held between August 2012 and September 2013. The seminars are part of a study conducted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) with the purpose of reviewing and improving policies and practices for the better protection of human rights in the region.