3
the determination of updated data on the number of people that make up the Peace
Community and its corresponding settlements.
5.
That during the hearing celebrated the State said that it considered “the precise
and exact determination” of the members of the Peace Community “of great importance.”
The State based its request on the following: 1) currently the district of San José de
Apartadó has a population of approximately six thousand inhabitants and 2) there has
been a contradiction between that stated by the leaders and representatives of the Peace
Community and that stated by the next of kin of the people affected, with regard to their
membership or lack of to said Community.
6.
That the representative informed that the Peace Community is currently made up
by a group of “136 families (approximately 816 people)”, which “assume all the principles
of the Peace Community” and participate in the decision-making and community tasks.
These families are settled in the following veredas (small rural settlements), located in
the municipality of San José de Apartadó: San Josesito (46 families), La Antena (6
families), La Cristalina (5 families), Arenas Altas (16 families), La Unión (52 families),
Mulatos (5 families will return in February 2008), and La Esperanza (6 families). On the
other hand, the representative indicated that another group of families that live in
“humanitarian areas”, consisting in approximately 144 families (approximately 864
people) “have been added to the above”, all of which are distributed in 8 veredas: la
Resbalosa (8 families), La Hoz (14 families), Rodoxalí (22 families), Sabaleta (39
families), Las Flores (21 families), El Venado (16 families), and Arenas Bajas (5 families),
all of them in the municipality of San José de Apartadó. According to that stated by the
representative, this group “has identified with the principles of the Peace Community,
even though it has not assumed all the commitments to participate in community tasks
and decisions.” Finally, the Peace Community’s representative states that it “does not
consider it sensible but, instead, extremely risky, to provide the names of the people that
make up the Peace Community and the “humanitarian areas” that have joined it.”
7.
That in matters such as the present,2 the Court has ordered the protection of a
plurality of people that have not been previously named, but that are identifiable and
determinable and that are in a situation of grave risk due to their membership to a group
or community. When ordering the present provisional measures, the Court assessed that
the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó was conformed by approximately 1,200
people, thus constituting “an organized community, located in a specific geographic
location, whose members may be identified and individualized.”3 As grounds for its
request of provisional measures the Commission informed the Tribunal that:
j)
[…] there is a number of elements that allow identifying the members of the Community in a
collective way. One of these is the geographic element; this is a Community located in a determined
place, in the Municipality of Apartadó, formed by 32 surrounding trails, such as La Unión trails where
the 189 people identified in the Decision of the President of October 9, 2000 come from. Furthermore,
belonging to such Community has a series of norms, bylaws, a representation system; the members
are even identified with an identification card; in the Community there are people who, although not
formally identified with said card, live there and are guided by said principles and want to become
2
Cfr., inter alia, Matter of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. Provisional Measures
Regarding Colombia. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of November 24, 2000, Considering
clause number seven; Case of the Children Deprived of Liberty in the “Complexo do Tatuapé” of FEBEM.
Provisional Measures regarding Brazil. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of November 30,
2006, Considering clause number six, and Matter of the Communities of Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó.
Provisional Measures regarding Colombia. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of February 7,
2006, considering clause number eight.
3
Cfr. Matter of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, supra note 2, considering clause number
seven.