The OECD accession review of labour market, social and migration policies in Colombia (OECD, 2016[4]) highlighted significant concerns regarding the prevalence of violence against trade unions and the levels of impunity for such incidents and criminal violations of workers’ rights. Five key recommendations were made by the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee of the OECD in its Formal Opinion on Colombia’s accession to the OECD (OECD, 2018[3]), aimed at eradicating violence against trade unionists, ensuring their protection, decreasing impunity, and preventing the excessive use of force by the police against them (Box 4.1).
OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Colombia 2024
OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies
4. Crimes against trade unionists
Recommendations in the Formal Opinion of ELSAC
Box 4.1. OECD recommendations to tackle crimes against trade unionists in Colombia
Draw up a zero vision for violence and homicides against trade unionists through an adequate plan of further reforms and actions in line with ratified ILO conventions.
Further strengthen the protection programme for trade union members and leaders by:
Maintaining adequate financial resources for the National Protection Unit;
Implementing, in close collaboration with trade unions, the recently developed collective protection mechanism for at-risk trade unionists.
Demonstrate progress in reducing impunity rates for both violence and threats against trade unionists and crimes against the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining by:
Ensuring that investigations of crimes against trade unionists are a priority for the government and maintaining the Elite Group responsible for the investigation of crimes against trade unionists in the Prosecutor General’s Office;
Demonstrating tangible progress in the resolution of all crimes against trade unionists, securing convictions where appropriate;
Ensuring the timely resolution of cases of violence and threats against unionists, including by hiring a third labour judge;
Publically releasing on a yearly basis statistics on the investigation and prosecution of crimes, as well as the case timelines.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the mandatory conciliation phase as required by the criminal proceedings for Article 200 of the Criminal Code.
Critically and independently examine the role of the Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron (Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios, ESMAD) and their use of excessive force. In co‑operation with the social partners, taking measures to address the pending recommendations on serious and urgent cases at the ILO Committee of Freedom of Association regarding violence against trade unions.
Source: OECD (2018[3]), Accession of Colombia to the OECD: Formal Opinion of the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee, unpublished report.
Statistics on violence against trade unionists
In 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office (Fiscalía) reported 8 cases of homicides of trade unionists (9 victims), while the National Trade Union School (Escuela Nacional Sindical, ENS) reported 16 cases (Figure 4.1). The large difference between both sources in the past two years is mostly a difference in classification, where the Prosecutor General’s Office records victims according to the function they were practicing at the time of the homicide, and many trade unionists are also social leaders in their community. The data provided by the Prosecutor General’s Office suggest a declining trend of trade union homicides since 2018 (with the exception of the year 2022), while the data provided by ENS suggest a relatively stable number of homicides of around 17 cases per year. Taken together, there seems to be a shift in violence against trade unionists towards violence against social leaders more general, an observation that is confirmed by data from the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2024[27]) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, 2024[28]).
Figure 4.1. Violence continues to affect trade unionists in Colombia
Number of homicides and other types of violence against trade unionists, 2017‑23
Note: Other types of violence include forced displacement, disappearance, torture, harassment, arbitrary detentions, illegal searches, threats, and other attempts against life.
Source: Data provided by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Trade Union School (ENS) based on the Information system on human rights (SINDERH).
A similar observation can be made for other forms of violence against trade unionists. ENS reported a significant decline in threats, forced displacement, disappearances, and torture from 2022 to 2023 (Escuela Nacional Sindical, 2023[29]). While in 2022 there were 277 reported cases of violence (of which 221 cases of threats), by 2023, the number of reported cases dropped to just 52 (Figure 4.1).
According to data reported by the Ministry of Labour, a total of 3 323 members of trade unions were victims of homicides between 1971 and 2023, 449 experienced attacks on their lives, 254 were victims of disappearance, 7 884 received threats, and 1987 were victims of forced displacement.1 Acknowledging the historic context of a civil war and an overall climate of violence including crimes against trade unionists, the Unit for the Victims (Unidad para las Víctimas) included a group of workers affiliated with trade unions as victims in the Unique Register of Victims (Registro Único de Víctimas) and made them eligible for collective reparations (Unidad para las Víctimas, 2023[30]).
