Mr. Kimy Pernía Domicó (Colombia) and Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza (Peru)
Mr. Kimy Pernía Domicó (Colombia) and Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza (Peru)
The John Humphrey Freedom Award is Rights & Democracy annual celebration of outstanding contributions to the defence of human rights. This year's prize goes to Colombia's Mr. Kimy Pernía Domicó and Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza from Peru, two indigenous activists who represent the incredible tragedy of forced and involuntary disappearances.
Kimy Pernía Domicó is a respected leader of the Embera Katio people of Colombia's Cordoba province. Mr. Domicó played a pivotal role in his people's fight against the construction of the Urra 1 hydroelectric dam, a mega-project partly funded by Canadian investment and serious threat to the survival of the Embera Katio. In June, 2001, Mr. Domicó was abducted shortly after meeting a Canadian delegation that included representatives of Rights & Democracy. His fate is still unknown. Mr. Domicó's daughter, Martha Cecilia, will accept the prize on her father's behalf.
Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza exemplifies the incredible courage of ordinary citizens cast into extraordinary circumstances. Since the abduction and disappearance of her 19-year-old son, Arquimedes, in 1983, Ms. Mendoza de Ascarza's has led a tireless campaign to uncover his fate and that of thousands of other victims of Peru's civil war. Ms. Mendoza de Ascarza's work is cited as a key inspiration behind the establishment of Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The trouble road to peace in Colombia
by Philippe Tremblay
Home to numerous valuable resources (oil, gold, emeralds, precious woods, etc.) that make it the envy of many other countries, Colombia has been grappling for decades with an internal conflict that is extremely complex and brutal, both because of the number of parties involved (regular armed forces, guerrilla groups, paramilitary groups) and the methods they employ to achieve their objectives. The war in Colombia results in approximately 3,500 violent deaths every year and to date has led to the forced displacement of over 2 million citizens, including 375,000 in 2002 alone. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Marxist-Leninists), formally created in 1966, now has over 25,000 combatants and considerable financial resources, raised in part by the tax it levies on the coca produced in the areas under its influence and through weapons trafficking. As for the National Liberation Army (ELN, Castroist), its roots are in the department of Santander, where it was founded in 1964 by a group of university students. Much weaker than the FARC, the ELN has some 3,500 combatants and survives mainly through kidnappings (1) by extorting money from businesses in the areas under its influence.
Forced disappearances
Most of the enforced disappearances and extra-legal executions are alleged to be have been carried out by paramilitary groups formed in the 1980s when landowners tired of guerrilla extortion. These groups, which were originally just private militias, began to expand considerably as of 1997, when they joined together to form the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). This organization, which has the support (at least passive) of a number of officials within the regular armed forces, has experienced exponential growth and is now estimated to comprise at least 12,000 men. The AUC, whose forces were initially concentrated in the northwestern plains and the northern part of the country, have gradually gained more territory and forced the guerrillas to retreat in several areas, particularly those rich in resources.
Most of the victims of forced disappearances are leaders of unions or of Aboriginal communities as well as human rights activists, whom the paramilitaries accuse of collaborating with the enemy. In 2002 alone, over 125 union officials, 17 human rights activists and 50 Aboriginal people were murdered. According to the ombudsman's office (Defensoria del Pueblo), the number of Aboriginal people murdered rose to 118 during the first half of 2003. Colombia's 84 Aboriginal peoples are in the eye of the storm because their presence is often an obstacle to the unlawful removal of resources, particularly mining resources, and to the production of drugs such as cocaine. Consequently, several Aboriginal communities have been subject to threats or selective murder, while others have even been driven from their lands by illegal armed groups. In fact, the situation is so critical that the ONIC, the organization representing all Aboriginal peoples in Colombia, maintains that some of its member peoples are threatened with outright extinction. Although the Aboriginal peoples have been at pains to reiterate their principled neutrality with regard to the Colombian conflict, their position has been misrepresented by all the belligerents, who have shown little regard for their right to self-determination.
