Colombia – Rights & Voices of Internally Displaced Women

WUNRN

Women represent between 49 and 58% of the total displaced population in Colombia;

Women informed the (UN) Representative during his mission to Colombia that reasons for their displacement include :
assassination of their spouses; protection of themselves or their children from
sexual or gender-based violence; protection of their children from forced
recruitment by armed groups. There were also cases of young girls having to
leave their communities because of forced sexual relations with members of the
armed forces or armed groups.(1)

Displaced women and girls are often in especially vulnerable situation and
should be granted adequate protection and treatment according to Guiding
Principles 4, 18 and 23.

Guiding principle 4

These Principles shall be applied without discrimination of
any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion or belief, political or
other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, legal or social status, age,
disability, property, birth, or on any other similar criteria.

1. Certain internally
   displaced persons, such as children, especially unaccompanied minors,
   expectant mothers, mothers with young children, female heads of
   household, persons with disabilities and elderly persons, shall be
   entitled to protection and assistance required by their condition and to
   treatment which takes into account their special needs.

   Guiding principle 18

2. Special efforts should
   be made to ensure the full participation of women in the planning and
   distribution of these basic supplies.

   Guiding principle 23

3. Special efforts should
   be made to ensure the full and equal participation of women and girls in
   educational programmes.

4. Education and training
   facilities shall be made available to internally displaced persons, in
   particular adolescents and women, whether or not living in camps, as
   soon as conditions permit.

   UDHR Article 7
   All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination
   to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection
   against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against
   any incitement to such discrimination.

Life here is very difficult. For
example, I feel here as if my wings had been clipped. I can’t take flight,
because I feel less … it’s not that I’m incapable of doing things, but that I
feel very insecure. I used to be a very open person. I participated in
meetings. I was a person that was invited, that spoke, shouted, laughed. I’m
not the same anymore. Why? The feelings, the courage: all that has receded,
it’s disappeared. I can’t express how it’s disappeared in me. It’s as if my
courage had gone to sleep or had been taken away from me.
Blanca

More Women Testimonies:

Life story of Lilia
Life story of Leydi
Life story of Mileinis
Life story of Ana
Dilia
Life story of Sofía
Life story of Blanca

(1) Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights
of internally displaced persons, Walter Kälin, Addendum: Mission to Colombia,
A/HRC/4/38/Add.3, 24 paragraph 15.