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Colombia's displaced women sexually abused and forced into early motherhood

Colombia's displaced women sexually abused and forced into early motherhood
02 Apr 2008 16:18:00 GMT
Written by: Ruth Gidley

If you're a Colombian girl displaced by the war, there's almost a one in three chance you'll have at least one baby before your 20th birthday. And over your lifetime, there's a one in five chance you'll be raped.

Occasionally the four-decade-long civil war hits the international spotlight when guerrillas release some hostages or paramilitaries give up their weapons, but on the whole, not much has changed for millions of people caught up in the crossfire.

Colombia still has the second-highest internal displacement rate in the world after Sudan, with estimates ranging from 1.9 million to almost 4 million. That's about 6 percent of the population.

"The steady stream of families fleeing their land and settling in cities goes almost unnoticed,"Barbara Hintermann, head of delegation in Colombia for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement. "The plight of those who have lost everything because of the armed conflict is rarely discussed in public."

Displacement of people who live on the land isn't just a by-product of war, Monica Alzate from Oklahoma University writes in the March issue of Disasters journal. It's a deliberate strategy to get them out of the way of armed groups fighting for strategic territory to cultivate and process lucrative illegal drug crops or smuggle weapons into the country.

The ICRC's country report for 2007, released this week, says it's registering fewer cases of whole communities being forced off their land by the conflict between soldiers, leftist rebels, cocaine smugglers and far-right paramilitary militias, but higher numbers of individual families being displaced.

REASONS TO FLEE
More than half of individual families who flee go because of death threats. Pressure to collaborate with an armed group is the next most common reason, followed by the need to get away from the threat of someone in the family being forcibly recruited to fight.

By contrast, the top motive when entire communities leave is military clashes. Death threats are the number two reason.
"We're talking about peasants for the most part, people who live on the land and could have three meals a day, living relatively well,"says ICRC spokesman Yves Heller. "Then they're displaced, and they lose so much. They lose their possessions, they lose their dignity."

Leaving behind their land and everything they know and own, most families who make the journey from countryside to cramped city slums slide down the social scale into poverty that's virtually impossible to escape. And 70 percent of displaced people never go back, the ICRC says.

More than one in four internally displaced families are headed by single parents, usually mothers, according to the ICRC. "In a lot of cases their partners are missing, have died in combat, or simply left,"Heller says.

The first few months are the hardest, he says, when people are still incredibly scared, and struggling so hard to make ends meet that many families are malnourished.

People don't want to go out, and sometimes ask others to get their groceries, frightened that armed groups will follow and word will get out about where they've gone.

EMOTIONAL TOLL
"We often underestimate the psychological effects - they're hard to assess, and hard to evaluate,"Heller says.
The state's got better at helping displaced people in the last 10 years, and Colombia's laws are pretty progressive, Heller says. But even with school costs covered by the state, it's hard for parents to find money for uniforms and notebooks.

About 80 percent of internally displaced people live in extreme poverty, Alzate quotes 2004 research, and barely a fifth access medical services.

The reality for many families faced with the priority of putting food on the table is that children might have to go out to work.

Alzate's research shows that six out of 10 displaced children go to school - not such a low number - but most drop out well before the end of high school.

While boys are often drawn to gangs, girls can get pulled into prostitution, especially in areas frequented by tourists.

Wherever they are, displaced women are easy prey to sexual exploitation and abuse - from partners, relatives, neighbours, landlords and strangers and many become mothers at a very young age.
While 20 percent of Colombian teenage girls have been pregnant, that figure goes up to 30 percent for internally displaced girls.

Alzate quotes reports in the national press that one in five internally displaced women has been raped.

BIGGER PICTURE
These statistics are shocking, but Alzate's point is that levels of violence against women are shocking all over Colombia, and few women have access to any kind of sexual health services. It's especially hard for women who are illiterate, and women from Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, all of whom make up a sizable portion of Colombia's displaced population.

So it's horrific that 52 percent of internally displaced women have experienced violence, but you have to bear in mind that 41 percent of all Colombian women have experienced violence, according to Ministry of Protection figures.

Likewise, one in five of all Colombian women have experienced domestic abuse, a figure which soars above 50 percent for displaced women.

Women don't know about their rights, and a 2004 study found more than eight in 10 young, sexually active displaced people weren't using any sort of contraception.

