A/HRC/43/51/Add.1 (iii) Sufficient funds and personnel for the special unit of the Attorney General’s Office for the investigation and prosecution of crimes against human rights defenders (iv) The autonomy of the early warning system of the Ombudsman’s Office and the implementation of a coordinated and effective response to risks faced by human rights defenders by the competent authorities, and the proper functioning of the Comprehensive Security and Protection Programme for Communities and Organizations in the Territories (v) A national development, agrarian reform and land restitution plan with an ethnic and human rights focus and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. (b) Adopt and implement the Comprehensive Public Policy on Respect and Guarantees for the Work of Human Rights Defenders with the participation and agreement of civil society, ensuring the necessary time for its adoption and sufficient resources for its implementation. This policy should include a territorial, gender, ethnic and age-sensitive approach and should prioritize prevention and activate gender programmes and measures, including the Comprehensive Programme of Guarantees for Women Leaders and Human Rights Defenders and its plan of action. (c) Publicly recognize, on a regular basis, including through media and social campaigns, the fundamental role of human rights defenders in society and condemn violations and attempts to undermine and criminalize them, supporting the Procurator’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office in taking disciplinary and other measures against officials and public authorities that act against human rights defenders. Prosecutors and judges should also receive training on the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. (d) Continue to prioritize the fight against impunity for murders of human rights defenders, undertaking to make progress in the investigation of all murders, threats and other violations committed prior to the Peace Agreement, beyond the murders and cases documented by OHCHR, providing the Attorney General’s Office with the necessary resources and support to do so. (e) Review or prevent the adoption of legislative instruments that restrict civic space and the rights of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and participation in public affairs, and the rights of indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples, and in particular the right to prior and informed consultation, ensuring compliance with human rights and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court in this regard. (f) Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure and the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, recognize the communications procedure of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Persons Working in Rural Areas. (g) Provide the National Protection Unit with the necessary budget to carry out the reform process already under way, with the participation of civil society, which should prioritize the reduction of response times, the inclusion of a preventive approach, coordination with judicial investigations and the participation of human rights defenders and their families (including minors) in the design of individual and collective protection responses with an ethnic, gender and territorial focus, as demanded by civil society, and the recognition of indigenous, Maroon and campesino guards as a self-protection measure within the framework of the Unit’s response. (h) Ensure that all State institutions recognize social leaders who promote and protect human rights as human rights defenders and do not require them to be 18 GE.19-22542

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