#DefendtheDefenders

More than 600 social leaders and Human Rights Defenders have been killed in Colombia since 2016. These killings are systematic in nature. Victims are targeted because of their political, social or community activity, especially those which challenge the interests of economically-powerful groups.

Join us to find out what you can do to #DefendtheDefenders.

Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Time: 6 PM – 8 PM

Location: UCL Archeology Lecture Theatre, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY

Speakers

John Dew (former UK Ambassador to Colombia)

Mariela Kohon (former director Justice for Colombia and advisor in the Colombian peace process)

Sebastian Ordoñez (Senior International Programmes Officer, War on Want)

Chair: Gwen Burnyeat (PhD Candidate UCL, Rodeemos el Diálogo)

The hope that the peace agreement between the Santos Administration and the FARC would bring security for all is rapidly fading. Instead, an increasingly authoritarian government responding to the interests of corporate power, coupled with a burgeoning of paramilitary activity and indiscriminate violence, bears all the hallmarks of the type of predatory extractivism that led to the armed conflict in the first place.

Civil society and the international community must take action to #DefendTheDefenders in Colombia.

Joining the commemorative acts on the Colombian National Day for Memory and Solidarity with the Victims of the Armed Conflict, this event brings human rights defenders, academics, practitioners and politicians to discuss the current situation in the country, and what we can do to support those on the frontlines. 

Sign up to the event on Facebook >

The organisers will launch the #DefendTheDefenders campaign on the night of the event.

The #DefendTheDefenders campaign is formed of civil society and human rights organisations based in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, seeks to oppose and raise awareness of the murders of human rights defenders in Colombia, and is supported by War on Want, Rodeemos el Diálogo, Justice For Colombia and the UCL Colombian Society ABColombia, Latin American Solidarity Centre (Dublin), Colombian Caravana, Diaspora Woman, Agenda Internacional de Paz, Grupo Europa de Familiares Desaparecidos de Colombia, Paz a la Calle Internacional, Congreso de los Pueblos, Colombia Humana Nodo Londres, Beyond Skin (Northern Ireland), Escuelas de Paz, Marcha Patriótica UK and the Colombia Solidarity Campaign.