That's what happens, Alzate argues, in a culture where women are expected to live under the protection of a man, even if he's the one who hurts them.

Women aren't aware they have a right to say no to sex with their partners, and just over half of Colombian women who've ever been married have had at least one unintended pregnancy, researchers found in 2004.
Abortion was illegal until 2006, and so risky that it was the second leading cause of maternal mortality in a 2001 study.

It's still only allowed if the mother's life is in danger, the foetus is badly deformed or if the pregnancy originated in rape. So for poorer women who take this route, abortion remains highly dangerous.
In this culture of violence, discrimination and inequality, Alzate warns that things are only going to get worse, as another generation of displaced children grows up too poor to get a good education.

By romy on Apr 2, 2008, 10:02 in Politics & the war.

romy says on Apr 2, 2008, 10:04:

For anyoe interested in the report this article quotes:
Mónica M. Alzate Ph.D. (2008) The sexual and reproductive rights of internally displaced women: the embodiment of Colombia's crisis Disasters 32 (1) , 131–148

Abstract:
As of 30 June 2006, more than 3.5 million Colombians are internally displaced persons (IDPs), the second largest IDP population in the world after that of Sudan. While most IDP studies treat the plight of internally displaced women (IDW) as an isolated phenomenon, this paper demonstrates that their situation reflects Colombia's chronic cultural, political and socio-economic crisis. This paper uses a sexual and reproductive rights framework to establish a connection between IDW and Colombia's culture of violence, discrimination and inequality. The effects of this culture of violence, discrimination and inequality are highlighted during a discussion of the rights to health, reproduction, privacy, physical integrity, education, and freedom from violence and sexual exploitation. This paper argues that a holistic understanding of Colombia's humanitarian emergency is essential to improving the lives of IDPs. It ends with some concrete, short-term recommendations to meet some of the needs of IDPs and other vulnerable populations.

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Albatross says on Apr 2, 2008, 10:19:

More propaganda from the feminist camp...

"While boys are often drawn to gangs, girls can get pulled into prostitution, especially in areas frequented by tourists."... that's bull, outside of Cartegena, there are almost NO areas in Colombia "frequented by tourists".

What is truly sad are all the men dying in Colombia...
"More than one in four internally displaced families are headed by single parents, usually mothers, according to the ICRC. In a lot of cases their partners (men) are missing, have died in combat..."... while women may get occasional unwanted advances or get their purses snatched, men get killed every single day.

“Democracy - a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H.L. Mencken

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juancegomez says on Apr 2, 2008, 10:22:

Still, I think the article provides a detailed overview of the tragedies surrounding displacement, including but not limited to the sexual depredations those women may face. It's not just a problem for IDPs, as the text adds, but they may well be more vulnerable than other groups.

One thing worth pointing out, however...

"Colombia still has the second-highest internal displacement rate in the world after Sudan, with estimates ranging from 1.9 million to almost 4 million. That's about 6 percent of the population."

The ~4 million figure is the number of people that CODHES estimates have been displaced over 20 years, acknowledging that some of those people are now either dead, outside of the country, or are simply no longer IDPs in practice.

Which I think is only natural, 10-20 years after many of them were originally counted. Their fates are going to diverge and it's not so easy to track those changes.

Reference:
http://www.mediosparalapaz.org/downloads/DESPLAZAMIENTO_FORZADO/Inform...

http://www.indepaz.org.co/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=31...

In other words, that's not a figure for current IDPs as of 2008, but a historical count. Some people do not make that distinction.

Still, even lower estimates, around half that number, remain shameful and show the failure of the government to properly address the problem at its source, as the CODHES document also mentions.

While there have been some improvements in IDP care, in part due to Constitutional Court pressure and more or less effective despite their limitations, the issues of prevention and, if possible, return are still left unaddressed in many cases, and stolen or otherwise lost land remains either empty or has passed to different hands.

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Albatross says on Apr 2, 2008, 10:24:

"The article provides a detailed overview of the tragedies surrounding displacement"

No it doesn't... it's Ruth Gidley's opinion, based on loose "facts" and "research".

