Thank you for the question.
I believe it is true that some progress has been made in Colombia regarding the justice system. For instance, a new penal procedure was implemented lately, starting in 2004, but it has also entailed a lot of problems for litigation lawyers.
That being said, there still remains a long way to go. As I was saying, there are still links between the paramilitary and some parts of the justice system that have been proven in front of tribunals. Also, there is a failure to put an end to impunity. A lot of cases still remain to be merely investigated: no investigation, no inculpation, and of course no court decision.
There are, for instance, some specific cases, which we look at, of attacks against human rights defenders. For years we have been going back to Colombia and asking, “Where is the investigation in this case?”, and the answer is always the same: we have empty files in front of us.
What can we do? Once again, the message for us is that we now have leverage because we are negotiating a free trade deal with Colombia. Within the negotiation process, it's possible for us to put in conditions to say we would like to see this and this realized.