By Rebecca Tuck
28 March 2010

On 15th March Amnesty International UK hosted an event in support of the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC) campaign ‘Palabra Dulce, Aire de Vida’ (‘Sweet Words, Breath of Life’), for the survival of indigenous peoples at risk of extinction in Colombia. As part of a European tour to launch their campaign, ONIC members Luis Fernando Arias Arias and Neida Janeth Yepes Rodriguez were joined by members of Amnesty, Survival International, ABColombia and the public in discussing the causes of extinction and what can be done to prevent it. ONIC human rights defenders have been struggling for indigenous peoples’ in Colombia since 1982, but this campaign comes at a time when the situation has reached a crisis point. PBI accompanies members of ONIC, who have expressed outrage over land invasions, threats, displacement and killings. The cultural heritage of indigenous communities is being disrupted, and in many cases threatened with extinction. In a meeting with members of the Caravana international delegation of lawyers who travelled to Colombia to show support for human rights defenders, one ONIC speaker said, ‘there are some things that cannot be repaired, even with access to justice’.

Looking at the broader international picture of threats to indigenous peoples, the need for immediate action is clear. James Mazower of Survival International put ONIC’s case into context: Just recently the last of the Andaman Islands’ ‘Bo’ speakers died after the gradual extinction of her people following the British colonisation of the Islands in the 1800s; and if we look to Colombia itself there are the Nukak, who were forcibly displaced from their land in the Amazon, with half their population dying in the process. These are just two examples, but Mazower says they are indicative of the cause of indigenous extinction across the globe: the economic development model and the incessant taking of land that comes with it.

In 2009 the Colombian Constitutional Court issued Ruling 004, stating that 34 indigenous peoples in Colombia are at risk of disappearing, culturally and physically. It ordered the state to implement a series of urgent protection measures to guarantee their survival. Several months later, Colombia signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However this is only the beginning of steps needed to redress the many years of discrimination against indigenous people in Colombia. Luis Fernando Arias Arias, general secretary of ONIC, described how the history of indigenous peoples in Colombia had been marked since colonisation by cultural imposition and discrimination, as well as a strong resistance movement. He said there had been an extremely worrying increase in violent attacks against indigenous groups. This was also reflected by the UN Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, in his report following his visit to Colombia last year. One suggested cause of this increase in violence is the trend among high level officials to make public statements accusing human rights defenders of being associated with illegal armed groups. Indigenous peoples are one group who have been especially stigmatised. As a result they are increasingly targets of attacks, heightening the risk of their physical extinction. It is due to this crisis that ONIC members have come to Europe to raise awareness of their situation and call for international solidarity.

No longer willing to witness what was happening to indigenous women and children, Neida Janeth Yepes Rodriguez became a member of ONIC in 2009. She described how the sight of many women begging in cities had compelled her take action. For her, life has become very worrying. The begging of indigenous women has become common due to the constraints of being forced to live in reduced spaces as land has been subsumed for development. She is a member of a people who now live in a reserve shared with nine other groups. It is very crowded, with no access to cultivable land, and malnutrition is a big problem. As they cannot leave the reserve because of legal preventions and the threat of illegal armed groups, the opportunity to maintain a traditional viable livelihood is fast disappearing. Faced also with plans to privatise their river, the future is very worrying for Naida and her people, and they are calling for our support.

More info

ABColombia report Caught in the Crossfire - Colombia’s indigenous peoples (pdf 1.5mb)

Amnesty International report The Struggle for Survival and Dignity: Human Rights Abuses Against Indigenous Peoples in Colombia (pdf 1.8mb)