The deadly violence against Colombia’s community leaders and rights leaders dropped slightly in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2023.
According to the database of Indepaz, which monitors armed conflict in Colombia, 86 community leaders and human rights defenders were assassinated between January and June.
The NGO registered 96 assassinations in the same period last year.
Assassination of social leaders per year
Like in previous years, many of the assassinations took place in Cauca, where illegal armed groups have been vying for control over territories abandoned by guerrilla group FARC in 2017.
Assassination of social leaders in 2024
In its later report to the Security Council, the United Nations’ mission to Colombia stressed in April that “violence targeting social leaders remained a significant concern.”
The UN officials additionally highlighted the failures to adequately investigate this violence, and the assassinations in particular.
While Indepaz registered more than 1,600 assassinations of social leaders since the beginning of the peace process in 2016, the UN mission said that the Prosecutor General’s Office successfully prosecuted no more than 75 assassins.
In the same report, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called “upon the Government to ensure the prompt implementation of the security guarantees measures of the Final Agreement and to strengthen the integrated presence of the State across the national territory. ”
“This is essential in its current efforts aimed at enlarging the scope of peace,” said Guterres.
National government officials, diplomats and social leaders met earlier this week in an attempt to improve the security conditions for human rights defenders and people who assume leadership positions in war-torn regions.