Article by PBI-Netherlands

“One of the most important parts of PBI's accompaniment is visibility. The international support is helping to put pressure on national authorities and ensure reporting is done at a time when actors who commit murders and other human rights violations seem less concerned about political costs.

Germán Romero, attorney for dhColombia

Founded in 2014 by a group of legal professionals, dhColombia works to provide victims of human rights violations, socio-political violence, and crimes against humanity effective access to national and international justice. Thus they have been able to attain the possibility of truth, justice, comprehensive satisfaction, and the guarantee of non-repetition.

“In these cases, involving Colombian state entities, the emphasis is on the protection of rights such as life, personal integrity and freedom of association,” explains Germán Romero. “We also provide legal guidance to communities and families regarding access to and ownership of land, including land restitution,” as in the case of the San José de Apartadó community of peace.

Based in Bogotá, the organization has, in its short existence, extended its legal support to individuals and communities in nearly 20 departments of the country. The actions target regions severely affected by the armed conflict and by the actions of armed actors in the current context of the conflict following the 2016 peace agreement.

The systematic and persistent human rights violations committed in the country in recent decades are accompanied by widespread impunity. Experts point out that nearly 100 percent of the serious human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during the armed conflict, which continue to be committed despite the signing of the peace agreement, have gone unpunished.

According to dhColombia, this impunity is mainly due to the fact that “the legal system has so far been unable or unwilling to make progress in clearing up the facts, punishing those responsible and compensating victims”.

Through strategic litigation, dhColombia endeavors to ensure that these cases are properly tried and punished. The organization has taken on the representation of victims in several emblematic cases involving army commanders and other high-ranking representatives of the state. Recently, several favorable court decisions have been obtained in these cases.

An example of this is the prosecution of journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, orchestrated by the then intelligence service, the Administrative Security Service (DAS). Recently, several officials of this entity were convicted of the crime of psychological torture of the journalist. Another example is the case of the so-called "Operación Dragón", a plan of persecution and extermination against trade unionists, political opponents, and human rights defenders, including Berenice Celeita, founder and president of Nomadesc. In this case, a judgment was also obtained confirming the responsibility of the state and punishing the officials responsible for the crimes.

Threats

Because of their work in court cases involving representatives of the country's political sectors, public administration, and armed forces, members of dhColombia, notably lawyer Germán Romero, have been the target of threats, prosecution, and other security incidents.

Since August 2019, there have been indications of an intensification of these security incidents against the organization. Germán Romero denounced threats and intimidation associated with his work of legal representation of victims of state and military agents. The attorney's computer was stolen, containing sensitive information about various cases in which he pitted against high-ranking state officials, and on several occasions, he and his close relatives received threatening phone calls.