A/HRC/43/51/Add.1 willingness of President Iván Duque to receive technical cooperation and a possible follow-up visit. 69. Having examined the information received from the Government, civil society and other stakeholders, the Special Rapporteur has concluded that the vast majority of human rights defenders in Colombia are unable to work in a safe and supportive environment. They lack positive social and public recognition and are undermined and criminalized because of their human rights work by State and non-State actors. They are in danger and the risks they face have increased in the three years since the signing of the Peace Agreement. At least 323 defenders have been killed since then, against a backdrop of high rates of impunity. Colombia remains the country with the highest number of murdered human rights defenders in Latin America, and threats against them have soared. 70. Leaders defending human rights and promoting peace agreements in the rural areas most affected by the conflict are the main targets of killings, attacks and other human rights violations. These violations have a gender dimension when committed against women human rights defenders. Defenders in Colombia are also at risk and suffer violations and abuses of their rights when they defend the land, environment and human rights of indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians against State interests and non-State actors such as national and international corporations and other power groups. This is due to a combination of factors and unresolved structural problems. 71. The demobilization of FARC-EP was not accompanied by the mobilization and integrated presence of the State in the areas previously under its control; this inaction and/or absence of the State has allowed illegal armed groups and criminal groups to reorganize power around illicit economies. Defenders who oppose the control of these groups or their interests by defending human rights and pushing for the implementation of the peace agreements, and in particular the substitution of coca crops, have become the targets of attacks. Unfortunately, in this difficult context they lack effective State protection. 72. The delays, lack of political determination and failure to allocate sufficient funds for the implementation of the Peace Agreement, which prioritizes, among other things, the dismantling of these groups and the integrated presence of the State, is undoubtedly one of the key structural causes that keeps human rights defenders at risk. Moreover, it jeopardizes the prospect of a lasting peace, to the detriment of Colombian society as a whole. It also remains to be seen what impact the recent rearmament of a minority of former FARC-EP combatants will have on the implementation of the Peace Agreement and on the situation of human rights defenders. 73. The Special Rapporteur notes that two other structural factors are involved: the State’s historical debt with respect to the human rights of ethnic communities and campesinos and their access to land, which has so far proved to be in the interests of national and international corporations and certain elites, and the lack of agrarian reform and land restitution. The number of conflicts related to the protection of land and environmental rights will continue to increase until the issue of a sustainable development model is addressed and a human rights-based agreement is reached with the affected communities. 74. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the Government of Colombia: (a) Reaffirm political commitment to the Peace Agreement and prioritize its implementation, allocating the necessary resources to do so, in particular the mechanisms for the protection of human rights defenders, ensuring: (i) The effective functioning of the National Committee for Security Guarantees and the adoption and implementation of a public and criminal policy to dismantle criminal organizations or conduct that attacks defenders (ii) The comprehensive deployment of civilian institutions and State services (security, justice, education, health, etc.), prioritizing areas where human rights defenders are most at risk, and an approach to security matters based on human security and emphasizing training of security forces in human rights, gender issues and the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders GE.19-22542 17