Font size down Font size up
  • Go

Colombia: New displacement continues, response still ineffective

col_cp_jul09
A view of the Embera indigenous people displaced by armed conflict.

UN Photo/Mark Garten. www.unmultimedia.org/photo/
The protracted internal armed conflict in Colombia had to May 2009 displaced almost 3.1 million people according to the government, and over 4.6 million people according to a re-liable non-governmental source. Nevertheless, under-registration in the government’s sys-tem remains pervasive. In 2008, Colombia’s highest administrative court derogated a decree that determined that internally displaced people (IDPs) could only be included in the national registry up to one year after being displaced, and in January, 2009, the Constitu-tional Court directed the government to decisively tackle this problem by improving regis-tration systems.

All parties to the conflict, including guerrilla groups, the new armed groups which have emerged since the demobilisation of paramilitaries, and state forces, are responsible for forced displacement and human rights abuses and violations. According to a recent survey, threats directed at civilians by the illegal armed groups have become the single greatest cause of internal displacement. Human rights violations by government forces have contin-ued, including systematic extra-judicial executions. Additionally, aerial fumigations of ille-gal crops, which also destroy other crops, have caused displacement by causing food insecurity. Finally, human rights defenders, including IDP leaders, have continued to be threatened, attacked, and killed, and discredited by government. (...)

Download full Overview (237 kb)
03 July 2009



Internal Displacement Profile

"Background and Causes of Displacement","Background to the situation of internal displacement"
"Background and Causes of Displacement","Background to the situation of internal displacement","Causes of Displacement"
"IDP Population Figures","IDP Population Figures"
"IDP Population Movements and Patterns","IDP Population Movements and Patterns"
"Physical Security and Integrity","Physical Security and Integrity"
"Property, Livelihoods, Education and Other Economic, Social and Cultural Rights","Property","Livelihoods","Education and Other Economic","Social and Cultural Rights"
"Basic Necessities of Life","Basic necessities of life"
"Family Life, Participation, Access to Justice and Other Civil and Political Rights","Family Life","Participation","Access to Justice and Other Civil and Political Rights"
"Protection of Special Categories of IDPs (Age, Gender, Diversity)","Protection of Special Categories of IDPs (Age","Gender","Diversity)"
"Durable Solutions (Return, Local Integration, Settlement Elsewhere in the Country)","Durable Solutions (Return","Local Integration","Settlement Elsewhere in the Country)"
"National and International Response","National and International Response"

Previous Profile updates


News 
New Displacement in Antioquia, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), 3 June 2009
More
Recent Reports 
Public Policies to Assist Internally Displaced Persons: The Role of Municipal Authorities, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, 10 December 2008
Internal Displacement and the Construction of Peace, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, 11 December 2008
More
Life stories 
Go to the IDP Voices website and read and listen to stories of internally displaced Colombians