What we expect from the IACHR Court in 2022 – Column by Rafael Barrios Mendivil

What we expect from the IACHR Court in 2022 – Column by Rafael Barrios Mendivil

Originally published in Confidencial Colombia 

Three cases litigated by the Lawyers’ Collective José Alvear Restrepo, “CAJAR”, before the Inter-American Human Rights System will be considered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in the first half of 2022. These cases deal with the forced disappearance of Pedro Julio Movillla Galarcio, the persecution of CAJAR members, and human rights violations against the U’wa Nation. For reasons of space and given the upcoming public hearings, I will refer to the first two cases.

The forced disappearance of Pedro Julio Movilla, union leader, militant of the Colombian Communist Party – Marxist Leninist, PCC-ML, and Colombian social activist, occurred on May 13th, 1993.  It should be recalled that forced disappearance is a crime against humanity. The public hearing will be held in San José, Costa Rica, on February 15th, 2022, during the 146th regular session.

According to the IACHR Court’s summary of the case, there are multiple circumstantial and contextual elements leading to attribute Movilla’s disappearance to the State of Colombia.  The three relevant contexts of the case are the identification of trade unionists within the notion of “internal enemy” in the State’s intelligence and counter-guerrilla manuals; the political violence in Colombia, which resulted in alarming numbers of executions; and the disappearances of people linked to leftist political parties such as the PCC-ML.

Among the indicative elements is the fact that the Habeas Corpus filed by his relatives to find his whereabouts was rejected, which resulted in a refusal to establish the victim’s detention and fate. Moreover, in the ten days following the report of his disappearance, the actions taken by the State were not sufficient to reveal Movilla’s fate or whereabouts.  Nor were the actions to physically locate the victim carried out in a timely and effective manner, but fifteen years after his disappearance, so that the failure to diligently search for Pedro Julio contributed to the concealment of his detention and fate or whereabouts.

The State failed to explain the nature of Movilla Galarcio’s follow-ups and intelligence notes and their relation to his disappearance, contributing to the uncertainty and concealment of what happened. To date, his whereabouts are unknown.

The paradigmatic case of CAJAR deals with the acts of violence, intimidation, harassment, threats, and surveillance against its members from 1990 to the present, in regards to the activities we carry out in defense of human rights. We hope that the IACHR Court will set a public hearing in this case for the 147th regular period of sessions from March 21 to April 8th, 2022.

The identity of all those responsible for the systematic persecution of CAJAR has not been established; therefore, it remains unclear whether or not they were state agents. But it is known that the State carried out actions that actively contributed to the materialization of the acts of violence, such as arbitrary intelligence work and stigmatizing pronouncements by high-ranking officials. The intelligence activities of the Administrative Department of Security, DAS, through a special strategic intelligence group, included monitoring the work activities of CAJAR members; intercepting our landline and cell phone calls and e-mails, and creating files on each member with their personal data.

In carrying out the monitoring and surveillance activities of CAJAR members, Colombia did not comply with the legality requirement. They were carried out without any type of judicial control. The State did not justify or invoke any legitimate purpose pursued by such intelligence work, nor did it present elements that would allow an analysis of the suitability, necessity, and proportionality of such measures in light of a possible legitimate purpose. For these reasons, the intelligence work of the DAS to the detriment of the members of CAJAR was illegal and arbitrary.

Additionally, the physical protection measures adopted by the State in our favor, when evaluated within a context of lack of clarification and total impunity of the facts denounced, of arbitrary intelligence and follow-up work, as well as stigmatizing pronouncements by high-ranking officials, are manifestly insufficient to prove that the State complied with its duty to protect.

The actions and omissions on the part of the State affected the regular activities of the organization and had a chilling effect on the members of CAJAR in their freedom of expression and association and in their work in defense of human rights. Nor was a serious and exhaustive investigation carried out to ascertain the truth about the facts and identify those responsible, in order to unravel the sources of risk.

After the public hearings, the parties must present their final briefs within one month, and then the cases will be submitted to the IACHR Court to issue their sentences. In both cases, we hope that the ruling will be in favor of Movilla Galarcio, CAJAR, and their families, due to the strength of the evidence that militates against the Colombian State and so that truth, justice, comprehensive reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition for the victims will shine.

Rafael Barrios Mendivil
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