112
giving it a higher priority than many other issues on the public agenda,” given the
decisive impact of this phenomenon on national life, due to its scale and its
psychological, political and socio-economic consequences.234
175. The reasons for and expressions of the acute vulnerability of displaced
persons have been characterized from various perspectives. Said vulnerability is
reinforced by their rural origin and, in general, it especially affects women -who are
heads of households and constitute more than half the displaced population-, girls
and boys, youths, and elderly persons. The internal displacement crisis, in turn,
generates a security crisis, since the domestically displaced groups become a new
focus or resource for recruitment by the paramilitary groups, drug traffickers, and
guerrilla forces.235 In most cases, the minimum conditions required by the displaced
population to return to their homes, in terms of security and dignity for them, are
lacking,236 and the significant negative effects of resettlement caused by forced
internal displacement, in addition to its grave psychological repercussions for them,
include: (i) loss of the land and of their houses, (ii) marginalization, (iii) loss of the
household, (iv) unemployment, (v) deterioration of living conditions, (vi) more illness
and higher mortality, (vii) loss of access to common property among the members of
communities [comuneros], (viii) food insecurity, and (ix) social disintegration, as well
as impoverishment and accelerated deterioration of living conditions (supra para.
96.59).
176. The Constitutional Court of Colombia established, in the aforementioned
judgment (supra para. 174), that the humanitarian crisis caused by the phenomenon
of internal displacement is of such magnitude and is a matter of such concern that it
can be described as a “true state of social emergency”; “a national tragedy that
affects the fate of vast numbers of Colombians and which is leaving its mark on the
future of the country for the coming decades” and “a serious danger for the
Colombian polity.”
It established that said phenomenon entails a “massive,
protracted, and systematic violation” of a broad set of basic rights, which content it
interpreted in light of the Guiding Principles on Forced Displacement.237
177. In view of the complexity of the phenomenon of internal displacement and of
the broad range of human rights affected or endangered by it, and bearing in mind
said circumstances of special weakness, vulnerability, and defenselessness in which
the displaced population generally finds itself, as subjects of human rights, their
situation can be understood as an individual de facto situation of lack of protection
with regard to the rest of those who are in similar situations. This condition of
vulnerability has a social dimension, in the specific historical context of the domestic
armed conflict in Colombia, and it leads to the establishment of differences in access
of displaced persons to public resources managed by the State. Said condition is
234
See judgment T-025/04 of January 22, 2004, issued by the Third Appellate Chamber of the
Constitutional Court (file with appendixes to the final pleadings submitted by the representatives, volume
I, pages 5153 and 5154).
235
See Economic and Social Council, Report by the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a
component of the right to an adequate standard of living and on the right to non-discrimination in this
regard, E/CN.4/2005/48, March 3, 2005, para. 38.
236
See Report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights
situation in Colombia, E/CN.4/2003/13, February 24, 2003, para. 94 (file with appendixes to the brief
containing pleadings and motions, appendix 41, page 3717).
237
See judgment T-025/04 of January 22, 2004, issued by the Third Appellate Chamber of the
Constitutional Court (file with appendixes to the final pleadings submitted by the representatives, volume
I, pages 5153 to 5162).
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