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A balancing act. Drug policy in Colombia after UNGASS 2016
Isabel Pereira-Arana; Luis Felipe Cruz-Olivera
This document is the result of a project developed by Dejusticia in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Law of Colombia and the British Embassy in Colombia, with funds from the United Kingdom through its embassy in Colombia. During 2016, two historic events were held to reflect about drug strategies in Colombia: the United Nations Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS 2016) and the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Government and the FARC-EP, which includes the agreement on the “Solution to the problem of illicit drugs”. In light of the commitments made by the Colombian State, there are challenges and possibilities for drug policy reform, particularly when hoping to achieve a better balance between a criminalization perspective and the recognition and guarantee of rights to populations affected by prohibition’s harmful effects. This balancing exercise calls for incorporating the lens of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its Objectives, as well as for integrating the sectors of defense, rural and agrarian development, protection and sustainable use of environmental resources, health and education, together with the efforts of peacebuilding in the territories most affected by war and drug trafficking. To achieve the goals proposed in these documents, the role of the international community in the coming years will be fundamental. The United Kingdom Embassy, concerned to broaden its horizons of cooperation, offers to share lessons learned and experiences hoping to improve institutional capacities to meet the challenges of organized crime, rural development, and the prevention and treatment of drug use. Thus, this document presents recommendations for cooperation between these two governments in the light of agreed obligations as well as opportunities to harmonize drug policy and peacebuilding.
A hostile environment for peace mobilization: stigmatization and violence-justifying attitudes toward land rights advocates in Colombia
Isabel Güiza-Gómez; Abby Córdova
Despite signing a peace accord in 2016, Colombia remains one of the most dangerous countries for social mobilization for peace, democracy, and equality. Between 2016 and 2023, 1,804 social leaders and 351 ex-combatants were assassinated. However, there has been no strong or sustained public outcry in response to this violence. This policy brief presents findings from a research project examining public attitudes toward lethal violence against social leaders and ex-combatants, with a focus on stigmatization against these actors and violence-justifying beliefs and attitudes. Drawing on data from an online survey conducted in late 2023—which is representative of the urban population with internet access—the study shows that violence-justifying attitudes toward both unarmed civilians—who did not engage in insurgent action—and former guerrilla combatants depends largely on their demands. Although public opinion tends to be more favorable toward social leaders than ex-combatants, citizen perceptions of both groups become more negative when these actors advocate for structural reforms, particularly land redistribution. This is because social mobilization for land redistribution is often associated with wartime grievances and thus perceived as a threat to the existing social order. These findings show that redistributive peace commitments are seen as potentially destabilizing, which in turn reinforces stigma against actors who advocate for redistribution. The study draws policy and practice recommendations to counteract such stigmatization, prevent violence, and support the implementation of the peace accord.
A Human Rights Approach to Benefit-Sharing from the Use of Digital Sequence Information
Alex Reep
This policy brief outlines a human rights-based approach to the design and implementation of the multilateral mechanism and Cali Fund for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources. Drawing on research conducted in Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and farming territories in Colombia, it highlights the urgent need for a fair and inclusive benefit-sharing system that recognizes the rights and contributions of Indigenous people and local communities (IP&LCs). This brief outlines critical recommendations for decision-making and advocacy in the wake of the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in an effort to ensure fair compensation and reciprocity for IP&LCs while addressing structural inequalities.
