83
also require the authorities to adopt a preventive approach to forced displacement which should be
sufficiently differentiated and specific as to have a bearing on the fundamental causes of this
403
phenomenon and its disproportionate impact on the Afro-descendant communities and their members.
In this respect, the Court considered that in Colombia the structural nature of the problem has not been
acknowledged and the State's response is not systematic or comprehensive. It pointed out that public
policy lacks a specific preventive approach to the actual causes of the disproportionate impact of forced
displacement on the Afro-descendant population, and it referred to the actual case of the Cacarica
404
basin.
It also recognized that the State had not incorporated the differentiated approach that duly
appreciates the special needs of the displaced Afro-descendants and that the attention to this population
was limited to the programs and policies for the displaced population in general, with the added
complication that the Afro-descendant population is the most marginalized within the attention given to
405
displaced persons.
375.
The Constitutional Court established that the lack of an integral approach that considers
the structural factors which feed back into the conflict and the problems facing the Afro-Colombian
population prevent the measures adopted to avoid displacement from meeting the risks confronting the
Afro-Colombian population; facilitate the implementation of contingency plans when the danger is related
to the State's lawful operations to maintain public order; and they permit the adoption of appropriate
406
preventive measures to guarantee the right to life and to prevent their uprooting and confinement.
376.
Finally, the Commission recalls that the Constitutional Court has established that in
Colombia, a combination of the disproportionate effects of the internal armed conflict, the war on drugs,
the advance of mega-projects and the adoption of legislation affecting the territorial and environmental
rights of the Afro-Colombian communities, is causing conditions such as to dispossess them of their
territorial property and from their environmental habitat, so that the inequality gap is thus maintained,
407
consolidated and deepened.
377.
Within these parameters, the Commission will turn to consider whether the events
described involve the responsibility of the State with regard to its obligation to guarantee respect for rights
without any discrimination, and for the right to equality before the law.
378.
In the case under consideration, the Commission has already commented on the failure
to adopt preventive and protective measures for the Cacarica Afro-descendant communities who were
the victims of forced displacement. Similarly, the State failed to comply with its international obligations to
provide protection for a group at high risk of a human rights violation and that are the subject of special
protection. This lack of State protection, as well as being discriminatory, constitutes a failure of the
408
State's duty to protect and respect the socio-cultural integrity of the Afro-descendant communities.
403
Annex 62. Constitutional Court. Order 005-2009. Protection of fundamental rights of the Afro-descendant population
victims of forced displacement, in the framework of the unconstitutional state of affairs declared in Judgment T-025 of 2004. At:
http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/Autos/2009/A005-09.htm.
404
Annex 62. Constitutional Court. Order 005-2009. Protection of fundamental rights of the Afro-descendant population
victims of forced displacement, in the framework of the unconstitutional state of affairs declared in Judgment T-025 of 2004. At:
http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/Autos/2009/A005-09.htm.
405
Annex 62. Constitutional Court. Order 005-2009. Protection of fundamental rights of the Afro-descendant population
victims of forced displacement, in the framework of the unconstitutional state of affairs declared in Judgment T-025 of 2004. At:
http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/Autos/2009/A005-09.htm.
406
Annex 62. Constitutional Court. Order 005-2009. Protection of fundamental rights of the Afro-descendant population
victims of forced displacement, in the framework of the unconstitutional state of affairs declared in Judgment T-025 of 2004. At:
http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/Autos/2009/A005-09.htm.
407
Annex 62. Constitutional Court. Order 005-2009. Protection of fundamental rights of the Afro-descendant population
victims of forced displacement, in the framework of the unconstitutional state of affairs declared in Judgment T-025 of 2004. At:
http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/Autos/2009/A005-09.htm.
408
Cf. IACHR Report No.176/10 (Segundo Aniceto Norin Catriman, Juan Patricio Marileo Saravia, Víctor Ancalaf Llaupe
et al.) of November 5, 2010, para. 218.