Thank you.
Mr. Chairman and honourable committee members, I am honoured to appear before you today. Thank you for your invitation to address the problem of violence against trade unionists in Colombia and the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement.
I would like to request that my written remarks, which I have already submitted, be incorporated into the record of this hearing.
I am the senior Americas researcher who covers Colombia for Human Rights Watch, the largest international human rights organization based in the United States. Human Rights Watch is an independent non-governmental organization supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. We accept no government funds, directly or indirectly. We have offices in numerous cities around the world, including an office in Toronto, which has been very active in raising awareness about human rights issues in Canada.
Human Rights Watch has monitored Colombia's human rights situation for nearly two decades. We have covered abuses by government forces as well as by the left-wing FARC and the ELN guerillas who engage in systematic and horrific violations of the laws of war, including kidnappings and the use of child soldiers.
We have also reported on abuses by drug-running paramilitaries who have engaged in widespread atrocities, massacres, killings, and extortion, often with a toleration and sometimes with the collaboration of military units.
Human Rights Watch does not have a position on free trade agreements per se, with one exception. We believe that any free trade agreement should be premised on respect for fundamental human rights, including especially the rights of the workers who are producing the goods that are to be traded.
I think if you agree with this basic point, then you must also agree that at this time Canada should not enter a free trade agreement with Colombia.
I have heard it said a number of times, including by Prime Minister Harper, that the FTA should not be used to address all of Colombia's human rights problems. But these statements are simply setting up a straw man. It's true that Colombia does have the worst human rights and humanitarian situation in the region, with many serious problems. But the key issue that we have raised in connection with the free trade agreement is a very specific problem, and that is the extremely high rate of violence against trade unionists in Colombia and the failure of the Colombian government to hold accountable those responsible for the violence and to dismantle the paramilitary groups to which many of the killers belong.
This is an issue that's directly related to free trade. Canada should not grant permanent duty-free access to goods that are in many cases produced by workers who cannot exercise their rights without fear of being killed.
For years Colombia has led the world in trade unionist killings. More than 2,500 unionists have been murdered in Colombia from 1986 to the present. More than 400 of them have been killed during the government of current President Alvaro Uribe, according to the National Labour School, the main non-governmental organization in Colombia documenting this violence.
The number of killings has dropped from its peak in the 1990s, but it remains extremely high. Last year, 39 trade unionists were killed, and killings are increasing substantially this year, with the National Labour School reporting 24 killings and four disappearances just through the middle of April.
According to the government statistics, which are slightly different, 22 trade unionists have been killed through April of this year, representing a 50% increase in killings of teachers who are unionized and a 400% increase in the killings of trade unionists from other sectors.
A principal factor contributing to the ongoing violence against trade unionists has been the Colombian government's persistent failure to bring the killers to justice. Despite the thousands of reported killings, in only 78 cases has anyone been convicted. Nearly one-third of those convicted have served no prison time, and the main reason there are even this many convictions is the fact that the U.S. Congress has delayed ratification of the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement. In fact, throughout most of the Uribe administration, the rate of convictions for trade unionist killings has been consistently low, all the way through 2006. There were nine convictions in 2003, eleven in 2004, nine again in 2005, and eleven again in 2006.
It was only in 2007 that the number jumped to 43. This sudden increase is due directly to the pressure from the United States Congress in connection with the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, which led to the establishment of a specialized group of prosecutors in the Colombian attorney general's office to focus on investigating these cases. The increase in convictions is a sign that when the government wants to produce results, it can. But once the pressure is lifted, the Uribe administration will lose its main motivation for supporting the investigations.
In fact, what the Colombian government often fails to mention in discussing violence against unionists is that many of the killings are committed by right-wing paramilitary death squads that openly admit to deliberately targeting trade unionists, whom they stigmatize as collaborators of left-wing guerillas. The New York Times recently described how a unionist earlier this year was forceably “disappeared”, burned with acid, and killed after he participated in protests against paramilitary violence.
