A/HRC/7/39 page 18 53. FARC-EP continued to isolate a number of communities,43 on occasion planting anti-personnel mines, which has seriously affected the economic, social and cultural rights of the population to the point of preventing access to health care and food. 54. The Government has increased the funding allocated to meet the needs of the displaced population and its budgetary effort is significant. However, the Controller General, the Procurator General and the Constitutional Court have drawn attention to persisting deficiencies with regard to the differentiated attention to specific population groups (such as women, indigenous, Afro-Colombians) and inequity in handling protected rights, especially the right to housing. Cases of forced displacement (a crime under Colombian law, which has driven almost 2 million Colombians off their land)44 have not been properly investigated, and very few perpetrators have been convicted and reparation has been granted in very few cases.45 55. The Constitutional Court has actively followed up the issue of displaced persons and established indicators to measure the effective enjoyment of rights and to overcome the situation that it had declared unconstitutional, among other means, by extending the three-month period of humanitarian emergency aid offered by the State until the affected persons can support themselves. The court also made it clear that the State must take full responsibility for the stabilization of the situation of all displaced persons. 3. Indigenous groups and Afro-Colombians 56. Indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups - who make up a considerable percentage of the displaced population - have been particularly affected. This situation is partly due to the fact that they are located in territories that are strategic in the dynamics of the internal armed conflict, and partly because they have suffered from discrimination and marginalization. In addition, they have also been affected by large-scale productive projects imposed on their collectively held territories and by legislation unfavourable to traditional forms of production, by the development of major infrastructure projects - such as dams which can negatively impact the environment and by the aerial spraying of illegal crops. 57. Serious violations committed against indigenous ethnic communities have been attributed to illegal armed groups. One instance was the massacre of eight Awá and Pastos Indians in the 43 In Arauca, the population has been affected by restrictions to the circulation of traffic imposed by FARC-EP on roads connecting the municipalities of Arauca, Saravena and Tame. 44 Official figure given by the United Registry System (SUR, Sistema Único de Registro), although non-official figures report up to 3 million displaced persons. 45 The Council of State’s decision of November 2007 declared the State responsible for the damages caused to 538 persons displaced from the rural district of Filogringo (Municipality of El Tarra, Department of Norte de Santander) following a paramilitary attack in March 2000, fining the State almost 12 billion Colombian pesos (equivalent to about US$ 6 million) in reparations.