PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
INCLUSIVE PEACE AND PROTECTION OF DEFENDERS IN COLOMBIA (26 March 2019)

That this House encourages further steps to be taken to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Peace Accord between the Colombian Government and the FARC signed in November 2016, including its gender-based agreements and prioritisation of victims' rights; recognises the vital role of civil society organisations and human rights defenders in the effective implementation of that Accord; is very concerned that 172 human rights defenders were killed in Colombia in 2018 according to the Colombian Ombudsman; notes also with concern the death threats against Zenú Indigenous leader Irrael Aguilar Solano and Human Rights Defender Danilo Rueda from the Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz; regrets that the breakdown of peace talks with the ELN guerrilla has increased violence against, and suffering in Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant rural communities and humanitarian zones, including in medio-Atrato Chocó, Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó, which are caught between neo-paramilitary groups and ELN guerrilla, and subject to threats and intimidation; urge both the Colombian State and the ELN to work towards a peaceful and negotiated solution to the armed conflict; and calls on the Government to ensure that the recommendations in the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders' 2019 report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders are incorporated into, and monitored by, the UN Security Council's Verification Mission to Colombia.

Sponsored by:
Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party)