We have fellowships for defenders from the Global South: Be part of the 2025 cohort!
This opportunity allows human rights defenders from countries in the Global South who are in emergency or high-risk situations to develop their projects and participate in an academic and cultural exchange in a safe space. Apply before January 31, 2025.
Read MoreJustice for victims of the armed conflict in Peru, again at risk
Law 32107 blocks investigations and sanctions for war crimes prior to 2002 in Peru. This affects more than 69,000 victims of the armed conflict, mainly indigenous and peasant communities, perpetuating impunity, exclusion and making social reconciliation difficult in a polarized country.
Read MoreThe Darien route: a journey of survival that calls for more humane migration policies
Migration through the Darién reflects a humanitarian and human rights crisis. Restrictive policies, external influences and socioeconomic contexts deepen these migratory flows. It’s urgent that Latin American countries develop regional policies based on human rights to protect migrants and communities.
Read MoreExpansion of the Technological Frontier: Connectivity and Community in Rural and Indigenous Areas of Colombia and Brazil
Faced with the processes of violence and social exclusion in rural areas, community networks offer a viable alternative to guarantee access to communication and dignity.
Read MoreStrengthening civil society as an avenue for environmental governance
The past Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity had one of the largest levels of civil society participation in the green zone. This space, which has traditionally been designed for the presence and voice of NGOs and local actors, was one of the most outstanding spaces, as it reached a participation…
Read MoreBiodiverse business: the private sector at COP16
One of the indicators of success was the participation of the private sector in COP16. Under the guise of the green economy, the national government and the business community sought to position a message of progress in terms of economic diversification and energy transition based on the opportunities offered by the environmental market. Specifically, the…
Read MoreReflections on civil society participation and advocacy at COP 16
The historic participation of civil society was the highlight of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16), which took place in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 1. This article proposes some critical, contextual reflections that can be used by civil society to address future meetings like this…
Read MoreWho were “the people” at COP16? Reflections on where “The People’s COP” leaves us
One of the outstanding achievements of the 16th edition of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) held in Cali, Colombia was citizen participation. Naming it “The People’s COP”, the national government wanted to send a message to the world that it would be an event different from other international negotiation spaces, with the broad and…
Read MoreColombia: going back to the original balance of justice
There is a crucial aspect of Colombia’s transitional justice model that is worrying: the current inability of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) to offer legal security to those who participated in the conflict, including in human rights violations, and have not been identified as among the most responsible. And making sure they also contribute to the satisfaction of the rights of the victims. The JEP must avoid keep moving towards maximalist approaches and go back to the balance in the Peace Agreement.
Read MoreFrom the G20 to COP29 and the IACHR: three spaces in which Dejusticia will urge the need for reforms to the financial architecture
Dejusticia will be participating, together with allied organizations, in advocacy activities in these three spaces in order to propose responses to the climate emergency.
Read MoreMexico: reforming justice, weakening democracy
This Mexican experience has confirmed the urgency of resolving the historical problems of justice, but without undermining the pillars of human rights, the balance of powers and democracy itself.
Read MoreLe pedimos a la Corte que proteja el #DerechoADefenderDerechos de niños y adolescentes
La intervención se da en el marco de un proceso de tutela presentado por un niño quien denunció diversas violaciones a derechos fundamentales y los de sus compañeras perpetradas por su colegio, asociadas con el acceso a la educación y al libre desarrollo de la personalidad de los niños, niñas y adolescentes LGBTIQ+. Para Dejusticia, el colegio también afectó el derecho a defender los derechos humanos de los menores.
Read MoreState intelligence gathering on the internet and social media: the case of Colombia
In this report, we explore this subject by drawing on the “Secret Dossiers” case published in 2020 by Semana magazine, which shows how the Colombian state exploits social media and the internet in order to monitor and profile individuals.
Read MoreMujeres cuidadoras e ingreso mínimo: la Corte Constitucional trazó reglas que las protegen
El caso de 24 mujeres trabajadoras domésticas y migrantes excluidas del Programa Ingreso Solidario (PIS) condujo a un importante fallo que, en adelante, permitirá incluir la particular situación de las mujeres más vulnerables en cualquier ayuda del Estado.
Read MoreAgainst the Current: Human Rights and Climate Justice in the Global South
Against the Current is the result of the collective effort of participants from Dejusticia’s seventh annual Global Action-Research Workshop for Young Human Rights Advocates.
