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International Mission of Verification - IMV

19 -29 september 2006

Participating population:

Direct participants:  The project will directly affect the indigenous peoples Embera Katio in Alto Sinú (2,600 people) Kankuamo (5,900), Wiwa (4,000) Nasa in the north of the department of Cauca and the southern part of Valle del Cauca (190,000) and the U’wa (7,500).

Indirect participants:  Indirectly the project will benefit the whole of the Colombian Indigenous peoples that number more than 1,200,000.

Purpose of the Project

a) Development

The project seeks to contribute to four integral stategic aspects of the indigenous people in relation to the armed conflict in Colombia:

a: Set up a permanent commission to monitor the human rights situation of the Indigenous peoples and the degree compliance with the recommendations of the Special Rapateur of the United Nations by the government.

b: Inform the International Community and visibilise the human rights problem of the Indigenous peoples, creating channels of communication that allow on going updating of that information.

c: Bring pressure to bear on the Colombian State to comply with its international obligations

d: Consolidate the Indigenous Diplomacy for Peace, strenghtening the mechanisms and instruments for monitoring the cases of human rights violations, informing the community in general about the situation of the indigenous peoples.

e: Lay the ground work to set up an International Tribunal that establishes the responsibilities for the political violence that the Indigenous people of Colombia live through.

B) Aim of the Project

Make known the recommendations of the Special Rappateur of the United Nations about the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the indigenous peoples and demand that the Colombian State comply with them.

Expected Results

a: A permanent human rights monitoring commission to be set up.

b: To document four critical cases of the violation of human rights and collective rights in Colombia (Embera Katío of Alto Sinú, Kankuamo and Wiwa in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Nasa of nothern Cauca and Southern Valle de Cauca and the U’wa of Boyacá).

c: Verification of the general situation of the violation of the individual and collective rights fo the indigenous peoples of Colombia by an independent body.

d: Verification of an independent view before the international sistem of Human Rights of the situation of the violation of the individual and collective rights of the indigenous peoples and the level of of compliance by the Colombian State with the recommendations and determinations of the Organisations of the International System.

e: Show the real situation to civil society, both national and international, of the situation of the violation of the individual and collective rights of the Indigenous peoples of Colombia.

Principal Activities

A: Set up a permanent commission to monitor the human rights situation of the Indigenous peoples and the degree compliance with the recommendations of the Special Rapateur of the United Nations by the government.

• a.1. Disseminate the recommendations of the Special Rappateur in the communities which will be visited and other communities through visits and workshops.
• a.2. To prepare regional reports for a diagnosis of each of the indigenous peoples to be visited.

B: To document four critical cases of the violation of human rights and collective rights in Colombia

• b.1 Conformation and functioning of National Technical Secretaria and Regional Teams for the Mission
  
• b.2. Drawing up of the terms of reference for the elaboration of the reports on the regions, the nation and the State’s compliance.  Four regional reports (Embera Katío of Alto Sinú, Kankuamo and Wiwa in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Nasa of nothern Cauca and Southern Valle de Cauca and the U’wa of Boyacá).
  
• b.3. Four regional preparatory workshops and monitoring of the reports.
  
• b.4. Two national preparatory and monitoring workshops for the elaboration of the national reports and the fine tuning of the regional reports.
  
• b.5. The elaboration of regional and national reports.

C: Verification of the general situation of the violation of the individual and collective rights fo the indigenous peoples of Colombia by an independent body

• c.1. International work to contact members of the International Mission of Verification
• c.2. Preparation and delivery of basic information for the members of the International Mission:  Work Agenda and documentation on the armed conflict, the policy of Democractic Security, the demographic catastrophe and economic policies of the mega projects in Indigenous territories.
  
• c.3.  Visit by the International Mission to four crticial regions (Tierralta [Cordoba] Embera Katío of Alto Sinú, Kankuamo and Wiwa in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta [Valledupar] , Santander de Quilichao Nasa of northern Cauca and Southern Valle de Cauca and the U’wa in Cubará of Boyacá).
  
• c.4. Meetings of the International Mission with high ranking State functionaries and civic organisations
  
• c.5. National Forum for Life of the Indigenous Peoples with representatives of indigenous peoples not visited by the International Mission where an executive report of the Missionn will be presented and where principally they will hear the denouncements of the indigenous communities of the country about human rights violation and violations of International Humanitarian Law.
  
• c.6. Public declaration by the International Mission.

D. Update before the international human rights system an independent vision of the situation of the violation of the individual and collective rights of the Colombian indigenous people.

• d.1. Presentation of the International Mission of Verification to the organisms of the international system of human rights with offices in Colombia.
  
• d.2. Delivery of the report of the International Mission to the organisms of the international system of human rights.
  
• d.3. Meetings of the ONIC and the International Mission with organisms of the international system of human rights in order to present the findings of the visit to Colombia.

E: Show the real situation to civil society, both national and international, of the situation of the violation of the individual and collective rights of the Indigenous peoples of Colombia.

• e.1. An international and national press campaign before during and after the Mission in order to publicise the vulnerable situation and violation of the rights of the indigenous people.
  
• e.2. A National Forum for the Life of the Indigenous Peoples with the presence of indigenous representatives of the regions not visited by the Mission.
  
• e.3. Public declaration of the International Mission.
  
• e.4. Dissemination and monitoring of the Public Prounouncement of the Mission.

National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC).