REPORT Nº 4/07 PETITION 1147-04 ADMISSIBILITY LUZ DARY OSPINA BASTIDAS ET AL. (COMUNA 13) COLOMBIA February 27, 2007 I. SUMMARY 1. On October 25, 2004, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission””) received a petition wherein the Interdisciplinary Group for Human Rights (hereinafter “the petitioner”) alleged that members of paramilitary groups, with the acquiescence and involvement of agents of the State of Colombia (hereinafter “the State,” “the Colombian State” or “Colombia”) harassed, threatened, and detained Luz Dary Ospina Bastidas and her family, took over their property in Commune 13, Medellín, department of Antioquia for the period from November 2002 to June 2003 and ultimately destroyed it, with the result that she and her family were forced to move away. 2. The petitioner alleges that the State is responsible for violation of the right to humane treatment, the right to freedom of association, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to property, the right to participate in government, the right to a fair trial, the right to judicial protection, and the prohibition against suspension of guarantees, all established in the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” or “the American Convention”). The State asked the Commission to declare the case inadmissible on the grounds of noncompliance with the rule requiring prior exhaustion of domestic remedies, stipulated in Article 46(1)(a) of the American Convention. The petitioner, for its part, claimed the exceptions to the rule requiring exhaustion of domestic remedies that are allowed under Article 46(2) of the American Convention. 3. After examining the positions of the parties and the compliance with the requirements set forth in articles 46 and 47 of the American Commission, the Commission decided to declare the present case admissible with regards to articles 5(1), 8(1), 16, 21(1), 21(2), 22(1) y 25 in conjunction with articles 1(1) y 27(1) of the American Convention, to notify the parties and to order publication of its decision. II. PROCESSING WITH THE COMMISSION 4. The IACHR registered the petition as number P1147-04 and, after doing a preliminary review of its content, forwarded a copy of the pertinent parts to the State on November 23, 2004, requesting information and giving the State two months in which to present its response, in keeping with Article 30(2) of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure. The State presented its response on December 12, 2006. III. THE PARTIES’ POSITIONS A. The petitioner 5. The petitioner states that Commune 13 in the city of Medellín consists of 22 neighborhoods that are home to some 130,000 families, most of whom live below the minimum income level. The petition states that conditions in Commune 13 are breeding grounds for various kinds of outlaw groups, with the result that military operations are becoming increasingly frequent and more and more aggressive. 6. The petition states that a number of military operations were conducted in Medellin’s Commune 13 in 2002. “Operation Orion” was conducted in October 2002, which combined 1