Indigenous peoples are recognised as guardians of a significant part of the world’s natural, cultural and linguistic diversity and as essential protectors of the lands and territories they have inhabited since ancestral times. There are more than 5,000 different Indigenous communities spread across 90 countries around the world, speaking the vast majority of the world’s 7,000 languages. Each communiy has its unique cultural practices, social structures, and religious beliefs. In particular, the territories Indigenous people currently inhabit have constituted the source of their sustenance and the base of their ancestral knowledge, social structures, and religious beliefs for centuries, preserving them in turn from environmental degradation. Today, indigenous communities are seeing their community and territorial rights systematically violated. Indigenous lands are sites of ongoing power struggles, aiming to militarise or exploit them, while indigenous people are targets of physical attacks, land invasions, racial discrimination, and killings for defending their own existence. According to Front Line Defenders’ 2023 Global Analysis Report, 31% of the defenders killed in 2023 were Indigenous people. Violations against Indigenous HRDs account for 29% of total violations. Thus, the survival of native communities and territories is under threat of annihilation worldwide, with dire consequences for the future of our planet and humankind as a whole.
Indigenous People of Colombia: From Challenges to Resistance
For the occurrence of the International Day of the world’s indigenous populations, ProtectDefenders.eu had the opportunity to talk with two human rights defenders from Colombia. Edwin is a high-profile Human Rights Defender and community leader from the region of Antioquia. He is member of the CONPAZCOL community-based human rights organisation, devoted to the protection and prevention of human rights abuses and environmental degradation affecting ethnic and campesinos groups, especially during and after the end of the civil war. ProtectDefenders.eu also talked with a defender, son of Indigenous leaders of the Nasa community from Northern Cauca, one of the greatest Indigenous communities in Colombia. Their testimonies embody the specific challenges their communities are facing and the peaceful resistance they are tirelessly deploying to protect their community rights and their invaluable culture.
Indigenous people in Colombia are among the most at risk in the world. According to the report by the Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Organización Indígena de Colombia 58,000 indigenous men and women were victims of confinement, harassment, and forced displacement, only in 2023. Indigenous people have been disproportionately affected primarily by the prolonged civil war between the state and the paramilitary group FARC, that only ended with the signing of the Peace Accords in 2016. Despite the promises, both the defenders agreed that the Peace Accords did not put an end to hostilities. New armed groups formed from the dissolution of the FARC, continuing a cycle of violence, fueled by the consolidation of illegal economies, mainly drug trafficking and illegal mining, in territories where the state has historically been absent.
The region of Northern Cauca is one of the departments most affected by armed violence. Assassinations of indigenous guards and leaders, forced displacement, and land invasion are only some of the gross human rights violations perpetrated by military groups in the region. Of the 611 HRDs killed in Colombia since 2016, 332 were indigenous, as reported by the Colombian Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ), with the vast majority of these crimes occurring with total impunity. “One of the greatest threats is the forced recruitment of indigenous children, as it deprives the community of its future generations”, stated the Young HRD from Northern Cauca, who himself was at risk of being recruited because of his indigenous identity. Furthermore, Edwin highlighted that “the dictates of the national and international economic system further fuel violence”, especially around the national port of Buenaventura, on which 60% of the national economy depends, and in the region of Antioquia, rich in minerals and other natural resources.
One of the greatest threats is the forced recruitment of indigenous children, as it deprives the community of its future generations.
Young HRD from Northern Cauca
Against this hostile environment, native communities have incessantly fought for their rights on their lands and self-determination. Indigenous resistance has a long and rooted history in Colombia; it began 500 hundred years ago against the exploitation by the Spanish colonisers of ancestral lands for mono-cultures and colonial settlements. Given this long record of struggle for their lands and the absence of effective state mechanisms of protection, Indigenous communities had to develop their own protection mechanisms. This is how, in 2001, the Plan de Acción Guardia Indígena was created in Northern Cauca as a continuation of ancestral protection mechanisms of the colonial period. The Indigenous guard is a collective instrument of resistance, unity, and autonomy for the protection of the territory and the life of the community. It is not a political structure but a humanitarian mechanism of civil resistance that directly depends on indigenous authorities. As Edwin explained , the Indigenous Guard is an outstanding example of peaceful resistance: “the Guard is devoted to the principles of non-violence and peaceful resistance, employing traditional knowledge to protect the territory and the community”.