Accountability of Google and other businesses in Colombia: The protection of personal data in the digital age
Vivian Newman-Pont; María Paula Ángel Arango
In this document we analyze the privacy policies of 30 companies with data-driven business models that collect data in Colombia and identify practices that have not been sufficiently contemplated by the personal data protection regime currently applicable in our country. But what has been done in Colombia to guarantee these rights in the digital economy framework? In this document, we explore the degree of preparedness of our legal personal data protection regime and data protection authorities for tackling the risks that the digital era poses to different values and rights, thereby holding accountable the companies with data-driven business models (DDBM). From the review of their privacy policies, we analyze the modus operandi of an illustrative sample of 30 DDBM, among which are included—for their economic, technological, and social power—the so-called GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft). After this analysis, we identify several practices that have not been sufficiently contemplated by the personal data protection regime currently applicable in Colombia, and whose regulation, in comparison with the European GDPR and the CCPA of California, has significant room for improvement. Likewise, we identify several shortcomings in the capacities of the Colombian data protection authorities in holding the DDBM accountable and therefore, propose some corrective measures. Descripción tomada y adaptada de: https://www.dejusticia.org/publication/accountability-of-google-and-other-data-driven-business-models-data-protection-in-the-digital-age/
Addicted to Punishment: The Disporportionality of Drug Laws in Latin America
Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes; Diana Esther Guzmán Rodríguez; Jorge Alberto Parra Norato
This document analyzes the proportionality of drug related crimes in seven Latin American countries through the study of the evolution of their criminal legislations from 1950 until 2012. The study suggests the existence of a regional tendency to maximize the use of criminal law for combating this type of conducts. This is reflected in: i) the gradual increase in the number of drug-related conducts described as criminal, ii) the exponential growth of the penalties with which those conducts are punished and iii) the incomprehensible tendency of punishing with more severity the drug-related crimes rather than those more evidently severe such as homicide, rape and aggravated robbery. Those upward trends indicate that the Latin American States have become addicted to punishment because of their frequent and empirically groundless increasing of the punitive dose, regardless of its constantly decreasing benefits. Addicted to punishment is part of a series of studies carried out by the Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law (CEDD) that critically analyze the application of the proportionality principle in relation with drug crimes. The studies find that the punishments imposed and the punitive treatment of the offenders is disproportional, often generating more damages than benefits.
Addressing Inequality from a Human Rights Perspective: Social and Economic Justice in the Global South
César Rodríguez Garavito (Coord.)
This book points to an emerging set of ideas and practices being developed by activists, scholars, and courts from a range of countries that reveals the potential of human rights to resolve other radical injustices and to build more robust civil society movements against inequality and deregulation. Numerous countries around the globe are witnessing a similar experience in their modern political contexts: democratic tools and human rights instruments—which have facilitated undeniable improvements in the lives of millions—are proving largely insufficient for preventing extreme forms of exclusion. In other words, while human rights have played a fundamental role in highlighting inequalities based on factors such as gender and ethnic and racial identity, they have coexisted alongside persistent socioeconomic injustices and the rise of authoritarian populist governments that are jeopardizing human rights institutions and principles worldwide. Against this panorama, some are arguing that the human rights movement is incapable of warding off social injustice, while others are calling for a separation of the human rights and social movements. This book offers a third way: it points to an emerging set of ideas and practices being developed by activists, scholars, and courts from a range of countries that reveals the potential of human rights to resolve other radical injustices and to build more robust civil society movements against inequality and deregulation. Descripción tomada de: https://www.dejusticia.org/publication/adressing-inequality-from-a-human-rights-perspective/
After the Drug Wars: Report of the LSE Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy
John Collins (Ed.)
El fin de la guerra contra las drogas ha llegado. La Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas de abril de 2016 será el comienzo de una nueva era. Este libro presenta abundante evidencia del fracaso de las políticas prohibicionistas. En su reemplazo plantea la necesidad de que las políticas de drogas sean pensadas desde un enfoque de desarrollo humano. El grupo de expertos en economía de la política de drogas del London School of Economics –conformado por académicos e investigadores de distintas partes del mundo– aporta propuestas basadas en la evidencia disponible para reemplazar las políticas de drogas existentes por otras más inteligentes y eficaces, basadas en un enfoque de salud pública y derechos humanos. Rodrigo Uprimny y Sergio Chaparro, investigadores de Dejusticia, y Catalina Pérez Correa, investigadora del CIDE en México, contribuyeron con un capítulo sobre cómo ponerle fin a la criminalización del uso de drogas en América Latina. Cinco premios Nobel respaldaron este informe en el que solicitan a los Estados del mundo adoptar un cambio de paradigma en la Sesión Extraordinaria de la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas que se realizará en abril de este año -UNGASS 2016-.
Alternative sentencing for female heads of household Law 2292 of 2023: A path toward gender justice in drug policy in Colombia
Mujeres Libres; International Centre for Human Rights and Drug Policy at the University of Essex; Center of Study on Law, Justice and Society - Dejusticia.