Read MoreThe immigration policy of the United States and its implications in Latin America
The United States has implemented different measures to prevent the entry of migrants and refugees into its territory, including extending its immigration policy to Latin American countries.
Read MoreThe binationality of the Wayuu people: the pending debt of Venezuela and Colombia
The Wayuu arrive in Colombia to seek refuge but crashes with a wall that prevents them from accessing social services and fundamental rights: the Colombian State has not recognized the binationality of the Wayuu people in practice.
Read MoreThe binationality of the Wayuu people: the vision from their cosmology
The Wayuu people have demanded the recognition of their binationality, appealing to the legal and political link that unites them with Colombia and Venezuela, which should translate into a full guarantee of rights and citizenship in both countries.
Read MoreUnder Surveillance: (Mis)use of Technologies in Emergency Responses
Surveillance technologies exacerbated the impacts of Covid-19 emergency measures on civic space by allowing governments to collect fine-grained data about individuals while also working across large scales of information, in a way that has been unprecedented in the history of global pandemics.
Read MoreEnergy transition and human rights in the Global South
The lack of a human rights and energy policy feeds the growing conflict in the territories. It will be hard to end all forms of violence associated with our reliance on fossil fuels at any cost until we decide to retrace our steps by focusing on a just transition.
Read MoreStrategic Litigation Manual: From Theory to Practice, Lessons from Colombia & Lebanon
The manual presents the theory of strategic litigation with examples of real cases brought by Dejusticia and The Legal Agenda. We encourage readers to continue to add to it with each new case they have the opportunity to work on.
Read MoreFiscal policy in the regulation of adult-use cannabis in Colombia
Drugs are not the Devil, but nor are they child’s play. A drug policy that would be respectful of human rights and safeguard public health must lie at an intermediate point between full liberalization and the prohibition currently in place.
Read MoreReimagining the Future of Human Rights
The chapters in this book offer a snapshot of the current state of Human Rights that can help guide our work as activists and researchers.
Read MoreResisting authoritarian tendencies in Latin America
Although the fight against authoritarian tendencies cannot be addressed simply with rights and the people who defend them, we believe that these types of strategies, insofar as they articulate different social sectors, contribute to the deepening of democratic practices.
Read MoreMigration and Decent Work: Challenges for the Global South
This book seeks to strenghten the Human Rights movement through collaboration and the sharing of experiences. The diversity of voices featured here offers a look at migration based on and geared toward the Global South.
Read MoreCivil Resistance Against 21st Century Athoritarianism
Thorugh various narratives, the authors seek to recognize new spaces for struggle —such as political activism— to develop action-research tools in a context of crisis.
Read MoreColombian Democracy in the Streets
Confronted with the violence in the protests, the government and political leaders, as well as social leaders, must first promote the de-escalation, putting human rights at the center of the crisis management.
Read MoreGender discrimination in Football. Building a Toolbox Toward Gender Equity in the Beautiful Game
As the most popular sport worldwide, football (or soccer) may be the poster child for lingering gender disparities in sport.
Read MoreFrom Snow Angels to a Humanitarian Emergency
If States like Texas with ample means to tackle climate change fail to do so, the world as a whole fails given that the planet loses momentum in the collective effort to become more resilient against this phenomenon.
Read MoreData Feast: Enterprises and Personal Data in Latin America
Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft now possess an ability to reconfigure the behaviour of individuals, clients, and citizens globally. How Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico are responding?
Read MoreDespite Biden’s Victory, Authoritarian Populism Continues to Threaten U.S. Democracy
The Republican Party violates norms which protect democracy more frequently than 85% of other political parties leading democracies around the world. Their lack of commitment to these norms shows that the U.S. political system could be weakened even further if another antidemocratic leader comes to power.
Read MoreInternational Humanitarian Law and Victims of Child Recruitment as Targets of an Attack
An interpretation of the spirit of IHL, manifested in the principles of military necessity and humanity, as well as the IHRL standards applicable to children, should always prohibit the State from causing excessive death or injury. There is nothing more excessive than killing recruited children —vulnerable, discriminated against, and abandoned by the State— in order to gain a military advantage that could have been achieved through other means.