Resistance also manifests in everyday acts of disobedience, like community protests and the destruction of drug cargos passing by indigenous territories, and cultural initiatives. The mother of the young defender, who has devoted her life to the protection and promotion of Nasa culture, has been working in a school specifically established to teach Nasa language and foment the value of their culture. “The survival cultural heritage and language to future generations is what makes me hopeful for the future”, he said when asked what fuels his hopes for a better tomorrow. When asked the same question, Edwin promptly answered that it is the “connection with the territory and the closeness of the community” that persuade him to continue his human rights work at the risk of severe repercussions or death.
International recognition of Indigenous Peoples
Despite the heavy shortcomings in their effective protection, the government of Colombia is far from backward when it comes to the national and international legal recognition of Indigenous people.
In fact, the political Constitution of 1991 was welcomed as a victory by the Indigenous community, as it recognised the fundamental rights of Indigenous communities and multiculturalism as an essential part of the political body. Colombia also adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, in which the fundamental political, economic, and social rights of indigenous people were recognised in a universal legal framework, underlying the values of equality, justice, and non-discrimination. Of particular importance is the obligation of states to obtain a free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) before advancing any project affecting indigenous lands. The Declaration also crucially recognised the colonial origin of the racial discrimination Indigenous communities still face and the need to guarantee that their development proceeds in accordance with their own history, beliefs and interests. The government has also ratified ILO Convention 169, that states that “governments shall respect the special importance for the cultures and spiritual values of the peoples concerned of their relationship with the lands or territories, or both as applicable, which they occupy or otherwise use, and in particular the collective aspects of this relationship.” In this way it recognises and sets forth the essential spiritual bond between Indigenous people and their territories and their contribution to crucial to cultural diversity and ecological harmony of humankind.
ProtectDefenders.eu’s support to Indigenous defenders and communities
Like Colombia’s Indigenous populations, many more native communities around the world, from Africa to Europe and Asia are resisting the annihilation of their lands and lives. Indigenous human rights defenders, devoting their lives to the protection of their communities, are those mostly targeted. These acts are not just contrary to international human rights standards and harmful to Indigenous people themselves; they also deprive the world of one of its greatest cultural treasures, examples of alternative ways of coexisting with the natural surroundings, producing knowledge, and organising societies.
ProtectDefenders.eu recognises the high risk Indigenous people face, and devotes a significant part of its resources to the support of Indigenous Human rights defenders and organisations in the most difficult contexts. A major development in this respect was the expansion of our outreach efforts to reach defenders and organisations in remote areas, address their localised needs and develop strategies that align with their needs and their realities. This was the case, for example, of a fact-finding mission organised by our Consortium partner OMCT in the state of Chiapas in Mexico. The mission was organised to attend the trial of three indigenous and land defenders, unjustly criminalised for protecting their lands and community, and conduct a thorough field research to better understand the situation of HRDs in Chiapas.
On top of this kind of support, ProtectDefenders.eu continues to prioritise indigenous defenders through its Emergency Grants programme for individual HRDs and its Supporting Organisations programme for formal and informal human rights organisations. Finally, with our temporary relocation programme we give financial support to host organisations responsible for implementing relocation of HRDs at risk. As a result, in 2023, 97% of the defenders we supported were either based in the most difficult countries or belonging to the most at-risk groups. By prioritising the support of Indigenous human rights organisations and defenders globally, ProtectDefenders.eu recognises the intrinsic value of these human communities and stands with them in their tireless resistance against global powers.