The paramilitaries have typically worked closely with important sectors of the military and intelligent systems, and they have heavily infiltrated the political system. More than 60 members of the Colombian congress, nearly all of whom are part of President Uribe's coalition, are now under criminal investigation for collaborating with paramilitaries. More than 30 of them are under arrest, including Senator Mario Uribe, President Uribe's cousin and closest political partner over the last two decades.
One case of particular importance involves Jorge Noguera, President Uribe's former national intelligence director from 2002 to 2005. Noguera is under investigation for allegedly providing paramilitaries with the names of trade unionists who were later killed. The evidence against Mr. Noguera is serious enough that the U.S. has revoked his visa.
It's important to bear in mind that nearly all these investigations are the result of an initiative by the Colombian supreme court, which a couple of years ago decided to organize itself to specifically investigate the paramilitary infiltration of congress. They are not the result of any initiative by the Uribe administration. Once the investigations had started, President Uribe did provide funding to the court, but he has simultaneously taken steps that could undermine the investigations. He has repeatedly launched personal attacks against supreme court justices, and even at one point floated a proposal to allow the politicians to avoid prison entirely. He later tabled that proposal after it became evident that it would be an obstacle to ratification of the U.S.-Colombia FTA.
An additional blow to the investigations in Colombia is the fact that President Uribe recently ordered the extradition of nearly all the top paramilitary leadership to the United States to face drug charges. The fact that these criminal bosses will finally face real justice for at least some of their crimes--the drug crimes--is a positive development. The extradition also means they will no longer be able to continue ordering crimes from prison, as they were doing in Colombia.
However, the timing of the extradition raises serious concerns for us. The decision to extradite came only after some of these commanders had actually started to cooperate, and others had announced plans to do so by beginning to talk to Colombian investigators about their links with Colombian military and government officials, including generals and politicians close to the president. Now that they are in the United States, they will have little incentive to cooperate with Colombian prosecutors and will almost certainly be advised by their lawyers to remain silent. Numerous institutions that track the military demobilizations and the investigations, including the Colombian inspector general's office, and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, have expressed concerns that the investigations will be seriously affected.
Meanwhile, paramilitary organizations continue operating and engaging in violence under new leadership. The Colombian government claims most of these organizations have demobilized and are now extinct; however, nearly all the 30,000 people who supposedly demobilized are free and have never been investigated. Dozens of new groups that are closely linked to the paramilitary, such as the Black Eagles, are operating all over the country, engaging in extortion, killings, forced displacement, and drug trafficking.
Eight foreign embassies in Bogota, the Organization of American States' mission verifying the demobilization, and scores of human rights defenders and trade unionists have reported receiving threats from these new groups in recent months. I have personally interviewed several victims of these new groups, who have seen their sons and sisters horrifically tortured and murdered. To them, the government's claim that paramilitaries are now extinct is a pretty cruel joke.
Let me emphasize again, as I'm wrapping up, that it is our view that any free trade agreement should be based on respect for fundamental human rights, particularly the rights of the workers producing the goods to be traded. Colombia does not meet that standard at this time. By delaying consideration of the free trade deal, Canada would be creating valuable leverage that could be used to finally get Colombia's government to seriously address anti-union violence and impunity in a sustained manner.
This opportunity would be squandered if Canada were to approve an FTA prematurely, at a time when the Colombian government's commitment to break the power of paramilitaries and to protect workers' rights remains ambiguous. Once a deal is approved, the Uribe government will lose its main incentive to address these serious problems.
In this context, if Canada were to enter a free trade agreement with Colombia, many Colombians and international observers would understandably believe that Canada does not mean what it says when it talks about human rights, as it would apparently be willing to overlook the plight of Colombia's workers and the influence of its murderous paramilitaries.
Canada has historically been considered one of the most important international leaders in the promotion of human rights in Colombia. I urge you to maintain that reputation by providing assistance to Colombia, to its institutions of justice, and to the promotion of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, and by refusing to consider the trade deal at this time.
Thank you very much.