Read MoreEngaging with Big Business: Seeking Accountability for the Human Rights Impacts of Corporate Activities
A course on Business and Human Rights organized by Dejusticia
Read MoreStrategic Litigation: Inward and Outward Learning
Challenges to counter initiatives that aim at weakening human rights systems
Read MoreLearning into the future: our experience with partners
Challenges to counter initiatives that aim at weakening human rights systems
Read MoreLearning how to learn more effectively
Challenges to counter initiatives that aim at weakening human rights systems
Read MoreLearning how to reinvent a partnership
Challenges to counter initiatives that aim at weakening human rights systems
Read MoreLessons for civil society organizations on reforming international Human Rights Systems
Challenges to counter initiatives that aim at weakening human rights systems
Read MoreIndigenous Leaders of the World: Register for the Third Global Indigenous Workshop
The concept of the “living jungle” will be the guide for this workshop, which will occur in December in the territory of the Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Applications open until July 10.
Read More7th Global Action-Research Workshop for Young Human Rights Advocates
The goal of the Workshop is to strengthen the writing and advocacy skills of the participants.
Read MoreBusiness and Human Rights: New responses to ensure Human Rights are guaranteed in corporate activities
A course on Business and Human Rights organized by Dejusticia
Read MoreEighth Global Action-Research Workshop for Young Human Rights Advocates
We invite applications from young professionals from the Global South who are engaged in advocacy around migration
Read MoreColombia must obtain resources to guarantee the right to health of Venezuelan migrants: Constitutional Court
The high court protected the right to health of two undocumented Venezuelans and requested the government to advance as “expeditiously and effectively as possible” towards the full realization of migrants’ right to health, regardless of their immigration status. Dejusticia intervened in the case.
Read MoreDejusticia intervenes in defense of Venezuelan migrants’ right to health
The Constitutional Court invited Dejusticia to present their legal opinion on two cases concerning the right to health of people coming from Venezuela.
Read MoreThe foreign minister’s silence on Colombians imprisoned in Venezuela
More than 60 innocent Colombians sleep in Venezuelan jail cells. Although similar situations have resulted in diplomatic confrontations between Venezuela and countries such as Brazil, in Colombia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, María Ángela Holguín has kept a low profile.
Read MoreThe long wait of the JEP ahead of the decisions of the Constitutional Court and Congress
In the last six months civil society organizations, such as Dejusticia, have called on both institutions to give free rein to the norms that consolidate the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.
Read MoreCase of indigenous people of Bojayá who could not vote in the plebiscite is about to reach the Court
Through a tutela, a group of Emberá claimed their rights to political participation and equality, because their economic situation and how far they live made it impossible for them to move to endorse the Peace Agreement. Dejusticia, human rights organizations, and indigenous leaders asked the High Court to review the case.
Read MoreThe Constitutional Court has the last word to save the Ciénaga Grande of Santa Marta
The environmental crisis of this ecosystem led fishermen to pursue a legal battle that reached the High Court. In this intervention, we support their demand that environmental authorities take urgent measures to stop the disaster and thus, protect their rights to healthy environment, dignified life and work.
Read MoreGender focus in rural reform is important but insufficient
The Gender-in-Peace Working Group -GPAZ, a group of which Dejusticia is a member, took part in the Public Hearing convened by the Constitutional Court, within the framework of the informal constitutional review of Decree 902 of 2017 “to facilitate the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Reform contemplated in the Final Land Agreement, specifically the procedure for access and formalization and the Land Fund.”
Read MoreRural reform decree to resolve historic debt with peasants
Terrible conditions in the countryside and lack of access to land are linked to the armed conflict. Point one of the Peace Agreement, which is under study by the Constitutional Court, addresses these issues. Dejusticia presented an intervention supporting most of its content.
Read MoreThe national government geographically isolated Chocó
We intervened to support a tutela that requires the government to pave the
Quibdó-Medellín and Quibdó-Pereira roads: a promise that has historically been unfulfilled.
Prison is not the only sanction in transitional justice mechanisms
César Rodríguez defended that the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Repetition is in line with the Constitution. Regarding penalties, he affirmed that international law discusses effective sanctions, not imprisonment.
Read MoreThe reform that gives stability and legal certainty to the Peace Agreement is constitutional
Dejusticia defended the constitutionality of the Legislative Act that gives legal certainty to the Final Agreement, and stressed that its contents respond to fundamental rights and international humanitarian law norms.
Read MoreFirst Global Workshop on Human Rights Strategies for Indigenous Leaders in the Global South
Dejusticia and the Racial Discrimination Watch opens their call to the First Global Workshop on Human Rights Strategies for Indigenous Leaders in the Global South. The workshop will be held in Colombia in December 2017. The call for proposals is open until June 10th.
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