Greetings! Following is a report about recent activities of the Cali, Colombia-based Centro Pazífico aka CEDEHUPAZ (Pacific Center for Human Rights). Last September the Centro Pazífico completed its first four years of existence. Founded in the midst of the COVID-19 quarantine, it was organized despite many obstacles to serve the country’s region most affected by political violence. The Centro is only an hour away from the conflict-ridden zone of Northern Cauca, three hours from Buenaventura where poverty, neoliberal wealth, and economic apartheid exist side by side, and right in the middle of Cali, the city that was the national epicenter of the National Strike of 2021.
The Centro Pazífico hit the ground running. From the beginning, it provided shelter for human rights defenders, labor unionists, and social movement activists fleeing from threats. It was a major center for the distribution of street medic supplies during the National Strike. The Centro continues to provide human rights training, monitoring, counseling, and defense, as well as a meeting space for social movements. And, of course, it continues to serve as a base for human rights defenders and others who are in immediate danger as they seek a more permanent arrangement.
REPORT FROM THE CENTRO PAZÍFICO
The Pacific Center for Human Rights (CEDEHUPAZ) is a space where different organizations defending Human Rights come together, with activities in southwestern Colombia on the Pacific strip. (Francisco Isaías Cifuentes-Valle del Cauca Human Rights Network and its basic processes; ASTRACAVA; ASPROZONAC). In addition to carrying out joint actions that advance, promote, educate, and establish adequate human rights defense routes for communities in spaces of flagrant violation, humanitarian protection or refuge support is extended if necessary for those individual leaders, social leaders, human rights defenders or their families who must leave their territory to safeguard life, personal and family integrity.
CEDEHUPAZ is the first dynamic coordination space that promotes the defense of the fundamental rights of communities and people.
For this purpose, different efforts have been allocated by consolidating the unique knowledge of each of the members of the varying organizations to care for the people we receive in our safe place. This include psychosocial care routes to minimize the emotional effects that different human rights violations emana
te, health assessment and care, and legal support that consists of activating legal, organizational, reporting and campaigning measures that are needed to provide harm-free and effective care according to a case-by-case basis.
- EMERGENCY SHELTER:
In our CEDEHUPAZ we attend to cases of social leaders and human rights defenders who are victims of persecution, threats, harassment, and above all displacement due to the work they carry out in their territories. We function as a temporary shelter for these people who must safeguard their lives from the social and armed conflict in the territories.
For this period we received a total of 40 people
These people are not only helped with shelter, but also with a route that consists of: Legal support (complaints and processes before state institutions), Psychological first aid, Life project, health care
2. PERMANENT SCHOOL OF HUMAN RIGHTS:
At CEDEHUPAZ we carry out permanent training activities with different communities, not only in the temporary shelter that is for people from the city of Cali, but we also carry out workshops directly in the municipalities where we have human rights committees (Palmira, Tuluá, Buga, Pradera, Florida, Cali).
- SOCIAL MOBILIZATION
As a human rights organization, we have supported the mobilizations that have been carried out in our country for 21 years. In 2023 the main ones were:
- Support for the government of government of Gustavo Petro (4 mobilizations)
- Worker’s Day mobilization (May 1st)
- Student Mobilization for zero enrollment
- Support for Palestine, among others
- ARTICULATION OF HR AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
At CEDEHUPAZ, organizational Human Rights processes are articulated to carry out a protocol for attention to social mobilizations. The Solidarity Committee With Political Prisoners, the Corporation for Regional Development, c, N21, and SUYANA are among these processes. CEDEHUPAZ has functioned during these mobilization scenarios as a medical brigade to attend to medical situations that arise in these spaces and care for people who have minor injuries caused during the social protest.
5. TABLE ACCOMPANIMENT OF THE ESTALLIDO SOCIAL (SOCIAL UPHEAVAL)
We are an advisory organization and we have a spokesperson accompanying the Dialogue Table of the Social Upheaval, established by the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, and the people prosecuted within the framework of the social upheaval who are part of the collective process “Jhonathan Sabogal”.