Prospects for Peace
The election of Alvaro Uribe Velez as President of the country in 2001 marks a turning point in the Colombian conflict. Mr. Uribe successfully capitalized on the weariness of the electorate, who felt that the compromises made by the previous government in an effort to reach a peace agreement with the FARC (e.g. establishment of a demilitarized zone, humanitarian exchange of prisoners) did not yield the anticipated results. Mr. Uribe, who presented himself as the law-and-order candidate, easily won the election, which immediately led to the end of peace talks with the FARC in February 2002 and, consequently, to an intensification of the conflict. Negotiations with the ELN, the second largest rebel group, were also suspended in June 2002.
Furthermore, Mr. Uribe entered into peace negotiations with the AUC, which subsequently announced a unilateral ceasefire in December 2002. An agreement signed on July 15, 2003, which launched the official negotiations, provides for the gradual demobilization of the paramilitary combatants by 2005. Longtime leader of the AUC, Carlos Castaño, publicly called on his troops to stop resorting to drug trafficking to line their coffers, but he did not manage to bring all his regional commanders on side. Some of them still refuse to take part in the negotiations with the government, and this dissidence may have grave consequences if these "rebel factions" swell their ranks by attracting formally demobilized paramilitary combatants.
One of the greatest concerns arising from the paramilitary peace process is that it will provide many of the combatants with an opportunity to be absolved of their crimes and to benefit from amnesty measures. National and international human rights organizations were quick to point out that the peace process should not jeopardize victims' rights to truth, justice and reparations. For the moment, although Colombia has the institutions required to hold combatants accountable, impunity remains the norm, as the case of the disappearance of Kimy Pernía Domicó attests. Over two years ago, the government promised to set up a commission to examine this case, but no commission of inquiry has been formed. Futhermore, in April 2003, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced the laxness of the prosecutor's office, stating that it appeared to have no interest in investigating the cases it had received involving the most serious human rights violations, including the case of Kimy Pernía Domicó.
Over the past few months, support for President Uribe appears to have waned. Colombians, weary after so many years of war, no longer seem to believe in a military solution. The referendum proposed by the president to extend the powers of the army and the judicial police was held on October 25, but failed to win the necessary support of at least 25% of the electorate and died on the order paper. The president also lost ground in the municipal elections, where the opposition, united under the banner Democratic Pole, made significant gains, particularly in Bogotá. It remains to be seen whether this softening of positions will reinvigorate the peace process.
(1) - Kidnappings (secuestros) are prohibited by international humanitarian law but are different from enforced disappearances in that the armed group generally informs the family about the action it has taken so as to negotiate the release of the hostage. According to the guerrilla groups, this amounts to a "revolutionary tax" on the rich, whom they accuse of deliberately facilitating the activities of the paramilitaries.
2000: A Turning Point for Democracy in Peru
by Madeleine Desnoyers
The year 2000 marked the end of one of the longest episodes of massive human rights violation in Peru's history. The period from 1980 to 2000 saw a gruesome multiplication of violations of the fundamental rights of Peruvian citizens, along with a severe erosion of democracy in the country.
A military response to subversion
The governments led by Belaunde (1980-1985) and Garcia (1985-1990) initially underestimated the extent and impact of the violence perpetrated by the subversive group Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso (SL). An offshoot of the Peruvian Communist Party, the SL was at first mainly active in poor, rural regions that had been abandoned to their underdeveloped state by the central government. The SL's strategy was to use violence in order to destroy any trace of the system in place by waging an all-out, lengthy war. Their main targets were the civilian and political authorities and social leaders at the local level, as well as anyone who supported them.
The Belaunde and Garcia governments provided a military response to the terrorist actions of the SL, with no regard for human rights guarantees. The armed forces indiscriminately massacred anyone even remotely suspected of sympathizing with the subversives. With the creation of paramilitary groups under Alan Garcia, the repression spread to urban areas and to the leaders of the opposition.
Fujimori: From a human rights crisis to a crisis of democracy
Fujimori was elected in 1990 on a promise to put an end to the country's internal war. While he kept this promise, notably by having the principal SL leaders arrested in 1992, the cost was enormous in terms of the impact on the country's political health and the social and economic conditions of the majority of the population.
