This report was written by the participants of a Norwegian-Danish student delegation to Colombia in

November 2009. See the appendix for more information.

The report was printed by the Union of Education Norway in April 2010. The pictures were taken by
the delegation.

2
Table of contents
1. The human rights situation in Colombia............................................................................................... 4

1.1 An overview................................................................................................................................... 4

1.2 Students.......................................................................................................................................... 6

1.3 Academics...................................................................................................................................... 7

1.4 Human rights organisations........................................................................................................ 8

2. Call for International Solidarity.............................................................................................................. 8

3. Appendix.................................................................................................................................................... 9

3.1 The delegation............................................................................................................................... 9

3.2 The organisations.......................................................................................................................... 9

SAIH.......................................................................................................................................... 9

The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU)......................................................... 10

The Norwegian Association of Students (StL).................................................................. 10

Education Students in the Union of Education Norway (PS)......................................... 10

School Student Union of Norway (EO).............................................................................. 11

Colombian Students Watch.................................................................................................. 11

ACEU...................................................................................................................................... 11

3
 From a wall at a Colombian university. Government’s policy called «democratic security» is criticized
here as harmful to the civilian population.

1. The human rights situation

in Colombia
1.1 An overview
Colombia’s human rights situation is extremely dramatic. The civil war has been going on for
over 40 years and the country is on the 2nd place in the world after Sudan as far as the number of
internally displaced persons (IDPs)1 is concerned. Colombia has more IDPs than Iraq and the DR
of Congo altogether.2

The military conflict has escalated since 2002 when President Álvaro Uribe Vélez took office. That
year, 400,000 new IDPs were reported in addition to 30,000 politically motivated assassinations, the
highest numbers ever registered.3

1
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are people forced to flee their homes but who, unlike refugees,
remain within their country’s borders.
2
Norwegian Refugee Council
3
Ibid.

4
The present government nonetheless doesn’t admit the existence of the military conflict, in order
to avoid recognizing the guerrillas as a part in the conflict. These are referred to by the authorities
as terrorist groups. In this way the government justifies its use of force and can legitimately
reject negotiations. Right wing paramilitary groups are important actors in the conflict too. The
government claims to have dismantled them, and the so called «demobilization process» officially
ended in 2006; however human rights groups have extensively documented that the process has
granted impunity to most paramilitaries4 and that many have regrouped under new paramilitary
groups or become soldiers. The death threats signed by paramilitary groups continue to stream
in at present. The report «Paramilitaries’ Heirs: The New Face of Violence in Colombia» released
by Human Rights Watch in February 2010, documents widespread and serious abuses by the
regrouped paramilitaries: massacres, killings, forced displacement, rape, and extortion.5 The report
states that human rights defenders are often the target of these groups.

The so called parapolitica affair that started in 2006 has also demonstrated close links between
many politicians from the collation that supports the President Álvaro Uribe Vélez and paramilitary
groups, leading to investigation of 62 members of congress. Until 2008, 33 of these were awaiting
trail while in jail, including Mario Uribe Escobar, President Uribe’s cousin and former President
of Congress. Those proven links and the impunity granted to many paramilitaries prompted the
International Federation of Human Rights, a coalition of 155 NGOs from all over the world, to ask
the International Criminal Court to investigate those guilty of crimes against humanity committed
in Colombia since 2002.

A delegation of seven British Labour Party members of parliament and 10 union leaders from the
United States, Canada and Britain said they were in a «state of shock» over what they heard during
their fact finding mission in Colombia in April 2009. «We have no doubts, given the evidence
received, that the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe and the security forces are accomplices
in human rights abuses», their statement says.6

The human rights finding mission from the Asturias government (Spain) concluded in February
2010 in a press statement that Colombia is going through one of the worst humanitarian crisis of
its history. 7

The student delegation behind this report has published a press statement where it denounced
the tragic human rights situation Colombia and stated that Colombian students and union leaders
who are fighting for their cause are experiencing threats, killings and disappearances.8 According
to International Labour Organization (ILO), Colombia is the most dangerous country for organized
workers in the world. Out of every ten union leaders assassinated on a global scale, nine are Colombian.

4
92% of the 30,000 demobilized paramilitaries have benefited from a de facto amnesty declared by
decree. IFHR. «Paramilitary Demobilization in Colombia»
5
www.hrw.org/node/88060
6
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=4646
7
»Presentación pública de las primeras conclusiones de la VI Delegación Asturiana de verificación de
la situación de los DDHH en Colombia»
8
http://saih.no/Artikler/7769.html

5
 A death thread pamphlet signed by the paramilitary group Black Eagles received while the delegation
was in Colombia.

1.2 Students

All the students we talked to during our stay in Colombia, mostly students representing Asociación
Colombiana de Estudiantes Universitarios (ACEU) and the second largest national student union
Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios (FEU), had received threats through pamphlets, emails,
phone calls or personally. Many of them were displaced, including the present leader of ACEU. One
of the students we met had been awaiting trial for terrorism after participating in a demonstration
at the university campus. The delegation also witnessed violent repression against a peaceful
demonstration of students. Moreover, we were presented materials that documented links between
university authorities and paramilitary groups.

During the short 10-day stay in Colombia, ACEU received two pamphlets signed by a paramilitary
group called Black Eagles with death threats against 15 students mentioned with name and
surname. Another student received an oral threat personally during the same period. Yet another
reported being followed in public places.

In a report for the period 2002 to 2006, ACEU documented nearly 600 assaults on students, including
14 murders. Among the murdered in this period were the very founders of the organization.

According to the numbers quoted in the UNESCOs report «Education under attack» published
in February 20109, human rights violations against students have increased dramatically over the

9
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001868/186809e.pdf

6
last three years. The report says that five students were killed in the first half of 2009 alone. It also
reports that the former president of ACEU, Diego Marin, was granted political asylum in Norway
after a series of death threats against him. Also, the former president of FEU is in political asylum in
Sweden. At the same time, the current presidents of both organizations continue to receive threats.

ASPU’s campaign for academic freedom with faces of professors who got disappeared, imprisoned or killed.

1.3 Academics
The representatives of ASPU, Asociación Sindical de Profesores Universitarios, the only national
trade union for university professors in Colombia, stated that the human rights situation at
the universities is «dramatic because the authorities try to eliminate every critical voice among
the professors». They underlined that the fact that between 70 and 80% of the professors at the
Colombian universities have temporary contracts makes them more afraid of losing their job, and

7
 thus it silences their criticism. ASPU quoted cases of university teachers who got fired or prevented
from teaching through disciplinary processes, and others who were put on trial because of supposed
links to the guerrillas, imprisoned, «disappeared» or murdered. During our stay in Colombia,
ASPU was preparing a campaign focusing on the academic freedom of speech. They made posters
with faces of professors who disappeared or got killed because of their courage to be critical.

According to UNESCOs report «Education under attack», the number of violations in the teaching
sector in Colombia increased from 193 in 2006 to 260 in 2007. These include assassinations,
kidnappings, forced disappearances, illegal detentions, torture and threats. Police figures indicate
that 90 teachers were assassinated between 2006 and 2008.

1.4 Human rights organisations

The representatives of human rights organizations told us they often received threats. We were told
too that it became more difficult lately to receive a so called humanitarian visa for foreign human
rights defenders to come to Colombia.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya,
stated after her visit to Colombia in 2009 that she was «in particular deeply concerned about
the widespread phenomenon of threats from unknown authors against human rights defenders
and their families» and about the impunity of crimes against them. Moreover she reminded that
«human rights defenders have been repeatedly accused by high levels government officials of being
or colluding with «terrorists» or «guerrillas». Sekaggys final report dedicated the whole addendum
3 to the situation in Colombia. Sekaggy stresses that harassment and persecution against human
rights defenders continues in Colombia.

2. Call for International Solidarity

For as long as we can remember, Colombia has been a country with severe internal conflicts
and countless human rights violations. It is now, more so than ever, time for students, the
civil society and decision makers all over the world to acknowledge that Colombians will con-
tinue to suffer without our joint solidarity and attention. As described in this report, the
human rights situation is not improving, and there is no more time nor lives to spare before we
join hands and resources for the sake of all the current and future generations of Colombians.
Today, the student movement, mainly representing the next adult generation in Colombia, are sys-
tematically silenced and oppressed. They are given no room to be the agents of change who are
badly needed in the Colombian society today. Also their teachers and professors, some of them who
have given most of their lives to the fight for justice and democracy, still face an insurmountable
wall of challenges in their work and personal struggle. It is time to stop observing and start acting.
The international community of the human rights defenders need to join forces and refuse to accept
the atrocities that are being done and accepted by the Colombian government.

8
3. Appendix
3.1 The delegation
As a component in the development program of the Students’ and Academics’ International
Fund (SAIH), «Academic freedom and academic rights for students and academics in the South»,
a delegation of student representatives was put together to visit Colombia in November 2009.

SAIH established a contact with the Colombian student organisation ACEU approximately
ten years ago. In 2003 Colombia and ACEU was one of two cases in SAIHs campaign, «Student
struggle – a resource or a threat». ACEU won the Student Peace Prize in Norway in 2005, and are
still actively involved in the cooperation between the former peace prize winners. In 2007 ACEU
applied to SAIH for funds to document and create a report about the wide spread human rights
abuses directed at students. This report was completed in 2008; its summary was translated to
English and distributed in Norway and other European countries.

The student delegation to Colombia consisted of representatives from the National Union of Students
in Norway (NSU), the Education Students in «Norway (PS), the Norwegian Association of Students
(StL), School Student Union of Norway (EO), the Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance
Fund (SAIH), SAIH’s local chapter in Trondheim, and Colombian Students Watch from Denmark.

