UN warns about forced disappearances in Colombia

Colombia is the only country in Latin America where people continue to be victim of forced disappearance, says the UN and criticizes Colombia for “diluting the responsibility of the State”.

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the UN’s Human Rights Council is meeting in Argentina to commemorate the 30,000 people that disappeared during the military junta in the South American country in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

“In Colombia we continue to see cases of enforced disappearances. Only in exceptional cases this occurs in other Latin American countries, but not like in Colombia,” chairman of the Working Group, Santiago Corcuera said.

The Working Group criticizes the definition of ‘enforced disappearance’ in Colombian law, because it “dilutes the responsibility of the State”.

Corcuera said the Working Group had no plans to visit Colombia, because it has only received an open invitation, instead of the required concrete invitation to visit the country and be informed about the situation.

NGOs estimate more than 30,000 people have disappeared in Colombia over the past years. The country’s prosecution is currently investigating 15,600 cases of people that are suspected victim of enforced disappearance.

Source: Colombia Reports. Click here for the original article (external link)