Upon recognizing that there is a scarcity regarding the literature in the country on the civil society in general and the Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in particular, we ask the following questions in this article: What role does international NGOs play regarding human rights in Colombia? What tools do they have at their disposal? After a few contemplations on the human rights subject in terms of: 1) the international legal context, 2) the application mandate, and 3) the activism deployed by these organizations, this article concludes that international NGOs in Colombia further intense public action, in networks, that distinguishes them, more than as activities, but as resolute agents. A double momentum in their repertoire allows them to be assertive in the national as well as the international state. They censure when rights are vulnerated; when there is no national legislation, they appeal to international regulations so that violations are punished, and they are always striving to save lives. (Colombia Internacional/GIGA)
En este artículo, el autor critica la política exterior del gobierno de Felipe Calderón a la luz de algunos de los anteriores mandatarios así como de frente a la intrincada realidad mundial actual. A través del escrito, se analizan los déficits en esta materia y se aventuran algunas hipótesis de lo que la administración calderonista debiera hacer a fin de reubicar a México en su tradicional posición histórica en el Continente Americano.
The Peace Workshops are programs for development cooperation undertaken by the European Union in Colombian conflict zones. Analyzed from the Foreign Relations perspective, the workshops are a tool of the nascent common European foreign policy. The cooperation initiatives in Colombia, a country in the American sphere of influence, are inscribed in a profile-defining process of the EU as an international actor. The article presents the Peace Workshops in Colombia to then explain what type of donor the EU tends to be, and the building process of its cooperation policy. The conclusion is reached that the Workshops are a European peacebuilding proposal that allows it to differentiate itself from the United States, as well as create for itself a place on the international stage as an actor for peace. However, the European proposal shines a light on the difficulties of establishing an international presence. Indeed, the Member States and the common institutions react in different ways to the changes that occur in the international context, transatlantic relations and the policies of the Colombian government. (Colombia Internacional/GIGA)
By the 21st century, in most of Latin America a phased combination of international and civil society pressure has produced notable if incomplete human rights reform. Yet in Colombia, continuing assassinations, kidnappings, forced displacement, and torture have received limited international attention and met with a checkered state response. This essay will argue that the symbolic structure of the violations and political environment in Colombia, above and beyond material and institutional constraints, diminish civil society's impact and state responsiveness. Communicative action and its failures are the key to the persistence of abuse and lag in international response in Colombia. Specifically, we will trace problems in the definition of rights, identification of victims, legitimacy claims of the state, discourse of causal attribution, and transnational communication dynamics. (Colombia Internacional/GIGA)
Why are certain problems recognized as human rights issues, while others are not? This article focuses on the political strategies through which marginalized groups transform long standing domestic grievances into internationally-recognized human rights claims. Highlighting the interacting roles of aggrieved local groups, powerful gatekeepers in international human rights organizations, and state and civil society opponents, the article develops a four-stage model for the development of new human rights. The article also challenges constructivist theories about the formation of international norms development.
The news of the installation in Colombia, the Manta military base, has generated a national controversy, because it intends to transfer the base but transforming its operation throughout the country. This article aims compare the reasons for any inconvenience caused in installation in Ecuador and the reasons for denying the firm extending the existence of the military base with discussions which has resulted in Colombia giving light to approach the analysis of this phenomenon.
This article seeks to analyze the impact which the operation of the Inter-American Court Of Human Rights had in the Colombian case during the 2001-2006 period, inside a context of a multiplicity of pressing actors, who conforms a Transnational Advocacy Network (TAN). Based upon statements of realism, liberalism and, mainly, constructivism, the article studies the relationship between the pressing actors and the reactions that the Colombian state shows against the actors' pressure. Finally, a diagnostic of the human rights situation in Colombia is made. (Colombia Internacional/GIGA)
During the last few years non-governmental actors have gained strength in seeking, in many cases, to promote sensibility and influence foreign policy. In their specific case, and unlike in other countries, the Colombian foreign policy decision-makers seldom interact with entities other than the State. In this article, a case study is examined in which the academic sector has been consulted on the characteristics of migrants and the design of a migratory foreign policy. By doing so, it seeks to examine the influence of the academic sector in the design and execution of said regulations. It concludes that its participation has been circumstantial, punctual and intermittent. (Colombia Internacional/GIGA)
Are international migrants transnational protest agents? Do they involve themselves in the northern NGOs devoted to defending human rights? On what roads does transnational human rights activism travel? On the crossroads on two fields of study privileged by a transnational approach, protest and migrations, and based on a case study, this article offers answers to these questions. The work is supported by well-formed knowledge of Latin American migration in France, and the examination of the experience of a human rights defense association, deeply involved in Latin America. The mechanisms of transnational action are specified and analyzed, and an explanation for the Colombian case is proposed: the permanence of the practice of Rebusque (tirelessly seeking any kind of livelihood). (Colombia Internacional/GIGA)
This paper, intends to perform a legal analysis and factual the operation known "Jaque" conducted in Colombia, allegedly by the military forces of this country, to make the search for truth is tested first in the Colombian constitution regarding the regulation on the permanence, transit, management and operations, foreign military forces on our territory, on appeal is heard from the operation of the facts known to it, from various media sources the same, and finally the conclusions are trying to answer What if the constitution is respected or if instead it has made behind our legal system?
