HIGHLIGHTS OF RESULTS (cont.) Women, too, are escaping their prior fate – by building a new one. Lidia Julio has a gentle smile and a warmth that wants to draw you closer – except that if you do come any closer you’ll burn. Lidia is a baker and the president of La Capilla Bakers’ Association. She fans her breads on an old barrel of smoking wood, hoping her ragged piece of cardboard won’t catch fire. “It is horrible to work like this, it is too hot and I have burned off my eyelashes,” she said. Lidia’s association has 12 bakers, all of them displaced women of indigenous or African descent who have suffered from armed conflict. They’re new at this and hope that someday, they will be running a proper bakery business. The women became motivated by watching their children learn about human rights in the youth network. They started to believe they, too, could exercise some rights. To help them, UN Human Rights arranged for government instructors to teach them to bake and to become entrepreneurs. “My father taught me to barequear, to go to the mine, when I was little,” said Lidia. “We would put on rubber boots, trousers and a hat, take our batea pan, a stick and go open holes to mine the gold. Many of us stopped going to school. But it was dangerous. I taught my little brother to mine but one day he was bitten by a snake and he died. He was only eight.” Lidia apologizes for her tears but insists these stories must be told if they are ever to end. “Mining is not the best road – we did it because we had no other option. We don’t want our children to live like we did.” For the time being, Lidia and her friends labour over hand-made stoves in the crushing heat, but she knows things will improve. “One day we’ll have a large stove and some shade over our heads. And we’ll do it not by begging, but by working and offering a product that makes us feel happy.” Here in Colombia’s gold-mining heartland, communities are coalescing after decades of mistrust. Men, women and children are becoming leaders, intent on finding strength in numbers and reclaiming their rights. Whether by filming documentaries or baking bread or teaching children songs about equality, they are building peace in Colombia, one person at a time. Through its network of community groups, UN Human Rights provides a practical road map that helps people become familiar with the relative unknown – with government structures, participation in decisions, peace and their right to a dignified life. By helping them understand how human rights can support their work and by connecting them with powerful institutions, the Office is helping individuals and entire communities finally turn the page. Human rights defenders are essential to achieving positive changes in communities throughout Colombia. Reinforcing their participation in democratic processes, strengthening their voice with the private sector and advocating with the government to ensure their safety are top priorities. With so many communities gravely affected by decades of armed conflict, UN Human Rights is working in every region of Colombia to support human rights defenders as they help reconstruct the country’s social fabric and build peace. Lidia Julio explains how bread is baked by women of La Capilla Bakers’ Association. © OHCHR/J.D. Cortés 44 UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2017