2010

Performances taken by Taula Catalana per Pau and Human Rights in Colombia

The context

The conflict has been in Colombia for more than 40 years and faces the securities forces of the state and the paramilitary against the guerrilla groups has turned a cycle of interminable violence with a huge number of victims – murdered, displaced, eliminated, kidnapped, hurt, etc… -the majority of them civil. International Amnesty calculates that only in the last 20 years of conflict more than 70. 000 people have died and more than three millions have turned into interns displaced. The African communities, natives, peasants, displaced, as well as the activists for the human rights, are those that more abuses have suffered.

Although all the parts in conflict have perpetrated systematically violations of the Human Rights and the Humanitarian International Law, there the paramilitary are the ones, who with the Army have committed most part of the murders, disappearances and tortures of civil in the last years. On the other hand, everything indicates that in spite of the called process of "demobilization", the paramilitary system has remained intact and some of its members act like informants of the army.

Taula Catalana per la Pau and Human Rights in Colombia is a space of agreement in the Catalan scope formed by NGO, trade unions, public administrations and entities of the academic world, arisen in 2002. The main target of the Taula is the promotion and protection of the Human Rights in Colombia and the support to a negotiated process, having as the reference mark the recommendations of the United Nations and other international organizations. Moreover, the Taula considers that the Colombian State is the main responsible instance to look over the respect for the fundamentals Rights of the Colombians.

The project to evaluate

A central target of the Taula is the sensitization of the Catalan and European community announcing different peace initiatives and announce the work of different social actors that often remains silenced. This diffusion may help to generate a new vision of the Colombian conflict.

The evaluation takes into account the performances tackled by the Taula from 2002 until 2009 –the celebration of days of sensitization, tasks of political incidence in the Catalan, European and Colombian ambience, etc. What it is wanted to value is the impact of these activities.