Remember, 4 out of 5 statistics are made up ;)

“Democracy - a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H.L. Mencken

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juancegomez says on Apr 2, 2008, 10:26:

The article is an opinion piece, indeed, and I know not everything in it is correct or unquestionable...but several statements about displacement per se do seem to check out and I believe the text does reflect a complex situation relatively well, overall, pointing to real problems.

Even in spite of my nitpicking, because I would also prefer a better use of figures, references and quotes, in order to properly address what you've mentioned about the statistics (some of them may well be incorrect or simply misrepresented, not necessarily made up entirely) and so on...but that's not the main point.

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romy says on Apr 2, 2008, 11:02:

Albatross says on Wednesday April 2nd, 2008 10:19:

More propaganda from the feminist camp...

"While boys are often drawn to gangs, girls can get pulled into prostitution, especially in areas frequented by tourists."... that's bull, outside of Cartegena, there are almost NO areas in Colombia "frequented by tourists".
_________________________________________________________________________________

You'll find a more rounded report by Alzate, although the topic of discussion is intended to be particular to women's hardships in displacement. However, I would suggest not disregarding this as mere propaganda because the reports don't directly suppress the suffrage by men. Although interpretations may vary.

from Alzate's report:
The right to live free from sexual exploitation

Protocols, international conventions and Colombian legislation guarantee people’s
freedom from human trafficking for various purposes, including sexual exploitation
(Cabal, Lemaitre and Roa, 2001). Nevertheless, sexual exploitation is a common
practice, especially among young internally displaced women and men. Often they
fall prey to adult male IDP leaders who demand sexual ‘favours’ as a precondition
for helping their families.21 Furthermore, to support their families in their new urban
location, male and female minors have, with increasing frequency, turned to prostitution
(El Tiempo, 2003a).

For young IDW, prostitution appears to be the best economic alternative in tourist
sites, such as Cartagena on the Atlantic coast, whereas young men tend to join
gangs (Arcieri, 2004). This behavioural difference reveals a gender division with regard
to perceived ways to make ends meet. While young internally displaced men may
choose violent behaviour against others and/or illegal activities (such as drug trafficking)
to make a living, women offer sexual ‘services’ to men. Although both men
and women put themselves at risk of injury and/or disease, psychological trauma and
even death, their experiences are deeply rooted in gender differences. In Colombia’s
patriarchal society, men are expected to be protectors/providers, whereas women
are expected to find and form an intimate relationship with a male who can fulfil
such a role. Sometimes these relationships are casual, as in the sex trade. Sometimes
the relationship is stable and presents women and their families (parents, younger
siblings and/or their own children) with a way to mitigate poverty. Nevertheless,
this gendered behaviour is not unique to IDW or to Colombian women who live
in poverty. Rather, it is common to many young women and men in societies that
offer no real possibilities for social mobility (Brennan, 2004). Hence, sexual exploitation
illustrates how already widespread poverty in Colombia has aggravated the
economic hardship of IDPs.

Further reading:
Arcieri, G.V. (2004) ‘The tenants of misery’. El Tiempo. 16 May. pp. 10–11.

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Mr. Hollywood says on Apr 2, 2008, 11:20:

I'm curious if anyone knows what the pre-20-year-old pregnancy rate is for non-displaced Colombianas? The 1/3 rate cited by the report didn't seem particularly higher than my sense of what's going on in Colombia generally.

Still, the larger framework of the report is a good reminder of the tragedy and humanitarian crisis in Colombia wrought by the illegal armed groups.

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romy says on Apr 2, 2008, 11:27:

"While 20 percent of Colombian teenage girls have been pregnant, that figure goes up to 30 percent for internally displaced girls."

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ColombianoGringo says on Apr 2, 2008, 11:31:

"While 20 percent of Colombian teenage girls have been pregnant"

Keep in mind that this is to some degree a cultural thing. For Colombians, many of our mothers and grandmothers had children before 20. My mom had me at 18 and her mother had her first kid at 14. Luckily, they both were married and created strong families. Sadly, many of the under 20 mothers these days aren't in similarly positive family situations.

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Albatross says on Apr 2, 2008, 11:32:

I don't disagree that a percentage of displaced Colombian women have turned to prostitution or that there isn't some degree of sexual exploitation... I just don't think it's epidemic, nor do I think it's one of Colombia's biggest problems. In fact, I think there is less of a problem in Colombia that other poor parts of the world, most women are very conservative, and often even those who are desperately poor, would never think of becoming prostitutes.

