Litigation

Constitutional claim for victims of forced disappearance to be recognized as victims of political violence in order for them to have access to humanitarian aid.Abril 21 of 2010

Defendant: Artículo 15 de la Ley 418 de 1997, tal como fue modificado por el artículo 6 de la Ley 782 de 2002, y artículo 49 de la Ley 418 de 1997.

It is estimated that in Colombia there have been nearly 50,000 forced disappearances. Despite this shocking number and despite the gravity and atrocity of the crime, relatives of missing persons are not recognized in the Act 418 of 1997 as victims of political violence and therefore are not beneficiaries of humanitarian aid. The granting of such aid to the families of missing people has been subject in practice to the discretion of Social Action functionaries who, in the best cases, have attempted to apply the requirements that are demanded to relatives of murdered people. Families of missing people have been requested to overtake civil proceedings to obtain the declaration of presumed death in order to replace the death certificate that must be provided by families of murdered ones. Putting forward this process involves not only a disproportionate expenditure for disappearance victims but also a painful experience that leads them to resign to their hope of finding their missing. This claim, submitted jointly by the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation and Dejusticia, aims to correct this legislative omission so that victims of forced disappearance are recognized as victims of political violence and so that they have access to humanitarian aid without having to advance processes of presumed death declaration.

Related Documents

  Lawsuit file by Dejusticia

  Amicus curiae of EATIP

  Amicus curiae of ECAP

  Intervention AVRE

  Concept Comisión Colombiana de Juristas