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On the Ground
Explore our work with partners, globally and locally, to tackle social and economic injustice using a human rights lens.
We Participated in the National Human Rights Day in Colombia
On 11 September, our Executive Director, Camila Barretto Maia, and our Programme Officer on the Right to Education, Juana Barragán, participated in the commemoration of the National Human Rights Day in Colombia, organised by the Defensoría del Pueblo (Human Rights Institution) in Colombia and hosted by the Externado University in Bogota, Colombia.
The event brought together diverse voices around three key pillars shaping the human rights landscape in Colombia today:
- Inclusion, Equality, and Equity;
- Peacebuilding and Victims’ Reparation; and,
- Environmental Justice and Human Rights.
Iris Marín, the first woman to serve as Colombia’s Ombudswoman, presented the national human rights agenda as a consolidated achievement, primarily made possible by the 1991 Constitution. She framed this agenda as a call to action, a concrete demand for a “buen futuro” (better future). She stressed the duty of all public institutions, including the Defensoría del Pueblo, to make rights real and effective. She also emphasised the importance of dialogue as a fundamental tool to build more just societies and realities.
Our Executive Director contributed to the first panel by underscoring that ESCR cannot be fulfilled without accessible, equitable, and adequately funded public services. She warned about the risks of privatisation and reiterated the essential role of the State’s regulatory capacity and that it is the ultimate duty bearer of public services. She also stressed the importance of progressive fiscal reforms to ensure adequate resource mobilisation for the provision of public services.
Other distinguished speakers included Scott Campbell, the Representative of the UN High Commissioner in Colombia; Laura Gil, Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS); Javier Palummo, Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (SRESC) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); Emilsen González de Cancino, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Externado University; Juanita Goebertus Estrada, Director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division; José Otty Patiño Hormaza, Colombia’s High Commissioner for Peace, among many more committed to advancing human rights in Colombia.
To conclude the day's commemoration, we were invited to participate in a guided visit to the Defensoría del Pueblo's human rights museum, Centro Cultural para la Educación en Derechos Humanos (Cultural Centre for Human Rights Education). The museum plays a key role in raising awareness on the importance of human rights and the institution’s work on the matter. It is an interactive space that engages a broad audience through experiential learning, including younger generations through school visits.