The delegation had as its specific objectives to meet with many high profiled human rights
activists and organizations, grassroots organizations, teachers’ trade unions, student
organizations and ordinary students; to visit universities in Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Pamplona
and Cúcuta; to discuss and plan further cooperation between the European and Colombian
organizations; and to collect data to be used in information work when back home in Norway.

3.2 The organisations

SAIH
SAIH is the solidarity organisation of students and academics in Norway. SAIH focuses on
education in development cooperation, as well as North/South information and political advocacy
in Norway. SAIH supports local organisations and institutions working with higher education,
research and capacity building in southern Africa and Latin-America. 

SAIH’s motto «Education for Liberation» relates to theories of pedagogy of liberation, in which
participation creates an increased political consciousness as well as increased possibilities for each
participant to find solutions to their own problems. Education must be seen in a social context where
education is aimed at creating a more just society. As a solidarity organization, SAIH aims to address
challenges faced by people in the South, as well as structures and actions in the North which create and
reproduce an unjust world. Development aid alone cannot create a just world. Wealthy countries in the
North have to change policies that have a negative impact on the development of countries in the South.

www.saih.no

9
 The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU)
The National Union of Students in Norway (NSU) is the student union for approximately 93 000 students
attending Norwegian universities, academies of art and scientific colleges. NSU has been working for
student rights since 1936. The main priorities of NSU in 2010 are improving student funding, student
housing, improving quality of education and working for international cooperation and solidarity.
Higher education as a public good and public responsibility is a fundamental principle for NSU.

1st July 2010 NSU and The Norwegian Association of Students will merge to one organisation,
aiming at representing all students in Norway under the name of NUS-Norway (in Norwegian:
NSO, Norsk Studentorganisasjon).

www.nsu.no

The Norwegian Association of Students (StL)

StL is the largest student organization in Norway, and represents 100 000 students at 30 different
higher education institutions. StL is a non-governmental organization, and sustains as well as
promotes students’ financial, academic, cultural, social and democratic interests.
StL influences and tries to improve the student financial support system, focuses on improving
teaching and evaluation methods, raises attention to the importance of internationalization within
higher education, and works on improving the student housing and child care situation.

StL’s politics and activities are based on four fundamental principles: education is the government’s
main responsibility, education must be of high quality, there must be equal rights when accessing
and participating in higher education and student participation in all decision making bodies
concerning higher education is a fundamental right.

www.stlweb.no

Education Students in the Union of Education Norway (PS)

The Education Students (ES, in Norwegian: Pedagogstudentene, PS) in the Union of Education
Norway (Utdanningsforbundet) is a politically independent trade union working to promote the
interests of education student and ensure that its members’ legal rights are secured. ES represents
11 500 students in Norway.

The members of ES include everyone who is studying to become a teacher or a pedagogue working
within the educational system. As an organization, the Education Students has a clear opinion
about the education of the students it represents and what it takes to improve this education. High
quality within the educations is important. Therefore, the Education Students tries to be a visible
political participant, not only when it comes to the education of its members, but also in discussions
involving the future professions of its members.

www.pedagogstudentene.no

10
School Student Union of Norway (EO)
The School Student Union of Norway (SSUN, in Norwegian: Elevorganisasjonen, EO) was founded
in 1999. SSUN is an organization working for and with students, and consisting of them, with
about 350 member schools. It is the only organization in Norway representing secondary school
and lower secondary school.

The School Student Union of Norway has local boards in all the Norwegian counties. They are
affecting the local educational systems, and cooperate with the student councils at each member
school. On a national level the Central Board, consisting of 16 people, is working with national
policies and the SSUN as an organization. SSUN is not connected to any political party or religion.
The School Student Union of Norway is an important part of the educational debate in Norway, and
works close up against the government and other educational organizations, among school student
organizations internationally.

www.elev.no

Colombian Students Watch

Colombian Students Watch is a network of Danish students and student organizations which
deals with the students’ situation in Colombia. The idea of the network is that students at each
end of the world can exchange ideas and information, as well as experiences from the work for
free, democratic and high quality education. The Danish students can offer assistance in terms of
international attention to the Colombian students’ situation.

www.colombianstudentswatch.eu

ACEU
Asociación Colombiana de Estudiantes Universitarios (Colombian Association for University
Students), established in 1998, is the biggest Colombian student organization. ACEU fights for
student rights and human rights in a country where such work is dangerous. Violence, narcotics and
decades of civil war, have contributed to making Columbia a very challenging country. Members
of the non-violent ACEU have been arrested, tortured and killed, all because they raise their voices
and bring attention to existing problems und injustices in society.

ACEU works for an autonomous, democratic and free public higher education, and they fight for
their right to organize in a union. ACEU also work to find a political solution to the conflict and
peace and justice for the Colombian civil society.

www.aceucolombia.org

11
 COLOMBIAN
STUDENTS
AT RISK
12