A/HRC/31/3/Add.2
officers for the killing of Diego Felipe Becerra in 2011. Lack of disciplinary action against
lawyers using such practices or judges that tolerate them undermine non-recurrence.
58.
Since 2012, the Attorney General has made multiple public commitments to move
forward investigations against senior military officers. At the end of 2015, nine army
generals had given preliminary declarations. While international law recognizes criminal
responsibility through omission, this has not been adequately applied to military
commanders in Colombia, including in cases of “false positive” extrajudicial executions or
paramilitary actions in zones under military control.
59.
Directive 0003, issued by the Attorney General in December, on the criminal
prosecution of war crimes on national territory must be modified to be consistent with
international standards and Constitutional Court decisions to reflect the simultaneous
application of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
3.
Current extrajudicial executions
60.
During 2015, OHCHR-Colombia documented 10 cases of alleged arbitrary
deprivation of life by army members in Antioquia, Cauca, Tolima, Arauca, Meta, Norte de
Santander and Caquetá. The army qualified five of these as “military errors” without
clarifying the operational, command and control, tactical discipline or procedural causes.
The State breaches its international obligations when it fails to take effective criminal,
disciplinary, operational and/or command and control action to ensure non-recurrence.
4.
Intelligence
61.
In two significant reverses in the fight against impunity for past civilian intelligence
violations by DAS, the Attorney General’s Office declared that the statute of limitations for
three crimes had elapsed and failed to impose preventive detention on eight ex-DAS
officials. In a case involving psychological torture of a female journalist, State omission
enabled the former Director and Secretary-General of DAS to leave the country despite the
fact that an arrest warrant had been issued and his location had been known to the
authorities.
5.
Feminicide
62.
OHCHR-Colombia considers the criminalization of feminicide through Law
No. 1761 of 2015 as progress. It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the
procedural and investigative failings that impeded convictions against those responsible for
the killings of women and to ensure that the normative change leads to substantive
improvement in women’s enjoyment of the right to life. OHCHR-Colombia offers the State
technical support in this regard.
E.
1.
Victims’ rights
Registration
63.
The Government has from the outset prioritized the rights of and response to victims
of armed conflict through the Victims and Land Reparation Law and through the
recognition of victims in the peace process. Over the past four years, an average of 1,600
victims of incidents occurring prior to or after the law’s adoption have been registered each
day. A total of 7,874,201 victims have been registered, almost 50 per cent women and
children. UARIV calculates that 6,084,064 persons — 12.4 per cent of the population —
require reparations. This exceeds the currently allocated economic and technical resources.
12
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