Law 2292 of 2023 introduces an innovative sentencing alternative in Colombia for female heads of household, particularly those involved in drug-related crimes due to socioeconomic vulnerability. Instead of incarceration, eligible women can serve their sentences through unpaid community service. This approach recognizes caregiving roles and aligns with international human rights and drug policy guidelines. It addresses structural inequalities, aiming to prevent incarceration and facilitate reintegration. However, the law’s implementation faces several challenges: limited outreach, inconsistent eligibility criteria, and a lack of employment transition policies. Only a small fraction of eligible women have benefited so far. The document calls for reforms such as expunging criminal records, involving trial judges early in sentencing, and enabling active participation of women with lived experience in monitoring the law. This model aspires to shift from punitive to restorative justice, offering a blueprint for other nations grappling with the incarceration crisis among women.
Amphibious Research: Action Research in a Multimedia World
César Rodríguez Garavito
This book explores the advantages and challenges of this type of work. Closely interacting with diverse audiences tends to give the action researcher greater empirical accuracy and relevance, and also serves as a source of motivation. Nevertheless, it can also lead to the risk of dispersion, lack of analytical distance, and burnout. To help researchers capitalize on these advantages and overcome the difficulties, this book proposes a new technique—“amphibious research.” This technique, which is based on methodological approaches and hybrid styles of writing, allows action researchers to gather contributions from different fields and to circulate their results in multimedia formats.
Are reparations impossible to pay? Colombia’s reparation policy for survivors of sexual violence and victims of the armed conflict
Diana Esther Guzmán Rodríguez; Paula Valencia Cortés; Randy Villalba Arango; Paola Molano Ayala
The right to reparation for victims of human rights violations is one of the cornerstones of transitional justice and is a widely recognized principle in both the literature and human rights standards. Despite its importance, administrative reparation programs are often seen as costly and ineffective policies. Nevertheless, the literature on reparations has overlooked the question of the financial feasibility of these programs. In an effort to address this question, this text contributes to the analysis of the financing of administrative reparation programs, particularly regarding reparations for sexual violence, based on the Colombian experience. We examine how the financial feasibility of the reparations policy created in 2011 was determined, how the budget allocated to reparations has behaved between 2012 and 2022, and the role of reparations for acts of sexual violence within this framework. This study allows us to identify important methodological, conceptual, and political elements in order to establish what has worked well and what has been problematic in this process. Based on this, we discuss factors that should be taken into account in different contexts to ensure sustainable programs that fulfill the rights of victims of human rights violations, especially survivors of sexual violence.
Beyond the Binary: Securing Peace and Promoting Justice after Conflict
Nelson Camilo Sánchez León; Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes; Howard Varney; Michael Schwarz; Tatiana Rincón-Covelli; Claudio Nash Rojas; Tara Van Ho; Oscar Parra Vera
The main objective of Beyond the Binary is to place on record the need to formulate answers to the question of the role that criminal action and punishment should play in negotiated political transitions from war to peace. Discussions on the meaning and scope of concepts such as justice, accountability, and victim satisfaction continue to be fervent topics in specialized circles of what is now known as “the transitional justice field,” and in societies suffering from mass violence. Instead of solving the practical and theoretical dilemmas of these interpretative disputes, the experience and knowledge accumulated over the more than three decades that this field has been in existence have served only to deepen the debates and to adapt more of these discussions to new and constantly-changing scenarios and contexts. The main objective of Beyond the Binary is to place on record the need to formulate answers to the question of the role that criminal action and punishment should play in negotiated political transitions from war to peace. There are two reasons for our making this observation. On one hand, given the institutional, legal, and political challenges facing societies that nowadays attempt to take this step, there is a need for the issue to be analyzed. On the other hand, the conclusion reached from an initial analysis is that the academic and practical discussion seems to be trapped into a polarizing discussion between those who defend a legal interpretation of the duty to investigate, prosecute, and punish, which appears to threaten the possibility of achieving negotiated transitions, and those who, in order to prevent that risk, deny or resent the existence or consolidation of such a principle. The central purpose of this book is to initiate a conversation on how to resolve difficult dilemmas. We appreciate that some of the proposals may come across as controversial, but what we are looking for is, precisely, to open up the possibility of thinking in innovative ways about how to confront these challenges. Una discusión similar se da en el libro Justicia para la paz: Crímenes atroces, derecho a la justicia y paz negociada, en español.
