Posts by Dejusticia
Constitutional Court ratifies the right of consumers to access information about sugary drinks’ effects on health
The right of consumers to access the commercial by NGO Educar Consumidores that was censored still stands. The Constitutional Court upheld the T-543 ruling, which had been challenged by the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce. This ruling defends the right of consumers to access information, and the right of the NGO to inform and carry out public health campaigns.
Read MoreColumbia University climate scientist supports climate change litigation case in Colombia
Scientist Dr. James E. Hansen, a global expert on climate change, submitted an amicus brief supporting the climate change case Dejusticia filed alongside 25 children and young people who are suing the Colombian government for failing to stop deforestation in the Amazon region.
Read MoreDejusticia defends freedom of expression and political cartoons
A citizen sued the caricaturist known as Matador, arguing that one of his cartoons is slander. Dejusticia argues that political criticism and artistic expression are protected by the Constitution.
Read MoreDejusticia supports the participation of local communities in environmental decisions
A citizen filed a lawsuit against popular consultations on mining activities, arguing that they are unconstitutional. In response, Dejusticia said that this mechanism is essential for citizen participation.
Read MoreDejusticia participates at IACHR hearing on business and human rights
This Friday, March 2nd, Dejusticia and Conectas Human Rights (Brazil), will participate in a hearing organized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR): “Businesses and human rights: inputs for the construction of inter-American guidelines.”
Read MoreFormer President of Bolivia Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada will go to trial in the US for his role in the massacre of more than 50 citizens
This Marks the First Time in U.S. History a Former Head of State Will Sit Before His Accusers in a Civil Human Rights Trial
Read MoreThe links between economic power and conflict: a major challenge for the Truth Commission
On Thursday, March 1st, we launched the report “Increasing Accountability: The Role of the Truth Commission in the Disclosure of Corporate Responsibility in the Colombian Armed Conflict.” Free entry with prior registration.
Read MoreGuatemala: Dejusticia intervenes in a process that seeks to protect the right to prior consultation of the Xinka people
During 2012 and 2013, the Ministry of Energy and Mines granted licenses for the exploitation of the Escobal mining company without consulting indigenous people. Eight international organizations presented an amicus to support the communities.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court rules in favor of peasants
Regarding the legal action that 1,770 peasants filed to be included in the census, the court ordered the Government to define the concept of peasant, to include this population in the census, and to advance public policies that ensure their material equality.
Read MoreThe foreign minister’s silence on Colombians imprisoned in Venezuela
More than 60 innocent Colombians sleep in Venezuelan jail cells. Although similar situations have resulted in diplomatic confrontations between Venezuela and countries such as Brazil, in Colombia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, María Ángela Holguín has kept a low profile.
Read MoreThe priorities of Héctor Abad Gómez
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Héctor Abad Gómez. As a good public health worker, he believed that children should be vaccinated, adults should adopt hygiene measures, food should be improved and people should not kill each other fighting. In short, he fought against the two epidemics that kill most people: poverty and war.
Read MoreTruthful discussions
If we want to overcome the post-truth era and escape the the polarization that threatens us, Colombia needs a solid but informed public debate; a debate with vigor but without lies, falsehoods or unjust attacks like the one I was subjected to last week by the ex Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez.
Read MoreThe right to organize your own funeral
In Colombia, only 18 euthanasias have been practiced in two years of regulation. In Canada, however, in just six months of an equivalent standard, more than 800 euthanasias have been performed. A society must be judged not by how it treats the most powerful, but those who are in the weakest conditions.
Read MoreThe pain of not knowing
Today enforced disappearances continue to be used as a political weapon, not only in dictatorships like Venezuela, but in democracies, countries undergoing internal conflict, and political transitions.
Read MoreTo prohibit paramilitarism?
Perhaps the constitutional prohibition of paramilitarism will not magically make disappear this atrocious phenomenon and its consequences in Colombia. But it would mean a big step in building a robust policy to prevent and punish it, along with the actions that have made it possible.
Read MoreThe challenges of the law
Lawyers in Colombia do not control themselves (self-regulation) nor allow themselves to be controlled. Everything begins with law faculties, which teach and do whatever they want, or almost do so. But the most serious comes later, when students obtain the title of lawyers and can choose between being a litigant, judge, professor of law, notary or public official.
Read MoreCorruption
To understand and overcome corrupt practices, one must see the rest of the iceberg: the vast majority of irregular behaviors, which may not be so spectacular or visible, but without which there would be no more serious crimes.
Read MoreMass release of criminals?
This measure – which undoubtedly causes alarm and creates problems – is necessary to mitigate the damages caused by the inability of the Colombian State to provide this basic service quickly and efficiently. Six necessary clarifications on a Law that has been poorly understood.
Read MoreThank you, Sergio Jaramillo
Whoever becomes the High Commissioner for Peace, will have to continue with a legacy that, above political and sectoral interests, prioritizes safeguarding the essence of what was agreed.
Read MoreChildren first?
Our rulers and politicians have accustomed us to speeches where they say that boys and girls are at the center of their governments and policies, but the reality is different. That is why it is time to put children in the center of the state and not at the margin where they have always been.
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