The Colombian Government values and takes note of the observations and recommendations contained in the United Nations report, and acts to generate conditions to guarantee the rights of all the inhabitants of Colombia.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, this year, the National Government sees with deep surprise that the Report on the Human Rights situation in Colombia, corresponding to the 2019 period, contains statements that attack on the legitimacy of the institutions, are inaccurate and apparently excess the mandate that the Government has signed with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The level and constancy of the dialogue between the Office and the Government are not translated into the content of the Report. The observation in the field made by the Office allows it to know firsthand the complexity of the context in the territories and the Government's efforts in issues of security and human rights. However, the document does not reflect them with the objectivity required by the mandate.
Pointing out that the Army carries out citizen security operations is an example of this misunderstanding of the Colombian context.
The military control operation carried out by the Military Forces takes place within the constitutional and legal mandate and with strict adherence to the standards regulated by International Human Rights Law.
Affirming that certain organized armed groups do not meet the conditions to be subject to the use of the force within the framework of IHL, ignores the objective criteria that humanitarian law has foreseen for this purpose, and that were rigorously collected in Ministries directives widely known to the Office, in addition to ignoring the military and police decision-making process that is part of the Security forces doctrine to ensure that the use of force obeys Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.
In this sense, the Report could apparently exceed the mandate by making subjective observations without elements of judgment on military operations and police procedures, ignoring the operational context and intelligence information that is proceed for these purposes.
The valuations on the planning and development of the operations of the Security forces correspond to the judicial and disciplinary authorities according to scientific technical evidence
Source: Sector Communication - Ministry of National Defense