El 15 de febrero de 2007 el Estado español depositó formalmente
el instrumento de ratificación del Convenio de la Organización Internacional del
Trabajo (OIT) sobre pueblos indígenas y tribales. Su ratificación abre un importante
y denso debate en torno al valor real de la misma para un Estado como el
español que carece de pueblos indígenas en el interior de sus fronteras; es decir,
en el ámbito de la soberanía territorial y jurisdiccional inmediata del Estado. La tesis
fundamental que queremos defender en este escrito es que el Convenio sí posee
valor jurídico para el Estado español, siempre que se apela a una aplicación
extraterritorial del mismo. Por tanto, el contenido y obligaciones jurídicas que establece
el Convenio, serán de obligado cumplimiento para el Estado. Para otorgar
validez jurídica a estas afirmaciones será necesario apelar a la aplicación extraterritorial
del Convenio, de tal manera que sean controlables las actuaciones e intervenciones
de las empresas trasnacionales españolas. Lanaren Nazioarteko Erakundeak herrialde indigenei eta tribuei
buruzko berrespen-tresna gordailutu zuen Espainiako estatuan 2007ko otsailaren
15ean. Berrespen-tresna horrek eztabaida garrantzitsua eta trinkoa eragin du Espainia
bezalako estatu batentzat duen egiazko balioari buruz, ez baitu herri indigenarik
bere mugen barruan, hau da, estatuaren lurralde- eta jurisdikzio-subiranotasunaren
esparru zuzenaren arloan. Hau da idatzi honetan defendatu nahi dugun
oinarrizko tesia: hitzarmenak badu balio juridikoa Espainiako estatuarentzat, betiere
lurraldez kanpoko aplikazioaz ari bagara. Hala bada, hitzarmen honek ezartzen
dituen edukia eta betebehar juridikoak nahitaez bete beharrekoak izango dira estatuarentzat.
Baieztapen horiek balio juridikoa izango badute, beharrezkoa izango
da hitzarmenaren lurraldez kanpoko aplikazioaz aritzea, nazioz gaindiko espainiar
enpresen jarduerak eta esku-hartzeak kontrolatzeko modukoak izan daitezen. In February 15th, 2007, Spain formally ratifi ed the Convention on
indigenous peoples made by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Its ratifi
cation opens an important and broad debate over its real value for Spain, due
to the fact that it lacks indegenous peoples within its territory; that is, within the
inmediate State territorial and jurisdictional sovereignty. The main thesis that we
would like to defend in this text is that the Convention has legal value for Spain,
whenever it is applied outside the Spanish territory. Therefore, the content and legal
duties established by the Convention will bind the State. In order to give legal
validity to those statements, it would be necessary to call for the extraterritorial
application of the Convention, so that the actions and interventions by Spanish
transnational companies can be controlled.
El principio de reciprocidad en el ejercicio del derecho de sufragio
de los extranjeros en el ámbito local permite una interpretación diferente a la realizada
por el legislador. La exigencia de celebración de un Tratado internacional para
reconocer esa reciprocidad realizada por la LOREG carece de sentido. Esa normativa
debería derogarse. El principio de reciprocidad puede aplicarse directamente, por
ser una cuestión de hecho. De tal forma que la existencia del derecho de sufragio,
en el ámbito local, para los titulares de un pasaporte español, en el Estado de acogida,
debería permitir a los ciudadanos de ese Estado ejercer el derecho de voto en
las elecciones locales, sin necesidad de mediación del legislador. Al interpretarse la
reciprocidad como una cuestión de hecho, podría permitir el reconocimiento del derecho
de voto a los extranjeros en cuyo Estado de origen no existiese un régimen
democrático. Impedir a quien no puede votar en su Estado de origen hacerlo en el
de acogida constituiría una interpretación contraria al principio democrático. Toki-administrazioaren mailan atzerritarrek botoa erabiltzeko duten
eskubideari dagokion elkarrekikotasun-printzipioak, legegileak egindakoaz besteko
interpretazio bat egiteko aukera ematen du. Hauteskunde Araubide Orokorrari
buruzko Lege Organikoak elkarrekikotasun-tratatu bat egiteko ezartzen duen be tebeharrak
ez du zentzurik. Araudi hori indargabetu egin beharko litzateke. Elkarrekikotasun-
printzipioa zuzen-zuzenean aplika daiteke, egitezko kontua baita. Hala bada,
toki-administrazioaren mailan Espainiako pasaportea dutenek botoa emateko eskubidea
izanik, harrerako Estatuko herritarrek aukera izan beharko lukete toki-hauteskundeetan
boto-eskubidea baliatzeko, legegilea bitartekari izan beharrik gabe. Elkarre
ki ko ta su na egitezko kontu baten gisa interpretatuz gero, boto-eskubidea aitor tu
ahal izango litzaieke jatorrizko Estatuan erregimen demokratikorik ez duten atzerritarrei.
Jatorrizko Estatuan botorik eman ezin dutenei harrerako Estatuan aukera hori
ematea printzipio demokratikoaren kontrako interpretazioa izango litzateke. The principle of reciprocity in the exercise of the right to vote by
foreigners within local entities¿ sphere offers a different interpretation to that of
the legislator¿s. The need for the conclusion of a international treaty in order to
accept that reciprocity set forth by the Electoral Act does not make sense. These
rules should be abolished. The principle of reciprocity should directly be applied
because it is a factual question. So that the right to vote, within the local sphere,
to the holders of a Spanish passport in the reception State, should allow the citizen
from that State to vote to local elections, without the legislative intervention.
The interpretation of reciprocity as a factual question might allow to recognize
the right to vote to aliens whose home State lacks a democratic regime. Barring the
right to vote to someone who lacks that right at his or her home State is against
the democratic principle.
