Persons with disabilities and the Colombian armed conflict

Abstract

This article is about the armed conflict in Colombia and the situation for people with disabilities. Decades of internal conflict have created a complex situation which both gives rise to disability but also fails to take account of the many urgent needs of people with disabilities. Despite the ratification by Colombia of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, persons with disabilities are still not accorded a voice in the peace agreements. Although there is little known about the extent of disability in Colombia, it is important to understand the history of the Colombian armed conflict to see how it impacts on disability issues. We conclude by highlighting the legal instruments in Colombia which provide opportunities now to redress some of those wrongs.

Keywords:

• Colombia
• armed conflict
• victims
• International Humanitarian Law
• peace process

1. Introduction: the relationship between disability and armed conflict

There is a clear link between disability and war. On the one hand, armed conflicts are a major cause of disability, not only physical disabilities as a result of confrontations but also psychosocial disabilities developed as a consequence of the dynamics of the conflict. On the other hand, people with disabilities find it more difficult to exercise their rights in contexts of armed conflict and are more severely affected by violence. In addition, in situations of conflict and emergencies, ‘persons with disabilities are often twice victimized; once by the disaster and again by the failure of the humanitarian and relief infrastructure meant to help them and protect their rights’ (Mitchell and Karr 2014, xix).

A major problem is that ‘information systems break down during conflict, leading to great uncertainty in the magnitude of mortality and disability’ (Murray et al. 2002, 346). In Colombia, slightly over 200,000 victims of the armed conflict – only 2.5% of the total – have reported some type of disability (Registry of Victims 2017), which is a an astonishingly small figure considering the actual number of people with disabilities who are supposed to have been affected by the conflict.

Colombia ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN 2006) in 2011. The 1997 National Framework Law on Disability was harmonized with the Convention in 2013 and complemented with other regulations. However, the provisions of the Convention are being incorporated progressively into the national reality. Among these provisions, Article 11 of the Convention states that a State Party is obliged under international humanitarian and human rights law to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including armed conflict.

Consequently, with a disability rights-based approach:

Given that people with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by violent conflict – and that many people, including civilians, become disabled through violent conflict – it is both fair and prudent to include them in conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts to the greatest extent possible. (World Institute on Disability 2014, 7)

Despite this, as we will establish in further research, there is no specific focus on disability in the Final Agreement to End the Armed Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace that the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) signed in 2016.

2. The history of the Colombian armed conflict

In order to understand the position of disabled people and the lack of a ‘disability perspective’ in the peace negotiations, it is useful to look back at the history of the Colombian armed conflict, which is a very difficult task. It is precisely the multiplicity and complexity of its actors and its factors that have made it the longest internal armed conflict in the western hemisphere. The more than five decades of conflict reveal the enormous magnitude, ferocity, and degradation with which this war was waged, as well as the serious consequences and impacts on the population. It is a difficult war to explain, not only because of its prolonged character and because of the various motives and reasons that facilitate it, but also because of the changing participation of multiple legal and illegal actors, because of its geographical extension and the particularities that it assumes in each region of the country and in the cities, and because of its overlap with the other violence that afflicts the country (Historical Memory Group 2013, 19).

The origins of the Colombian conflict have been brewing since the nineteenth century, with clashes between conservatives and liberals, in a context of state-building after Colombia’s independence. However, one of the decisive facts was the assassination in 1948 of Gaitán, the liberal candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, which caused periods of instability and violence. To end the bipartisan struggles, the Liberal and Conservative parties agreed to a coalition in 1958 called the National Front, according to which both parties would periodically alternate in the government of the country. This implied the exclusion from power of the other parties and the rejection of ideologies different from the traditional ideologies.

Although some stability was achieved, not only political discontent but also economic and social discontent were increasing, materializing in multiple resistances, some of them armed. It should be noted that in the midst of the ideological confrontation of the Cold War, left-wing and communist movements had been excluded from the Colombian political landscape. This is how the first guerrilla groups, including the FARC-EP, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), have appeared since the 1960s. Subsequently, the 19th of April Movement (M-19) and the Quintin Lame Armed Movement (MAQL) came into being. Violent clashes between the guerrillas and the State Armed Forces multiplied, and the number of victims, particularly non-combatants, increased.

