Colombia
(asked on 27th November 2014) - View Source
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the government of Colombia's land restitution process.
This question was answered on 10th December 2014
Whilst security for claimants and those returning to their land is a key concern, our 2013 Human Rights Report (released on 10 April 2014) notes that some progress has been made on the issue of land restitution. Since January 2012 there have been 64,815 registered land restitution claims. In his recent meeting with President Santos on 7 November, the Deputy Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Sheffield Hallam (Mr Clegg), welcomed the Colombian government’s efforts to improve respect for human rights in Colombia, including through its land restitution and victims reparations processes. Our Embassy in Bogota runs several human rights projects to help improve Colombia’s land registry process, increase access to protection measures and raise awareness of the UN guiding principles on business and human rights. Officials from our Embassy also meet regularly with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities and we also funded a project aimed at developing the role of organisations in protecting communities’ rights to the territories. We are following closely several emblematic land restitution cases; our Ambassador raised the cases of the Curvaradó and Jiguamandó communities with the Ministry of the Interior in July and acts as an observer on the case.
Whilst security for claimants and those returning to their land is a key concern, our 2013 Human Rights Report (released on 10 April 2014) notes that some progress has been made on the issue of land restitution. Since January 2012 there have been 64,815 registered land restitution claims. In his recent meeting with President Santos on 7 November, the Deputy Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Sheffield Hallam (Mr Clegg), welcomed the Colombian government’s efforts to improve respect for human rights in Colombia, including through its land restitution and victims reparations processes. Our Embassy in Bogota runs several human rights projects to help improve Colombia’s land registry process, increase access to protection measures and raise awareness of the UN guiding principles on business and human rights. Officials from our Embassy also meet regularly with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities and we also funded a project aimed at developing the role of organisations in protecting communities’ rights to the territories. We are following closely several emblematic land restitution cases; our Ambassador raised the cases of the Curvaradó and Jiguamandó communities with the Ministry of the Interior in July and acts as an observer on the case.