A/HRC/16/22 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 3 February 2011 Original: English and Spanish Human Rights Council Sixteenth session Agenda item 2 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Colombia* ** Summary The present report analyses the most important developments related to the situation of human rights and international humanitarian law in Colombia in 2010. The 2010 electoral process concluded with the election of a new Congress and of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, who took office in August. The report recognizes the commitment to human rights expressed by the Santos administration during its first months in office and welcomes the consolidation of the drastic reduction in the practice known as “false positives”, which resulted in extrajudicial killings. Other positive steps are the announcement of an ambitious land restitution policy and a more favourable stance towards human rights organizations. The persistence of the internal armed conflict continues to affect the full enjoyment of human rights. All parties to the armed conflict, in particular guerrilla groups, continue to breach international humanitarian law. This situation is exacerbated by the violence caused by illegal armed groups emerged after the demobilization of paramilitary organizations, and disputes among illegal armed actors to control drug trafficking. The report further analyses several particular situations of concern and summarizes the main activities carried out by OHCHR-Colombia. It contains 11 recommendations to improve the human rights situation in the country. * ** GE.11-10573 Late submission. The present report is circulated in all official languages. The annex, reproduced as received, is available in English and Spanish only.