We have taken it upon ourselves to dialogue from outside the prisons with the national government. We provide legal advice on the decision-making that is addressed in this important space, we carry out the census of the people prosecuted and we carry out the emergency plan and support for the cases (which consists of medical and psychosocial care and transportation to their homes when freedom is granted)
- MEETING OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS VALLE DEL CAUCA
Approximately 80 organizations from the entire department of Valle del Cauca and northern Cauca met for 3 months to specify what would be a meeting of social processes in favor of support and accompaniment to the Peace dialogue scenarios framed in Total Peace of the current government of President Gustavo Petro.
This meeting took place in the city of Guadalajara de Buga, on August 16, 2023
- DEPARTMENTAL ASSEMBLY OF DELEGATES
In August, we held our departmental assembly to coordinate the actions of the last months of 2023, which we prioritized in our action plan:
- Accompaniment to the Table of the Social Upheaval
- Accompaniment to social mobilization
- Emergency shelter maintenance
- Execution of the psychosocial project with judicial offices, PPL, and human rights defenders.
- International Human Rights Day
- Maintain participation and articulation in departmental and municipal human rights scenarios
- RECOGNITION OF THE WORK OF DEFENSE OF HRD-RED FIC FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE YEARS
On December 10 of every year, International Human Rights Day is commemorated. In 2023 and 2024, we participated in the event that takes place with the United Nations and in addition to this, we were granted recognition both years as a human rights defense organization in the United States. southwestern Colombia.
- PARTICIPATION IN DEPARTMENTAL ARTICULATION SCENARIOS
As a Human Rights Defense process, we are part of several municipal departmental bodies such as:
- Territorial Guarantees Table: of which we have on of the 10 spokespersons and the coordination of the protection table.
- Departmental Peace Council: where we are responsible for the coordination of the Human Rights table
- Paz Municipal Council of: Pradera, Florida, Palmira
- Unified Command Posts for Life: we exercise as departmental spokesperson and have active participation in the PMUV of Palmira-Vale
- Verification Mission: created within the framework of the 2021 social protest, speakers of complaints before the IACHR
- “To defend freedom is everyone’s business” Campaign
- NETWORK OF ALLIES FOR THE TRUTH
CEDEHUPAZ and the FIC NETWORK are part of the Network of Allies for theTruth, whose mission is to provide pedagogy on the final report of the commission for clarifying the truth.
Main achievements in the period covered by the report:
- Safeguarding Life: Those 40 people who were cared for in our CEDEHUPAZ suffered a serious violation of their rights, and a possible violation of their main right to life, so hosting them in the temporary home safeguarded the integrity and life of each of them. , and this is our greatest achievement.
- Organizational strengthening: We have managed to remain in an organizational scenario despite all the organizational difficulties that arise in Colombian territory. We are one of the strongest, largest and most recognized processes in the department of Valle del Cauca, and this important exercise of the defense of life, territory and human rights has been maintained. Hold our first assembly in the month of March 2024.
- Permanent training: As a process we have been updating ourselves on all the regulations that have emerged with the new government regarding human rights. But we have also maintained our constant training as a process, with its municipal committees and its grassroots processes.
- Articulation between organizations: In most scenarios of social processes we have been an organizational reference and we have assumed spokespersons for the dialogue between state processes and institutions.
- Network of Allies for the Truth: preserve our permanence in the network of allies for the truth and execute the pedagogical action plan established in 2023.
Plans for the next period:
- Temporary Shelter Maintenance – CEDEHUPAZ
- Maintain articulation with social processes
- Organizational strengthening
- New projects: Diplomat on the recommendations of the commission for the clarification of the truth, executed between CEDEHUPAZ and Javeriana Institute of Intercultural Studies
Follow CEDEHUPAZ on twitter and instagram
To support CEDEHUPAZ, send a check made payable to the Alliance for Global Justice with “Centro Pazifico” in the memo line to:
225 E. 26th Street, Ste. 1, Tucson, AZ 851713.
*The Alliance for Global Justice is still cut off in our ability to accept online donations due to the attacks, so please send your donation by check
<