Briefing Paper. Justice Is Setting Them Free: Women, Drugs Policies, And Incarceration In Latin America
Coletta Youngers
The purpose of this report is to reflect on almost ten years of collective research and joint advocacy by the working group, its achievements and disappointments, as well as challenges and opportunities for the future. The first effort was the publication and dissemination of “Women, Drug Policy and Incarceration: A Guide for Policy Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean,” which provides a roadmap for reducing the incarceration of women. The working group later published additional research and reports, proposing sound and clear policy recommendations that were valuable inputs for advocacy. In nearly ten years of collective action, the working group has succeeded in placing this issue on the agenda of relevant UN and OAS bodies and in countries across the region, creating a propitious environment for carrying out reforms.
Civil Resistance Against 21st Century Authoritarianism. Defending Human Rights in the Global South
Rajanya Bose; Sebastián Becker Castellaro; Kerem Çiftçioğlu; Ektaa Deochand; Natalia Mendoza Servín; Ezequiel Monsalve Fernández; Jennifer Peralta; Slavenska Zec
Populist authoritarian governments have jeopardized the human rights accomplishments of the 20th century. Ensuring their fulfillment has become a challenge for these governments and an issue for human rights defenders seeking to find ways to resist anti-democratic actions. This book seeks to expose the crisis of human rights at the hands of people who, despite rising to power through democratic means, now see democracy as a limiting institution that must be dismantled urgently. Restrictions on civil society and arbitrary detentions are some of the reasons why this populist and authoritarian vision is incompatible with human rights, which are guaranteed to some and denied to others. Through various narratives, the authors seek to recognize new spaces for struggle—such as political activism—to develop action-research tools in a context of crisis.
Communications Surveillance in Colombia: The Chasm between Technological Capacity and the Legal Framework
Carlos Cortés Castillo; Celeste Kauffman (Trad.)
This book aims to examinate the colombian legal and jurisprudential framework related to the communication surveillance of today’s technologies. Phrased in the form of hypothesis, the purpose is to demonstrate how intelligence-related laws and jurisprudence fail to ensure that potentially affected rights remain intact.
Decision T-543 of 2017 Executive Summary
Diana Guarnizo Peralta
The Constitutional Court held that the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce censored the organization Educar Consumidores, and it cautioned the Superintendency that henceforth it could not exercise prior control over informational contents. The Court also decided that consumers have the right to receive information about the risks that sugary drinks pose to our health.
Effective Criminal Defence in Latin America
Alberto M. Binder; Ed Cape; Zaza Namoradze; Lucas Gilardone; Sebastián Narvaja; Alfredo Pérez Galimberti; Francisco Gabriel Marull; Isadora Fingermann; Rafael Custódio; Vivian Calderoni; Carolina Bernal Uribe; Miguel Emilio La Rota Uprimny; Juan Pablo Muñoz Elías; Mario Ernesto Archila Ortiz; Ana Aguilar García; Miguel Sarre Iguíniz; Liliana Bances Farro; Nataly Ponce Chauca
This document contains the results of a research project, Effective Criminal Defence in Latin America, which was conducted over a two and a half year period commencing in the summer of 2012. It discusses the main issues concerning criminal defence rights for each jurisdiction in the study; (ii) in light of these findings, recommendations designed to improve access to effective criminal defence in practice for each jurisdiction; and (iii) recommendations for the development of international standards on effective criminal defence for the Latin American region.
Executive Summary Effective Criminal Defence in Latin America
Alberto M. Binder; Ed Cape; Zaza Namoradze ; Lucas Gilardone; Sebastián Narvaja; Alfredo Pérez Galimberti; Francisco Gabriel Marull; Isadora Fingermann; Maíra Zapater; Rafael Custódio; Ludmila Vasconcelos Leite Groch; Vivian Calderoni; Carolina Bernal Uribe; Miguel Emilio La Rota Uprimny; Juan Pablo Muñoz Elías; Luis Rodolfo Ramírez García; Mario Ernesto Archila Ortiz; Mario Ávalos Quispal; Ana Aguilar García; Gregorio González Nava; Miguel Sarre Iguíniz; Liliana Bances Farro; Nataly Ponce Chauca; Marion Isobel
This executive summary provides an overview of the results of a research project, Effective Criminal Defence in Latin America, which was conducted over a two and a half year period commencing in the summer of 2012. It provides: (i) a summary of the main issues concerning criminal defence rights for each jurisdiction in the study; (ii) in light of these findings, recommendations designed to improve access to effective criminal defence in practice for each jurisdiction; and (iii) recommendations for the development of international standards on effective criminal defence for the Latin American region.
