Columns & Blogs

It is commont o hear about the Colombian paradox of the coexistence of a stable democracy with endemic violence.

The National Police scandals have shown that the institution has serious problems of arbitrariness and corruption.

Five years in, we still lack data and methods to measure how and whether States’ and business commitments to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are actually improving conditions on the ground. It is time to focus on measuring what matters, and zeroing in on how affected communities have experienced the GPs.

"Colombia has the face of a man" were the words of Colombian feminists when they showed that despite being half of the population, women are virtually absent from political appointments. In 2002, the government approved the "Quota law" which requires that at least 30% of public office positions are held by women. In 2011, Law 1475 reinforced this measure by requiring political parties that at least 30% of participants in their electoral lists are women. 

Néstor Humberto Martínez's response to the Supreme Court about how to confront intra-family violence raises worries about his lack of sensitivity regarding gendered violence. 

Last week I wrote an op-ed about the law to allow citizens in Bogotá to avoid the alternate-day travel system for a fee. Few times have I received so many messages in favor and against what I said.

In the years I have been writing this column, I have never received such vicious comments as when I talk about the rights of the LGBTI population: when the homophobia of his school extinguished Sergio Urrego's life, or when same-sex couples stopped being second-class citizens and were able to marry in civil unions or marriage.

This bill currently under review in Congress does not seem to prevent actions against peaceful coexistence, but does legalize the stigmatization of some populations.

Neither the land restitution jurisdiction, nor the complaintants who Cabal calls "lazy criminals that don't like to work," nor much less the vulnerable rural workers that occupy the requested pieces of land.

One day, a rumor arrives at your door: 50 people have been killed in a gay club in Orlando and your first reaction is disbelief. When you can see with your own eyes that which seems a horror story, you ask yourself questions full of sorrow.

Hunger and obesity are avoidable in today’s world. They are the result of political decisions that States have made regarding the production, commercialization, and distribution of food.

Sports fans like myself who grew up in the 70s were all fans of the sports kings of that time: Pelé and Muhammad Ali.