IV. PROVEN FACTS A. Situation of lawyers as human rights defenders in Colombia 31. Several international agencies have spoken out about the situation of human rights defenders in Colombia. 32. In its 1998 report the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia mentioned that in 1997 alone 20 members of human rights organizations had been murdered.3 In its 1999 report on Colombia the IACHR noted that “human rights workers have also been subjected to other types of attacks on their rights, including threats and physical violence as well as arbitrary criminal prosecutions.”4The Commission added: The recent increase in the violence and harassment directed against human rights defenders corresponds to the degradation of the conflict in the past years and even months. The legitimate work of human rights defenders, including the denunciation of the serious abuses committed by the parties to the armed conflict, has led certain actors to seek to silence them through a variety of methods. (…) with alarming frequency, members of the State security forces and paramilitary groups presume, based on human rights workers' legitimate human rights promotion and protection activities, that these individuals are involved in illegal activities or that they have become combatants and legitimate objects of attack.5 33. The Commission also alluded to attacks on the lives and physical integrity of human rights defenders.6 In that regard, the IACHR said: Many human rights workers in Colombia receive constant threats against their lives in reprisal for their work. These threats sometimes come in the form of anonymous phone calls and notes. In other cases, unknown individuals approach human rights workers and inform them that they must discontinue their work or suffer the consequences. These threats themselves constitute an attack on the mental integrity of the victims. The threats have a particularly strong effect, because human rights defenders know that many such threats are eventually carried out.7 34. As regards the attribution of such acts, the Commission indicated: Armed dissident groups have been known to attack human rights workers believed by these organizations to support other actors in the armed conflict. However, responsibility for acts of violence against non-governmental human rights workers is most frequently attributed to paramilitary groups. Many different sources also suggest that the State's security forces may cooperate with paramilitary groups in planning and executing some of the killings. (…) The Commission reiterates that, where paramilitary groups act as State agents or with the approval, acquiescence or tolerance of State agents, the State becomes internationally responsible for the human rights violations which they commit. The attacks described above would, in those circumstances, constitute flagrant violations of Articles 4 and 5 of the American Convention. In addition, to the extent that these attacks constitute reprisals against Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, E/CN.4/1998/16, 9 March 1998, para. 113. IACHR, Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Colombia, February 26, http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Colom99en/table%20of%20contents.htm 5 IACHR, Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Colombia, February 26, http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Colom99en/table%20of%20contents.htm 6 IACHR, Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Colombia, February 26, http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Colom99en/table%20of%20contents.htm 7 IACHR, Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Colombia, February 26, http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Colom99en/table%20of%20contents.htm 3 4 5 1999. Available at 1999. Available at 1999. Available at 1999. Available at