CCPR/C/116/D/2399/2014
2.12 Under a peace agreement signed with the Government on 11 March 1990, M-19
demobilized and became a legal political party known as the M-19 Democratic Alliance.
Nevertheless, members and supporters of the organization continued to be victims of
persecution and crimes. Indeed, the M-19 Democratic Alliance candidate in the presidential
elections, the former M-19 commander C.P.L., was killed on 26 April 1990.
2.13 On 14 May 1992, the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca issued a judgment
concerning a claim for direct reparation from the State, brought by R.R.P. and his children,
and ordered the State to pay damages to them. The judgment was upheld by the Council of
State.
2.14 The authors claim that, on 18 April 1998, members of the military intelligence
service assassinated the lawyer J.E.U.M. in his office in Bogotá.
2.15 Beginning in 2000, C.L.C.D. participated as a founding member in the nongovernmental organization Colectivo de Mujeres Excombatientes, which was established
by a group of women who were former combatants with M-19 and other organizations that
had signed peace agreements with the Government.
2.16 In 2000, owing to threats received by her family, V.F.C. travelled to France, where
she obtained refugee status. In 2001, A.F.C. left Colombia to reside in France. At the time
that the communication was submitted to the Committee, both were residing in France. The
authors claim that, beginning in 2002 and during the first few months of 2003, C.L.C.D.
was subjected to threats, surveillance and monitoring by unidentified persons and her home
phone was tapped; that on 11 September 2002, while she was away from Bogotá, strangers
broke into her apartment and stole her computer, photographs, her passport and those of
both her daughters; and that robbery was not the motive for the intrusion into her home.
C.L.C.D. reported these events to the criminal investigation police in Bogotá and to the
Presidential Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Programme. These events
coincided with the request submitted by the Colombian Commission of Jurists to the
Counsel General for access to copies of the record of the disciplinary investigation into the
murder of A.F.D.
2.17 Given that the authorities were unable to guarantee the security and personal safety
of C.L.C.D., in October 2003 she travelled to Spain, where she obtained a residence permit
on the grounds of exceptional circumstances relating to security considerations. C.L.C.D.
lived in Spain until 2009. After staying for a period of time in Mexico, C.L.C.D. returned to
Colombia in 2011, where she currently resides.
2.18 On 10 June 2011, the Congress enacted Act No. 1448, laying down measures for the
provision of support, assistance and comprehensive redress to victims of the internal armed
conflict and incorporating other provisions (the Victims and Land Restitution Act). The
authors note that the Act establishes, in general terms, that all persons who, individually or
collectively, have suffered harm caused by events that occurred on or after 1 January 1985
as a result of violations of international humanitarian law or grave and flagrant violations of
international human rights standards during the internal armed conflict are to be treated as
victims. However, the Act expressly excludes from the definition of victim all members of
illegal organized armed groups and their family members as indirect victims of the harm
suffered by the members of those groups.
The complaint
3.1 The authors claim that the State party violated the rights of A.F.D. under article 6 (1),
as well as their own rights under articles 7, 9 (1), 12 (1), 17 and 2 (3), and the rights of
V.F.C. and A.F.C. under article 24 of the Covenant.
4
GE.16-11906