In 2016, after over 50 years of armed conflict and great violence, the Colombian state signed a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Unfortunately, as our partners in the country had feared, the agreement has not brought peace and tranquility. Rural areas rich in agro-industrial and mineral resources are particularly hard-hit by neo-extractivism and the illegal trafficking of drugs, weapons, minerals and people. Conflict-related violence continues, with the abuses of various armed groups (paramilitaries, Colombian armed forces, FARC dissidents and ELN guerrillas), murders, massacres and massive forced displacements.
Colombia is the world’s deadliest country for land and environmental defenders
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for human rights and environmental activists. According to Global Witness, 48 defenders were killed in Colombia in 2024, accounting for a third of all lethal attacks on activists around the world that year. The victims are mainly peasants, Indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombian leaders and journalists. Historically, the Colombian state has done little to protect them.
After winning the May 2022 presidential election, Gustavo Petro took office in August as the country’s first leftist president Environmental activist Francia Marquez became the first Afro-Colombian vice-president. There was great hope that the duo represented a historic opportunity for human rights and environmental defenders to begin working with the state after having long been criminalized by it. Our partners hoped that Colombia would finally be able to address deep-seated socioeconomic inequities, including unequal land distribution, lack of public services, gender inequality, racism, organized crime and internal displacement.
However, the International Displacement and Monitoring Centre reported that 293,000 people were forcibly displaced in Colombia in 2023, down from the 339,000 in 2022. This slight drop can be explained by ceasefires negotiated between the state and certain armed groups, including FARC and ELN dissidents. Yet, the number, which has since risen gain, clearly demonstrates the risks that local populations run daily. Most displacements were caused by direct attacks on civilians and confrontations between armed groups attempting to expand their territories and activities (especially drug trafficking, illegal forestry and illegal mining).
Colombian government data indicate that over half the forced internal displacements in 2023 occurred in the Colombian Pacific, mainly among Afro-Colombian and Indigenous populations. Residents of the countryside (peasant farmers and Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities) continue to work for the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement, especially its promise of agrarian reform for reducing rural inequities.
Inflation and unemployment, too, are rising, and a recession may be on the way. Organized crime and insecurity threaten rights defenders and weaken the government’s ability to advance social justice. Climate change and environmental protection constitute a significant challenge. Increasingly violent rains are causing major floods, and illegal logging and mining are causing serious environment harm. According to Humanitarian Action, 6.9 million people in Colombia need humanitarian assistance, including 2.8 million Venezuelan refugees and millions of Colombians displaced by the armed conflict that continues to spread violence in much of the countryside.
Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada works in Colombia because it is one of the most unequal countries in the world and because the country has never undergone genuine agrarian reform. Also, one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, Colombia is one of the most dangerous for human rights and environmental defenders. Its biodiversity and peoples, including communities in diverse environments, are greatly threatened by agro-industrial, mining and hydro-dam projects, all for external commerce.
We also work in Colombia also because the armed conflict of more than 50 years forced millions of poor Colombians, especially rural populations, off their lands and into misery. We will continue to support Colombian organizations and communities working to bring peace, to increase the participation of women and young people in community and political affairs, and to protect the environment.
Our Colombia program focuses on two themes: (1) strengthening organizations to defend the territory and (2) protecting people and the environment. Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant peoples are the most marginalized, impoverished and endangered in Colombia. The most threatened territories, all rural, are being pillaged for resources, principally by heavily polluting, export-oriented monocrop agro-industrial projects and legal and illegal mining projects. Our country program is therefore focused on rural areas and people, supporting their struggle for rights, environmental sustainability, gender equality, citizen participation, effective public policy and peacebuilding, with a strong focus on Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant women and youths.
Our programming in the country is structured around four areas of focus:
Citizen participation (particularly of the most marginalized groups, such as women, youths and rural communities), by training, organizing and mobilizing communities that are working for collective rights and well-being through public policy on health, education, housing, employment, sustainable and inclusive development, and peacebuilding.
Ecological justice, because of the importance of the biodiversity of Colombia and its Amazon region. This biodiversity and rural populations are threatened by export-oriented neo-extractivism (agro-industry and mining).
Justice for women, because they are the invisible victims in armed conflicts, targeted and exploited by all sides whilst also being burdened with maintaining their families in dangerous conditions. Women are amongst those most affected by inequality, poverty and conflict. They need to be active, engaged leaders in development initiatives to bring about social justice and peace.
Peace and reconciliation, because accords have not brought peace. The people need to be protagonists in building a new culture of peace, building and living in peace every day. After 50 years of conflict, it will take decades to build new habits and ways of responding and thinking, and of viewing and treating others. It is essential that the most vulnerable populations and those most affected by the conflict (women, young people and Indigenous, Afro-Colombians, peasant communities) participate in building this new culture of peace.
We will continue to work with rural communities affected by the armed conflict and promote peace and environmental sustainability in their territories. We will continue to focus on Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant women and youths who are members and leaders of rural organizations. We will support their work for social inclusion, sustainable development and peace, responding to the needs of the people and the cry of the Earth. Our partners, who are eager to work on the agrarian aspects of the 2017 peace accord, have been preparing their participation and proposals for some time now.
In October 2024, many of our partners, ex-partners and allies went to the COP16 on biodiversity in Cali, Colombia, to reinforce the connections between biodiversity and climate. They also put proposed alternatives to extractivism, promoted by civil society groups (like Afro-Colombian, Indigenous and peasant movements) as the solution for safeguarding our common home.
Multisectoral response to the humanitarian crisis of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia (2020-2024)
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