A/HRC/16/22 G. Judicial branch 48. The newly-elected Government put an end to the tensions and public confrontations between the executive and judicial branches that characterized 2009 and much of 2010. This facilitated the election of a new Attorney General in December, after an impasse of 16 months. The improved political climate has also created conditions for open discussions about judicial reforms. 49. In this reform process, OHCHR-Colombia emphasizes the need to ensure not only adequate funding and an independent governance structure for the judiciary, but also that the root causes of impunity be addressed. These issues include the needs: to improve access to justice, especially in rural areas and for specific groups, such as women, displaced persons, indigenous and Afro-Colombians; to resolve the backlog and expedite existing processes; to ensure the presence, and security, of well-trained judges and prosecutors throughout the country; to adopt appropriate sanctions for corrupt lawyers and judges; and to design strategies and provide sufficient resources in the Attorney General’s Office to systematically investigate human rights violations. It is also important to ensure that the justice system upholds human rights, without giving up any of the ground gained, such as the recourse to “tutela”, a constitutional mechanism for the protection of rights. 50. In March, the Supreme Court publicly warned of threats to the integrity and security of judges, magistrates and their families. Five magistrates of the Court (two of them ended their tenure in September 2010) have been granted precautionary measures by the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights.15 H. Enforced disappearance 51. OHCHR-Colombia welcomes the approval by Congress of the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and urges the Government to promptly complete the process, recognizing the additional competence of its Committee, as set out in article 31. 52. As the National Registry of Disappeared Persons is updated, the magnitude of the phenomenon of enforced disappearance becomes evident. By November, a total of 51,310 people had been reported as disappeared, of which 12,632 are alleged enforced disappearances. Of these 3,073 are women and 3,042 are people under 20 years of age.16 The number of registered cases of disappearance increased almost 40 per cent compared to 2009. 53. Moreover, thanks to the efforts of the Attorney General’s Justice and Peace Unit, by November, under Act 975, 4,312 cases of enforced disappearance had been registered, out of a total of 51,616 crimes for which the confession process had been initiated. As a result, 3,037 graves were exhumed and 3,678 bodies found; only 1,323 have been fully identified, of which 116 have not yet been handed over to their families. 54. Despite these figures, the level of impunity in the case of this serious human rights violation is very high. The Attorney General’s Office initiated some investigations, but, as 15 16 10 César Julio Valencia Copete, María del Rosario González, Iván Velásquez (assistant magistrate), Yesid Ramírez and Sigifredo Espinosa (in the case of the latter two, the measures were granted in 2010). Disappeared Persons and Corpse Information System (SIRDEC).