(xi) Regarding the request of the representatives for the National Protection Unit to include in
each resolution determining the level of a person’s and the measures granted an explicit
reference to the status of the investigation into the facts giving rise to the risk and their impact
on the risk analysis: It indicated that the National Protection Unit “already takes investigations
into account when determining the risk facing a beneficiary or requester.”
d.2. Considerations of the Court
188. In this case, the Court notes that despite the efforts made by the State to combat violence
against journalists, according to numerous sources, a serious context of threats, attacks, and
murders perpetrated against social leaders and human rights defenders—which includes journalists—
persists to this day. 347 The Court will take the foregoing into account when determining the
guarantees of non-repetition in this case.
d.2.1 Implementation of training and awareness programs
189. This Court views positively the efforts made by the State to train justice officials from a gender
perspective and on investigating criminal threats. However, it deems it pertinent to order the State
to create and implement, within two years, a plan for training programs and raising awareness among
government officials, security forces, and justice officials to ensure that they have the knowledge
necessary to identify incidents and manifestations of gender-based violence against women that
affect women journalists; protect them when they are in danger; and investigate and prosecute the
perpetrators, including through the provision of tools and training on technical and legal aspects of
this type of crime.
d.2.2 Center for memory and dignity dedicated to women victims of sexual violence
and investigative journalism
190. The Court views positively the State’s offer in its brief of final arguments of an alternative to
the request to close the La Modelo Prison, and therefore orders the creation of a State center for the
memory and dignity of all women victims of sexual violence within the framework of the armed
conflict and investigative journalism, with specific recognition of the work of women journalists. The
center should bear the name of the campaign: "Centro Investigativo No es Hora de Callar” (No Time
To Fall Silent Investigation Center), and must include the participation of Ms. Bedoya. In addition, all
matters related to the organization of the center and its activities must include the participation of
women representatives of civil society organizations that work on the center’s subject matter of
focus. Pursuant to the arguments of the representatives and the State’s pleadings, the following
activities, among others, may be held in this space:
347
Cf. United Nations Security Council Press Statement on Colombia. UN Verification Mission in Colombia, Statement of
the Special Representative for Colombia and Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, January 28, 2021,
and United Nations Security Council Press Statement on Colombia SC/14332. UN Verification Mission in Colombia, October
19, 2020. Likewise, the IACHR's Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression referred to Colombia in its most
recent annual report, highlighting that it observed “an increasingly critical climate of violence against the press that translates
into a context that seriously restricts freedom of expression and the right of all Colombian society to receive information of
high public interest.” It added that this climate of violence can be observed in the “the continuity of a context of aggressions,
within which there was a high number of episodes of death threats, physical attacks, and intimidation through social networks,
text messages, and intimidating calls and pamphlets with intimidating messages.” Cf. IACHR. Annual Report of the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report 2019, Volume II—Annual Report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur
for Freedom of Expression. OEA/SER.L/V/II. Doc. 5, February 24, 2020, para. 345 and 351. Likewise, Reporters Without
Borders ranks Colombia 130 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2020 and affirms that “Colombia continues
to be one of the western hemisphere’s most dangerous countries for journalists, who are still the frequent targets of death
threats, physical attacks, abduction and murder.” Cf. Reporters Without Borders. Colombia. Available at:
https://rsf.org/en/colombia.
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