The conflict had arisen as a result of clearly identifiable structural factors: on the one hand, political factors, including the lack of real democracy, institutional weakness, corruption, and the absence of the State in many parts of the territory; on the other, socio-economic factors, related to the enormous poverty and inequality that affected a large part of the population, particularly in rural settings, as well as difficult access to land. However, unlike other armed conflicts, an essential factor appeared and contributed to the continuity, proliferation, and aggravation of the armed conflict in Colombia, particularly since the 1980s: drug trafficking (Vacas 2015, 79). In addition to generating economic resources to support the war, drug trafficking brought with it a new logic and motivation to fight and deepened the political and socio-economic causes that had led to conflict.

As if this scenario was not complex enough, the armed conflict was aggravated and intensified by the appearance of a new actor: paramilitary groups. The paramilitaries or self-defence groups are illegal armed groups of the extreme right, organized in the 1970s to fight the guerrillas. Acting on many occasions with the knowledge and consent of the State, paramilitary groups grew in importance while increasing their links with drug trafficking. Thus, in the 1990s, these groups formed the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), which became one of the most violent and bloodthirsty actors of the Colombian conflict. Although in 2002 these groups began a process of demobilization, the paramilitary phenomenon is far from disappearing.

Throughout the armed conflict, several attempts to achieve peace with the FARC-EP were made (1984, 1998, 2012). However, only the third great attempt has been crowned with (recent) notable success and has led to the demobilization of more than 11,000 FARC-EP combatants. On 26 September 2016, after years of negotiations, the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP signed a peace agreement. Because this agreement was rejected by a narrow majority of votes in a plebiscite, the negotiating parties readjusted several sections of the text to obtain a new accord. As a result, the Final Agreement to End the Armed Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace was endorsed by Congress on 30 November 2016.¹

However, it is complicated to ascertain the reality of persons with disabilities during the armed conflict. On the one hand, this is because until recently disability was regulated, almost exclusively, from the medical model focused on health, without a social or rights-based approach (Moreno Angarita 2014). On the other hand, it is because even today there are still no published results of public interventions in health, social security, education, employment, recreation, or quality of life for persons with disabilities.

3. Conclusion: the need for a disability rights-based approach

As a consequence of the armed conflict, the victims are in the millions, particularly in rural areas. Homicides and disappearances exceed 300,000 people, while forced displacements have affected more than seven million Colombians (Registry of Victims 2017). To these must be added the thousands of people wounded, mutilated, tortured, kidnapped, or deprived of their land.

Even though the Political Constitution of Colombia (1991) expressly obliges the State to ‘protect those individuals who on account of their economic, physical, or mental condition are in obviously vulnerable circumstances’ (Article 13.2) and to ‘sanction the abuses or ill-treatment perpetrated against them’ (Article 13.3), persons with disabilities who are victims of displacement have not received the differentiated and specialized attention that they needed. These people were subject to some special risks that their disabilities would be increased or multiplied, because of wrongful acts, discrimination and exclusion from social services because of barriers created through oversight or by habit, and vulnerability because of the loss of their social and family network (Constitutional Court of Colombia, Auto 006 2009).

At present, Colombia is a divided country whose social fabric has been destroyed, cracked by violence in all its forms, and in need of healing its deep wounds. The factors that caused and perpetuated the conflict are not only present but also have deepened. It is essential that a disability rights-based approach will be incorporated in the peace process that is now being implemented. The 1997 National Framework Law on Disability opened a new approach to rights, which was harmonized with the Convention through a Statutory Law adopted in 2013. In addition, an anti-discrimination law that criminalizes discrimination and harassment of persons with disabilities was adopted in 2015. Nevertheless, much remains to be done to ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by all persons with disabilities in Colombia, especially for those who are victims of the armed conflict.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. An English translation is available online: http://www.altocomisionadoparalapaz.gov.co/Prensa/documentos-y-publicaciones/Documents/Acuerdo-Final-ing-web.pdf. Accessed on Jan 10, 2018.