Eduardo Carreño, a human rights lawyer from the Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo (CAJAR), met with the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband in London on 27 October. 

Following the meeting, Mr Miliband said: “The UK will continue to call on the Colombian Government to publicly support the work of HR defenders, and to provide a sufficient and secure level of state protection to those under threat.” (Read Mr Miliband's full statement)

Carreño was in London for the launch of a new international campaign supporting Colombian human rights defenders, at the invitation of ABColombia, Peace Brigades International and Amnesty International UK.

The campaign, Colombia: Human Rights Defenders Under Threat, was launched in the context of widespread threats, assassination attempts, and baseless criminal prosecutions against human rights defenders in Colombia, with these crimes against them enjoying near total impunity.

Eduardo himself and his colleagues have suffered death threats and intimidation, and are accompanied by PBI for their protection. It was revealed earlier this year that CAJAR had long been a target of illegal surveillance by the state intelligence service, DAS, which had allegedly compiled files on the activities and movements of CAJAR's members as well their families. DAS was also accused of providing paramilitary organisations with ‘blacklists’ containing names of people who were later killed. (Read more about the case on CAJAR's website)

As well as meeting with Mr Miliband, Eduardo met with MP Rob Marris, with the Colombia desk officer of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and with lawyers from the Bar Human Rights Committee and the Law Society. The campaign was launched at the House of Commons before an audience of politicians and lawyers who expressed their support to the campaign to end impunity for attacks on human rights defenders in Colombia.