Human rights advocate killed every 5 days in Colombia: NGO .
Human rights advocate killed every 5 days in Colombia: NGO .
Thursday, 21 February 2013 00:00 Narayan Buckley
In 2012, a human rights advocate in Colombia was reportedly assaulted every 20 hours and assassinated every five days.
The NGO "Somos Defendores" (We are Defenders) released its annual report on human rights advocacy in Colombia last week, and the news was not good.
There was a 49% increase in individual assaults on human rights advocates (HRAs) in 2012 compared to 2011, and of the total number of attacks, 19% resulted in a homicide and 14% in physical assault. While the majority of attacks came in the form of threats, 69 HRAs were murdered and 50 were beaten.
The director of Somos Defensores, Diana Sanchez, said that this was partly due to a flawed government protection strategy.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/28250-human-rights-advocate-killed-every-5-days-in-colombia-ngo.html
