Hands Off Venezuela

The human rights situation in Colombia is deteriorating. Murders of trade unionists have dramatically increased this year as have forced disappearances, forced displacement and case of torture.  Extra-judicial executions continue unabated and harassment of human rights defenders, lawyers, trade unionists and opposition politicians persists.  The Colombian security forces are either directly or indirectly responsible for the majority of the abuses yet the UK continues to provide military assistance to some of those Army units most deeply implicated.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee recently concluded that 'the human rights situation in Colombia is serious and shows little sign of improvement' and stated they believe it 'inappropriate for the Government to provide military aid to Colombia without any reference to human rights improvements.'  They also stated that any further assistance to the Colombian military should be conditional on an improvement in the situation.Come and hear about the human rights crisis in Colombia , the role that Britain is playing, and how we can support human rights defenders in Colombia .

• 'Humanidad Vigente' is a coalition of human rights lawyers in Colombia that works on behalf of persecuted trade unions and other social organisations.  Yenly Mendez is currently working with the ACVC - a regional association of peasant farmers that has been the subject of intense persecution over the past two years, including numerous extra-judicial executions at the hands of the Colombian security forces and a spurious legal case against it based on false testimony and army intelligence reports.

• The Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective is an internationally respected group of human rights lawyers that represents victims of human rights abuses.  The Collective has taken several cases against the Colombian State to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.  As a result of their work some of the Collective's lawyers have been targeted and one of the founding members, Eduardo Umana Mendoza, was murdered in his Bogota home.