The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, together with our more than 6,000 grassroots members and partners, express our strong concern and joins calls urging immediate action for the protection of the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas, the Colombian women’s rights organisation.  On 15 November 2012, the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas received death threats from the paramilitary group Águilas Negras (The Black Eagles). The Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas has worked in conflict zones for more than 15 years documenting human rights abuses and promoting the rights of displaced women in Colombia, and have been threatened numerous times in the past by paramilitaries as a result of their work. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has granted the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas Precautionary Measures due to the serious natures of these threats, however to date the Colombian government has failed to implement these measures or hold anyone accountable for the 2011 murder of Keila Ester Berrio Almanza, a member of the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas.

Read the statement from the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice.

For more information and our statement on the 2011 murder of activist Keila Ester Berrio Almanza, click here