I've spent literally months walking around areas of Medellin and Cali that even locals are afraid of. I've walked among prostitutes, drug addicts, criminals, nut jobs, panhandlers and countless homeless, destitute individuals... it's just life in Colombia. I've certainly seen girls and women in bad situations, but I've seen far more boys and men. For example, walk under the metro Parque Berrío in el Centro at night and count the number of destitute boys and men sleeping in the street, then see if you can find any women sleeping there. Like I said, a girl may get her purse snatched, or get propositioned, but in two days in Cali last month, I saw a guy literally running for his life from another wielding a machete, the next day another guy was shot in the street. Colombian boys sweat and slave working in the streets or join gangs or resort to crime and may very well die before their 20th birthday, I just don't think that, all things considered, Colombian women have it all that rough.

“Democracy - a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H.L. Mencken

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DodgerDogs says on Apr 2, 2008, 12:01:

Most Colombians do not report rape, as they have a better way to deal with a rapist.(street justice)

The displaced problem in Colombia should be number the # 1 priority.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

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romy says on Apr 2, 2008, 12:02:

Albatross, it seems like your observations would fit into the model proposed by Alzate. And I'm afraid those observations don't make your conclusion, "Colombian women simply don't have it that rough", true.

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SiV says on Apr 2, 2008, 13:17:

I think anyone who denies that women generally have it harder in terms of being victims of violence, and that IDPs have it even worse than the rest of the population must be either off their rocker or women-haters.

The IBFC's statistics for violence against women in Colombia are sky-high, and imagine they're the tip of the iceberg. And that's not counting the cultural violence that, in the great majority of cases, is prostitution.

Stultórum númere infinitum est.

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august says on Apr 2, 2008, 22:16:

I've got to agree with SiV on this one. "Feminist propaganda," Albatross? Are you sure you've been to Colombia? I mean sure life is rough for many males as well in Colombia, but is it really possible to claim that it's worse than it is for women in terms of having the ability to determine one's own life direction? Not in the Colombia I've seen so far.

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august says on Apr 2, 2008, 22:31:

Beyond that, I think it's important that issues such as the one presented in this article make their way to Poorbuthappy. The rosy perspectives and topics germane only to expats and tourists which tend to dominate the discussions here are maybe useful in encouraging interest in Colombia, but I just don't see it as helpful in painting an accurate image of the country.

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adrimm says on Apr 2, 2008, 23:09:

Perhaps in regular society, but I firmly suspect that in Colombia displazado settlements young women and single mothers (who are very numerous in displazado communities), are far more likely to be victims of sexual assault.

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Robert Jorge says on Apr 3, 2008, 00:23:

I think the worst place to be a woman would be where Rubito said: any Muslim country. Some would be worse than others obviously. Certain countries in the Orient, like Japan and even China, would really suck to be a woman. For example, in China, you would be lucky if you made it past your 1 day birthday as a female.

BEWARE of gold diggers.

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poco says on Apr 3, 2008, 00:28:

Quote: And that's not counting the cultural violence that, in the great majority of cases, is prostitution.

Quote: I've got to agree with SiV on this one.
----------------------------
I’d assume that agreement is IDP’s in general?

Actually, culture usually encompasses much larger groupings but I suppose there is a Sub-Culture that could be applied to any grouping.

A MAJORITY is more than 50%,, so a great majority would be,, what,, 80%? --- NO WAY.

Violence or the display of violent behavior is NOT common. Colombians in general are pretty laid back folks.

In over 5 years I’ve not heard of ONE violent act against a woman for being a prostitute but I live in a rural area. I'd say Rubito knows the city and I haven't seen him saying prostitutes are prone to being victims of violence.

A wife is MUCH more likely to experience violence than any single prostitute..

Yes, there is something wrong with the statistics. The thought crossed my mind that being displaced RESULTED in a LOWER birth rate for women less than 20 years old.

"When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy." Quote - General Tommy Franks

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Robert Jorge says on Apr 3, 2008, 01:01:

I need to read it one more time, but I think I 100% agree with Poco's comment. Any recent cell phone holder fotos Poco? (chance to hijack!)

BEWARE of gold diggers.

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Robert Jorge says on Apr 3, 2008, 01:05:

Yep, I agree 100% with Poco's post.