Executive Summary Fiscal Policy in the Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis in Colombia
Alejandro Rodríguez Llach; Luis Felipe Cruz-Olivera; Isabel Pereira-Arana
The debate about regulating cannabis for adult use is on the public agenda. In our view, the best policy on marijuana that a State can develop is the regulation of its cultivation, manufacture and use, focused on reducing marijuana’s comparative impact in illegal economies and drug trafficking networks; protecting public health; promoting rural development in prioritized areas; and promoting reparation measures financed with the resources arising from regulation. Drugs are not the devil, but nor are they child’s play. A drug policy that would be respectful of human rights and safeguard public health must lie at an intermediate point between full liberalization and the prohibition currently in place. In this document, based on a comparative analysis of the regulations issued in Uruguay, Canada and the United States and by applying the Principles and Guidelines for Human Rights in Fiscal Policy, we argue for the importance of a fiscal framework based on collecting taxes in the cannabis market and focused on mobilizing the maximum amount of available resources to finance the goals of reducing the illegal market, preserving public health and assisting the populations affected by drug policy, as set forth in the cannabis regulations.
Fighting the tide: Human Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global South
César Rodríguez Garavito (Dir.)
This text forms part of a long-term project undertaken by Dejusticia as part of its international work. The project revolves around the Global Action-Research Workshop for Young Human Rights Advocates that Dejusticia organizes each year to foster connections among and train a new generation of action researchers. The workshop helps participants develop action-research tools, understood as the combination of rigorous research and practical experience in social justice causes. For ten days, Dejusticia brings approximately fifteen participants and ten expert instructors to Colombia for a series of practical and interactive sessions on research, narrative writing, multimedia communication, and strategic reflection on the future of human rights. The aim is to strengthen participants’ capacity to produce hybrid-style texts that are at once rigorous and appealing to wide audiences. Participants are selected on the basis of an article proposal, which is then discussed during the workshop and subsequently developed with the help of an expert mentor (one of the instructors) over ten months until a publishable version is achieved, such as the chapters that make up this volume. The workshop also offers participants the opportunity to take advantage of new technologies and translate the results of their research and activism into diverse formats—from blogs, videos, and multimedia to social network communications and academic articles. Therefore, in addition to the annual volume comprising participants’ texts and instructors’ reflections, the workshop produces a blog in Spanish and English that features weekly entries by workshop alumni, written in the style described above. The title of the blog—Amphibious Accounts: Human Rights Stories from the Global South—owes itself to the fact that action research is “amphibious” in that its practitioners move seamlessly between different environments and worlds, from academic and political circles to local communities to media outlets to state entities. For those who are dedicated to the promotion of human rights, this often implies navigating these worlds in the global North and South alike. Each year, the workshop is centered on a particular current issue. In 2014, the topic was the intersections between human rights and environmental justice that I outlined at the beginning of this introduction. In addition to providing coherence to the book and the group of participants, the selected topic determines the workshop site in Colombia—for the sessions are held not in a classroom or convention center but in the middle of the field, in the very communities and places that are witnessing the issue firsthand.
Fiscal Policy in the Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis in Colombia
Alejandro Rodríguez Llach; Luis Felipe Cruz-Olivera; Isabel Pereira-Arana
The debate about regulating cannabis for adult use is on the public agenda. In our view, the best policy on marijuana that a State can develop is the regulation of its cultivation, manufacture and use, focused on reducing marijuana’s comparative impact in illegal economies and drug trafficking networks; protecting public health; promoting rural development in prioritized areas; and promoting reparation measures financed with the resources arising from regulation. Drugs are not the devil, but nor are they child’s play. A drug policy that would be respectful of human rights and safeguard public health must lie at an intermediate point between full liberalization and the prohibition currently in place. In this document, based on a comparative analysis of the regulations issued in Uruguay, Canada and the United States and by applying the Principles and Guidelines for Human Rights in Fiscal Policy, we argue for the importance of a fiscal framework based on collecting taxes in the cannabis market and focused on mobilizing the maximum amount of available resources to finance the goals of reducing the illegal market, preserving public health and assisting the populations affected by drug policy, as set forth in the cannabis regulations.