Violence during demonstrations and strikes
Previous OECD accession and post-accession reviews of Colombia express concerns about the excessive use of force against trade union leaders and members by the Colombian Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron (Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios, ESMAD), a unit within the Colombian National Police in charge of securing demonstrations and controlling riots, including strikes.
In the last two years, the National Police in Colombia underwent a major transformation. First, the name of the ESMAD was changed into the Unit of Dialogue and Maintenance of Order (UNDMO). Second, a manual for the Attention to Meetings and Peaceful Public Demonstrations and Control of Disturbances, was issued by the National Police in March 2023. This manual fosters the dialogue as a mechanism to facilitate the right of assembly and demonstration and includes a provision banning the use of firearms by the members of the Police acting in a social demonstration. Third, a new position for a Commissioner of Human Rights in the National Police was created in 2022, who is in charge of leading the promotion, respect, guarantee and protection of Human Rights in the work of the institution.
Since the creation of the UNDMO and the issuance of guidelines, there has been a reduction in violence committed by the unit, but recent cases reported in the media suggest that it has not ceased entirely.2 In addition, civil society organisations expressed their concerns, as in their opinion the internal transformation process of the National Police remains superficial, with important areas for improvement to foster comprehensive changes and genuine discussions about the role of the police within Colombian democracy and in the context of peacebuilding.3
Protection of trade unionists
Over the past three years, the number of trade unionists enrolled in the protection programme of the National Protection Unit (Unidad Nacional de Protección, UNP) has seen a slight decline, from 256 in 2021 to 231 in 2023.4 At the same time, there has been a marked increase in the number of protection requests filed by trade unionists, rising from 727 in 2021 to 1 439 in 2023. The number of risk assessments have remained steady in this period, around 400. The main reasons to reject protection requests include: 1) devolution of the file because the subject of protection is presenting new facts for a request that is already under study; 2) the request must be attended by other entity (for instance, UNP only provides protection when the request is related to the armed conflict, otherwise it is the National policy that is in charge of providing protection); and 3) incomplete paperwork to present the request.
The UNP usually takes around three months to evaluate the risk of threats and offer protection to victims. In case of emergency, the UNP can react in three days, which happens in around 20% of the cases. However, some recent corruption scandals have prevented the UNP from offering protection within the usual time frame due to a lack of protection elements (armoured cars in particular). For instance, some vehicles designated for beneficiaries of the protection programme were discovered transporting cocaine and 38 vehicles were stolen in 2023.5 To overcome these issues, the UNP intends to buy the cars needed for its operation and provide them directly to the beneficiaries enrolled in the protection programme.
Even though the government adopted a reform to establish a procedure for collective protection mechanisms for groups and communities in 2021, currently only one trade union, the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria Agropecuaria (Sintrainagro) is covered through that mechanism. As part of the programme, Sintrainagro receives protection from 20 bodyguards and has 10 armoured vehicles at their disposal. In the past, another trade union federation (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia, CUT) also received collective protection from the UNP, which consisted of the installation of protection for their office, including security cameras and safety doors.
Overall, the protection budget for the UNP has remained stable from 2020 to 2023, between EUR 7.6 million and EUR 7.5 million. While this budget is just half of the protection budget for trade unionist in 2014 (EUR 13.6 million), the drop can be explained by a significant reduction in the number of protected persons (from 677 in 2014 to 231 in 2023).
Prosecution of violence against trade unionists
Of the 116 cases with 120 unionised victims of homicides that occurred between 2017 and 2023, progress was made in 70 cases: 21 cases have sentences, 24 cases are in trial, 7 cases have a formulation of charges, 14 cases are under investigation with arrest warrants in force, and in 4 cases the investigation ended as a result of the death of the alleged suspect. While the progress rate of these investigations has risen from 43% in 2021 to 60% in 2023, so far only 18% of the cases that occurred between 2017 and 2023 have a sentence. One-quarter (32) of the cases under investigation were homicides committed against trade union leaders.
Regarding investigations into threats against trade unionists, the Prosecutor General’s Office has been strengthening the specialised group established for this purpose. Ten prosecutors were assigned to the sectional Offices with the highest caseloads, a 24/7 hotline was made available, and specific guidelines were issued for investigating threats against human rights defenders. Among the activities conducted in 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office emphasised the successful conviction of an individual responsible for threatening leaders of the SINALTRAINAL (National Union of Food Industry Workers).