BEWARE of gold diggers.

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poco says on Apr 3, 2008, 01:12:

Quote: I need to read it one more time, but I think I 100% agree with Poco's comment. Any recent cell phone holder fotos Poco? (chance to hijack!)

No,, it became way to common place. Two cell phones in dual holders,, now that's not common. I posted a few a month or so ago.

Sadly,,, really,, sad, sad, sad :>(

I left home w/o the camera and sure enough there was a Single Cell Phone holder emblazoned with a heart,, a big red heart,, maybe a couple. Remembering that day and the thought of not being able to post a picture with the words I LOVE COLOMBIA was sheer torture and now you've reminded me of the loss. :>(

"When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy." Quote - General Tommy Franks

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Robert Jorge says on Apr 3, 2008, 01:27:

pobrecito amigo.

BEWARE of gold diggers.

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Robert Jorge says on Apr 3, 2008, 01:27:

But I am looking forward to new advances in cell phone holders.

BEWARE of gold diggers.

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Albatross says on Apr 3, 2008, 04:21:

"I think anyone who denies that women generally have it harder in terms of being victims of violence.... must be either off their rocker or women-haters"... Typical feminist rebuttal - if a guy doesn't say how much worse off women are and how evil men are, he must hate women. I'm surprised you didn't accuse me of hating my mother.

As I said, Colombian women certainly have their share of problems, but regardless of what feminizm would have us believe, HOMOCIDE is more violent than rape and far more violent than becoming a single mother. And the fact is that in Colombia (as in most of the world) men are far more likely to become victims of homicide than women. Boys are also more likely to commit suicide, engage in violent behavior or become addicted to alcohol and/or drugs. I would rather a child of mine become a single mom as opposed to a drug addict or DEAD. A similar trend exists in the workplace, men are more likely to hold physically demanding, potentially dangerous jobs than women. For example, as of today, 3,973 U.S. male soldiers have died in Iraq, 39 female... which sex is safer ?

Of course there are Colombian women who have been violently raped, but that is not a common occurance (No, I don't know the exact %). And quite frankly, if a rapist were identified, the Colombian Police would be all over him, that's assuming he wasn't killed before the cops could get to him.

Also, as was mentioned, prostitutuon is legal in Colombia and paying for sex with a consenting adult is NOT an act of violence... get over it.

“Democracy - a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H.L. Mencken

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SiV says on Apr 3, 2008, 07:01:

Wikipedia's definition of structural (often called cultural) violence:

"Structural violence, a term which was first used in the 1970s and which has commonly been ascribed to Johan Galtung, denotes a form of violence which corresponds with the systematic ways in which a given social structure or social institution kills people slowly by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Institutionalized elitism, ethnocentrism, classism, racism, sexism, adultism, nationalism, heterosexism and ageism are just some examples of structural violence. Life spans are reduced when people are socially dominated, politically oppressed, or economically exploited."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_violence

Stultórum númere infinitum est.

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Albatross says on Apr 3, 2008, 07:14:

Almost everyone on the planet is "socially dominated", "politically oppressed" or "economically exploited"
... it's called "Life".

“Democracy - a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H.L. Mencken

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romy says on Apr 14, 2008, 15:15:

http://elmercuriodigital.es/content/view/8983/39/
Liliana Chaparro: “Cerca de 4millones de desplazados en Colombia, el 75% mujeres, niñas y niños‿
Escrito por Bonnie Rodríguez/AmecoPress
14-04-2008 a las 11:52:21

La Casa América acogió el debate sobre la “Verdad contra la impunidad: Iniciativas en la defensa de los Derechos Humanos de las mujeres en situaciones de conflicto armado. La experiencia Colombiana‿, en el que intervino Liliana Chaparro, representante de Sisma Mujer-Colombia.

Colombia ha vivido un conflicto armado desde hace más de cuatro décadas, entre las guerrillas y el Estado, precisamente este último, en respuesta a la violencia generalizada que vivía el país, desarrolló una legislación entre la década del 60 y finales de la década del 80, en la que se permite a la población civil ampararse en armas de uso privativo de las fuerzas armadas, que deriva en la creación de grupos de autodefensa con el fin de auxiliar a la Fuerza Pública en operaciones antisubversivas y defenderse de los grupos guerrilleros. Estos grupos de autodefensa, por tratarse de una estrategia contrainsurgente del Estado, que ofrece apoyo legal, económico y especialmente militar, son conocidos como los “grupos paramilitares‿.

Así lo explicó Liliana Chaparro, para quién estos “grupos ilegales‿ no han sido homogéneos en el tiempo ni en las regiones, porque fue en las década de los ochenta cuando en su propósito de combatir a las guerrillas, su lucha antisubversiva, a través de masacres, desapariciones forzadas, torturas, ejecuciones extrajudiciales, violencia sexual, control social, entre otras, causaron terror en pueblos enteros y exterminaron a personas que consideraban auxiliares de la guerrilla, así como a grupos poblacionales opositores, como la Unión Patriótica.

Chaparro recordó que en el año 2002 ingresó en el Gobierno el presidente ÿlvaro Uribe Vélez, quien inició las negociaciones con los grupos paramilitares y sus consecuentes desmovilizaciones. Las negociaciones han reducido las masacres, pero está demostrado que esta disminución se debe a una estrategia militar de “homicidios selectivos‿. En la actualidad, los grupos paramilitares persisten de manera autónoma o con el beneplácito y complicidad del Estado.

Violaciones a los derechos humanos por parte de los grupos paramilitares
Liliana Chaparro señaló que los efectos del conflicto armado en Colombia no se ha cuantificado en su totalidad, pero de acuerdo a la información a una fuente no gubernamental como Comisión Colombiana de Juristas, en el periodo entre julio de 1996 y junio de 2006, fueron ejecutadas extrajudicialmente o desaparecidas por razones sociopolíticas 31.656 personas, de las cuales el 45.63 por ciento (14.444 personas) son atribuidas a grupos paramilitares, el 13.55 por ciento (4.288 personas) a guerrillas, el 5.12 por ciento (1.620 personas) a agentes del Estado y las restantes a grupos no identificados. Chaparro señaló que se estima que hay cerca de 4 millones de personas (aproximadamente el 10% de la población total de Colombia), desplazadas forzadamente por cualquiera de los grupos armados, y el 75% son mujeres, niñas y niños.

La violencia sexual en el conflicto armado de Colombia
“No se conocen datos sobre el número de mujeres víctimas de cualquier forma de violencia sexual en el marco del conflicto armado, ni de los impactos que ese conflicto ha tenido en la vida de la mujeres y de las familias en el país‿, indicó Chaparro.

Esta desinformación obedece a diferentes causas de origen externo e interno de las mujeres, “que implican que el sub-registro de la violencia sexual dentro y fuera del conflicto armado llegaría a ser del 95%‿. La desinformación se debe a la renuncia a denunciar ante las autoridades de los hechos de violencia sexual por temor de las mujeres a ser estigmatizadas, señaladas, rechazadas y culpabilizadas por su entorno familiar y social, “la violencia sexual es el único delito en el que quien afronta la culpa es la víctima y no el victimario‿. Como consecuencia de esta renuncia a denunciar se produce la “desestructuración emocional‿, los estados depresivos, alteraciones en la sexualidad, y muchos más trastornos psicológicos.

Chaparro agregó otras razones que impiden denunciar, como el hecho de que es las mujeres consideran que la violencia sexual en su contra es un “hecho normal‿, que deben soportar por el hecho de ser mujeres. “No tienen conciencia de que la violencia sexual es un delito, por el contrario, creen que los hombres tienen derecho sobre ellas. Una de las características que tienen como semejanza las mujeres víctimas de agresión sexual, es el escaso acceso a recursos económicos, su procedencia rural y las escasas posibilidades educativas, “que las colocan en los últimos lugares de estratificación de la justicia‿.

En el debate también intervinieron , Leonora Castaño, ex presidenta de Asociación Nacional de Mujeres campesinas, indígenas y Negras de Colombia (ANMUCIC), Antonio Madariaga, director de la Organización Viva la Ciudadanía-Colombia, Silvia Escobar representante de la Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación (MAEC), Mercedes Ruiz- Jiménez Aguilar, secretaria general de la Asociación de Investigación y Especialización sobre Temas Iberoamericanos (AIETI), así como Carlos Beristain, especialista en atención a víctimas de la violencia y comisiones de la verdad en América Latina, que actuó de moderador.

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