Despite having practically succeeded in neutralizing subversion, Fujimori maintained, and even continued to develop, a "counter-insurgency" strategy based on measures such as the creation of a huge military apparatus, the state of emergency covering a large part of the territory, the infiltration of the intelligence service at all levels of national life, and anti-terrorist laws that transferred jurisdiction from civilian courts to military courts.
From a human rights crisis, Fujimori plunged the country into a crisis of democracy. Institutions, including the judicial system, were stripped of their relevance and independence, and power was centralized in the hands of an executive branch that governed by decree. A large portion of the population sank into even deeper poverty, and the rural population - the very people who had suffered the worst violence - became even more marginalized. The prevailing climate was one of terror and distrust, fed by the all-powerful intelligence service and by the total impunity enjoyed by the security forces responsible for violations perpetrated during the internal conflict. Corruption was endemic.
Fujimori's announcement in 1999 of his intention to run again in the presidential election, in violation of the Constitution, triggered an unprecedented movement of protest. Driven by the population's frustration at the government's corruption, authoritarianism and repression, along with the aggravation of the economic situation, the demonstrations spread to all levels of society and into every corner of the country. Tensions reached a peak during the April elections, when numerous independent domestic and international observers claimed that the fraudulent electoral process removed any legitimacy of an election victory by Fujimori.
In the lead-up to Fujimori's flight from the country and his destitution by Congress in November 2001, followed by the swearing in of a transitional government headed by Valentin Paniagua the same month, the opposition chose a democratic path; following the demonstrations, a complex process of dialogue brought together different sectors of civil society, government representatives and the private sector around "dialogue tables" in an effort to come up with a solution to the crisis. Representatives of organizations such as the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos assured a strong presence in order to guarantee the protection of human rights. The international community contributed to the success of this dialogue through the OAS, with Canada playing a major role.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
One of the last decisions made by the interim government, in June 2001, was to create the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), whose mandate was to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the violations committed during the period of 1980-2000, to identify the persons responsible for ordering or perpetrating the violations, to propose reparations for victims and their families, and, finally, to prevent a repetition of similar violence by recommending initiatives aimed at ensuring peace, security and reconciliation among all Peruvians.
The TRC released its report in August 2003.
The TRC noted sadly that the number of victims was far higher than the worst predictions, with an estimated 69,280 deaths, a high proportion of which were concentrated in the department of Ayacucho. The gruesome range of violations included assassinations, massacres, forced disappearances, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, sexual violence against women, girls and children, kidnappings and hostage-takings, denial of justice, and forced displacement.
Expectedly, but nonetheless tragically, Shining Path guerrillas were found to be responsible for the greatest number of atrocities (54%), with Peru's armed forces close behind.
In its report, the TRC emphasizes that the violence affected the country's different regions and social strata unequally, and that the worst suffering was inflicted on the already marginalized, mainly indigenous segments of Peruvian society. In the department of Ayacucho alone, 79% of victims belonged to the rural population and 56% were engaged in agricultural activities. Many of the survivors lost their possessions and were forced to flee their communities, and now live in even greater poverty than before.
One of the main reasons for the prolonged duration and aggravation of the internal conflict was the central government's disregard for the country's rural population. The governments of both Belaunde and Alan Garcia minimized the danger represented by the SL precisely because the rebels were mainly active far from the capital, in the country's isolated rural areas.
The essentially military response to the insurgency by successive governments had the effect of placing the civil population in the crossfire, exposing it to constant attack by both sides at once. A climate of terror prevailed in the affected regions and severe restraints were imposed on civil society as entire regions were placed under military control for over 15 years.
The TRC gathered 16,917 testimonials and held public hearings in several regions. Addressing specific themes such as violence against women, the commissioners also conducted interviews with representatives of the parties responsible for the violations. The report offers an exhaustive analysis of the causes and background of the conflict, the different actors involved and the violations committed. The conclusions and recommendations link the lessons learned from the past to hope for the future.
Human rights organizations
From the outset, these organizations courageously denounced the abuses being perpetrated, despite facing constant threats and attacks from the government, which sought to falsely link them to the subversive groups. In a context where victims' organizations suffered from the inherent weakness attributable to the extreme poverty of the majority of their members, the ANFASEP succeeded in breaking down the wall of silence and keeping alive the hope for justice.
Challenges facing the Toledo government
The Peruvian government, led by President Toledo, faces many challenges, not the least of them being the population's expectations for better living standards and a guarantee of peace and justice in the country. This fact was driven home to the President during the May 2003 strike by 300,000 teachers demanding higher wages, and in Arequipa in June 2002, when popular protests erupted in response to the government's plan to privatize electricity companies.
The government responded to the strike by calling in the army, whose intervention resulted in one death, hundreds of injured, and 500 arrests. A country-wide state of emergency was proclaimed, suspending all constitutional rights. These elements, coming on top of Toledo's criticism of the judiciary, the referral by Congress itself of decisions under its jurisdiction to the Executive, the APRA party's support for measures favouring impunity, and, finally, economic measures imposing a heavier tax burden on the country's poor, are all factors that call for continued vigilance and perseverance in the implementation of measures favouring the transition to democracy.
In its recommendations, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission proposes reforms that, if adopted by the government, would go a long way toward repairing the damage inflicted on the institutions whose mission it is to guarantee justice, peace and equity.
Links related to human rights and forced disappearances
- Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
- UN Documents On Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
- Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons (OAS)
- Inter-American Court of Human Rights
- International Committee of the Red Cross on "The Missing"
- Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Coalition for the International Criminal Court
Links related to the rights of Indigenous Peoples
- UN Fact Sheet No.9 (Rev.1), The Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- United Nations Guide for Indigenous Peoples
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Rodolfo Stavenhag
Photo Gallery from the tour
Martha Cecilia Domico and Angelica Mendoza de Ascarza in Vancouver
Martha Cecilia addresses a Toronto audience
Martha Cecilia and Mama Angelica at Rights & Democracy
At Montreal City Hall with City Council President, Marcel Parent, and Rights & Democracy's Jean-Louis Roy and Madeleine Desnoyers
Mama Angelica in the Grand Hall, Canadian Museum of Civilization
Martha Cecilia accepts the 2003 John Humphrey Freedom Award on behalf of her father, Kimy Pernia Domico
Vancouver
Monday, Dec. 1
Morning - Media interviews
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. - Public presentation at the Harbour Centre, Room 1700, Simon Fraser University, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver.
Tuesday, Dec. 2
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - Event with Indigenous communities of British Colombia in cooperation with First Nations Summit - Musquem Elders' Centre, Vancouver
Edmonton
Wednesday, Dec. 3
Afternoon - Media interviews
7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. - Public presentation, Room 1007 Engineering Teaching Learning Complex (aka ETLC or the Maier Learning Centre), University of Alberta.
Toronto
Thursday, Dec. 4
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. - Public presentation at Alumni Hall, Victoria College, 91 Charles Street West, Toronto.
Friday, Dec. 5
Morning - Media interviews
12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. - Public presentation, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 84 Queen's Park, Toronto.
Montreal
Monday, Dec. 8
Morning - Media interviews
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. - Public presentation in co-operation with the Institut d'études internationales de Montréal at University of Quebec in Montreal (UQÀM) - Salle Marie-Gérin Lajoie, Pavillon Judith Jasmin (Metro level), 405 St Catherine St. East, Montreal.
Ottawa
Tuesday, Dec. 9
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. - Presentation of the 2003 John Humphrey Freedom Award - Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau. Guest: Stephen J.Toope, UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
Wednesday, Dec. 10
Morning - Media interviews
Those interested in attending any John Humphrey Freedom Award events in Montreal should contact Anyle Côté
Tel.: (514) 283-6073
Fax: (514) 283-3792
Archive: Past Winners
- 1997: Father Javier Giraldo (Colombia)
- 1996: Sultana Kamal (Bangladesh)
- 1995: Bishop Carlos F. X. Belo (East Timor)
- 1994: Campaign for Democracy (Nigeria) and Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
- 1993: La Plate-forme des organismes haïtiens de défense des droits humains (Haïti).
- 1992: Instituto de Defensa Legal (Peru)