Investigations of violations of rights of assembly and association
As reported in the OECD’s first post-accession review of Colombia (OECD, 2022[1]), the investigations of violations of rights of assembly and association under Article 200 of the Colombian Criminal Code are not resulting in sanctions. In the period between 2017 and 2023 (until 7 December), the Prosecutor General’s Office received 1 410 complaints. Of these, 251 cases (17.8%) are active and 1 159 (82.2%) have been terminated, as follows: 692 cases have been archived, because there was no criminal conduct (56%) or the plaintiff did not have legitimacy (29%); 133 cases have been withdrawn by the complainant; 107 cases have been conciliated; 223 cases have been closed due to termination of the criminal action, preclusion, extinction of the complaint, among others; and in 4 cases, acquittal judgments were issued. Overall, despite the high number of complaints for the violation of the right of assembly and association, not one of the complaints received between 2017 and 2021 finished with a conviction.
In the last two years, three new strategies were implemented by the Prosecutor General’s Office to improve the investigations of violations of rights of assembly and association. First, a “Handbook for the Investigation and Prosecution of the Crime of Violation of the Rights of Assembly and Association” has been adopted and shared during conciliation sessions between trade unions and employers. The Handbook presents the legal foundations of the right of association and trade union association, explains collective bargaining issues, the strike, collective labour agreements, and union contracts, among other topics, and clarifies the concepts and mechanisms of legal protection for trade unions. The Handbook was also distributed to the prosecutors, particularly in regions with the highest concentration of cases.
Second, two specialised prosecutors were appointed in 2023 with the aim of reinforcing the investigation of active cases of violations of rights of assembly and association. Third, special sessions were organised in the sectional Offices with the highest number of cases. In the sectional Office of Bogotá, complainants were called to analyse each case in detail. This collaboration facilitated a joint understanding of the cases, resulting in better investigative actions.
Conciliation remains a common way to close the investigations under Article 200. While this mechanism could be seen as a successful way to guarantee the right of access to justice and to solve legal disputes in an expeditious manner (Mintrabajo, 2021[31]), concerns persist. For instance, it is not clear to what extent the access to justice for victims of violations under Article 200 is effective, as of 2021, no judicial sentences were reported (ILO, 2021[17]; USDOL, 2021[21]). Furthermore, over the past two years, the few cases that advanced to trial concluded with decisions in favour of the accused.
As already noted in the OECD’s first post-accession review report (OECD, 2022[23]), there is no follow-up mechanism to ensure the compliance of the conciliation agreement. It is up to the prosecutor to verify the agreement has been fulfilled and to archive the case. The regulation does not establish a term to follow up on the compliance of such cases nor does it allow for additional legal recourse under the same criminal procedure to argue the breach of the agreement. As a result, the only option for employees is to present a new lawsuit before a Civil Court to enforce the execution of the conciliation agreement, thus potentially making the legal procedure even more difficult.
Conclusion
Although there has been a decline in the number of reported homicides and other forms of violence towards trade unionists in recent years, trade union leaders and members continue to be targeted. The discrepancy between reported cases from different sources also underscores the complexity of accurately capturing the extent and reasons of violence against trade unionists versus social leaders more generally.
Some efforts have been made to address the persisting use of violence against the trade unionists in public demonstrations, offer them protection, and prosecute crimes against trade unionists. However, the low rate of convictions remains a concern, indicating the need for continued efforts to combat impunity. Recent strategies implemented by the Prosecutor General’s Office demonstrate a commitment to improving investigations and addressing violations of rights of assembly and association. Nevertheless, there is no follow-up mechanism to ensure the compliance of conciliation agreements, which remains the most common way to close investigations of violations of rights of assembly and association.
Notes
← 1. www.mintrabajo.gov.co/comunicados/2023/septiembre/el-63-de-los-casos-de-sindicalistas-asesinados-en-el-mundo-fueron-en-colombia
← 2. www.elespectador.com/politica/petro-pide-a-policia-investigar-operacion-de-antiguo-esmad-en-marchas-del-8-de-marzo-en-bogota-8m-noticias-colombia/
← 3. www.colectivodeabogados.org/mesa-por-la-reforma-policial-transformacion-del-esmad-en-undmo-no-fue-estructural-ni-conto-con-verdadera-participacion/
← 4. Cut-off for the 2023 data is 10 December.