UNWGEID Mission to Colombia.

At the invitation of the Government of Colombia, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (the Working Group) visited the country from 5 to 13 July 2005. The Working Group was represented by the Vice-Chairman-Rapporteur, J. Adebayo Adekanye, and Working Group member Santiago Corcuera. The purpose of the present mission was to
follow up on the recommendations made by the Working Group during its first visit in 1988, to identify progress made since then to prevent and resolve the problem of enforced or involuntary disappearances, and to investigate the development of the phenomenon of disappearance in
Colombia.

The delegation visited the cities of Bogotá, Barrancabermeja and Medellín. It held meetings with high-ranking officials, local authorities of the civil administration and representatives of the army and the police. The members of the Working Group also met with non-governmental organizations, representatives and families of victims of enforced disappearances. During these meetings, the delegation observed contradictory views of the
situation in Colombia not only between non-governmental organizations and the Government, but also between official authorities themselves, especially between the authorities in and outside the capital. The present report tries to capture this image and it gives examples of these views in the annex.

The present report contains an overview of the constitutional and legal framework on enforced disappearances since the last visit of the Group in 1988. It highlights the existing gap between a highly sophisticated legal system and very poor concrete results of the legal mechanisms. Consequently, the members of the Working Group propose recommendations to halt the ongoing situation of disappearances in the country, to protect the families of the victims and the non-governmental organizations working to locate the fate and the whereabouts of the victims, to solve the situation of underreporting of cases of disappearances due to fear and impunity and to more effectively implement the existing legal mechanisms on disappearances in Colombia.

Summary

Introduction

I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
A. The internal armed conflict
B. The democratic security policy

II. CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES: CHANGES AND PROGRESS MADE SINCE 1988
A. Constitution of 1991
B. Criminal Code on disappearance
C. Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons

III. INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS
A. National Commission to Search for Disappeared Persons
and the Urgent Search Mechanism
B. National Registry of the Disappeared
C. The Human Rights Ombudsman
D. Constitutional Court
E. Human rights units in the Government E/CN.4/2006/56/Add.1

IV. SHORTCOMINGS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LAW
A. Gap between legal progress and practical implementation
B. Overlapping institutions and agencies, competing programmes and missions
C. Definition of the criminal offence of enforced disappearance and non-State actors
D. Tracing the fate and whereabouts of victims
E. Disappearance and underreporting of cases

V. MATTERS OF CONCERN
A. Legal provisions for demobilization of paramilitaries in relation to enforced disappearances
B. Protection regime and the environment of fear
C. Lack of political will

VI. CONCLUSIONS

VII. RECOMMENDATIONS
General
Specific

Appendix