Colombia: Protection and redress available to women and children who are victims of domestic and sexual abuse, including relevant legislation, government and non-government institutions, and responsiveness of the police and the judiciary

Further to the information provided in previous Responses, the 26 February 1999 edition of Country Reports 1998, not yet available at Regional Documentation Centres, provides the following statements on the judiciary and on the situation of women who are victims of domestic and sexual violence:

The Constitution specifically provides for the right to due process. Judges determine the outcome of all trials; there are no jury trials. The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty and has the right to representation by counsel, although representation for the indigenous and the indigent historically has been inadequate. On October 3, Superior Judicial Council president Gustavo Cuello Iriare stated that the civilian judiciary suffered from a backlog of 3.5 million cases. The number of outstanding arrest warrants stood at 150,000 in August.

Trials conducted by the regular courts are public. Defendants have the right to be present and the right to timely consultation with an attorney. Regular court defendants and their attorneys have the right to question, contradict, and confront witnesses against them, to present witnesses on their own behalf, and to have access to government evidence relevant to the case. Direct confrontations are not possible in regional courts, where everything is processed on paper without a face-to-face courtroom trial. Defendants also have the right to appeal a conviction to a higher court.

The Chamber of Deputies elects the Public Ministry's National Ombudsman for Human Rights for a 4-year term, which does not coincide with that of the President. The office has the constitutional duty to ensure the promotion and exercise of human rights. In addition to providing public defense attorneys in criminal cases, the Ombudsman's 32 departmental offices throughout the country provide a legal channel for thousands of complaints and allegations of human rights violations. In practice, however, the Ombudsman's operations are underfunded and understaffed, slowing its development of a credible public defender system.

Rape and other acts of violence against women are pervasive in society, and like other crimes, seldom are prosecuted successfully. The quasi-governmental Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF) and the Presidential Adviser's Office for Youth, Women, and Family Affairs continued to report high levels of spouse and partner abuse throughout the country. The ICBF conducted programs and provided refuge and counseling for victims of spousal abuse, but the level and amount of these services were dwarfed by the magnitude of the problem.

The Institute for Legal Medicine estimated in 1997 that 239,400 persons are victims of sexual abuse annually, 88 percent of them women. The Institute also estimated that 95 percent of all abuse cases are never reported to the authorities.

The 1996 Law on Family Violence criminalizes violent acts committed within families, including spousal rape. The law also provides legal recourse for victims of family violence, immediate protection from physical or psychological abuse, and judicial authority to remove the abuser from the household. It allows a judge to oblige an abuser to seek therapy or reeducation. For acts of spousal sexual violence, the law mandates sentences of 6 months to 2 years and denies probation or bail to offenders who disobey restraining orders issued by the courts. A 1997 law also made additional, substantial modifications to the Penal Code and introduced sentences of between 4 and 40 years for crimes against sexual freedom or human dignity, including rape, sex with a minor, sexual abuse, induction into prostitution, and child pornography. The law also repealed an old law that fully exonerated a rapist if he subsequently offered to marry the victim and she accepted. However, there was little evidence that this legislation was enforced systematically. The Institute for Legal Medicine's preliminary 1998 statistics state that 25,669 persons were victims of domestic violence.

Women also faced an increased threat of torture and sexual assault due to the internal conflict

Country Reports 1998 provides some additional information on the judicial system and the legal process, without specific references to cases of domestic or sexual violence.

In addition to the above, the December 1998 issue of Fempress reports that the implementation of law 294 in 1996 is the single most effective measure against intra-family violence taken in Colombia. The document notes that the intra-family violence legislation defines a wide range of legal and natural family links, and states that the law provides protection and redress mechanisms to address physical or psychological abuse, threats and harassment, all of which can be applied immediately by family court judges or, in the absence of a family court judge, by civil court judges and justices of the peace. The same report adds that another legal achievement has been the enactment of law 360 in 1997, which defines sexual abuse and violence as a punishable crimes and increases the penalties for such crimes; however, the law the provides the implementing regulations for law 360 had not been developed by the end of 1998, so its implementation has been delayed (Fempress Dec. 1998).

A 1996 report, made when only 21 family courts were operating, cited the president of the Family Courts, Judge Carlos Alejo Barrera Arias, as saying that the implementation of law 294 had created significant congestion in the family court tribunals; the new requirement for handling intrafamily violence cases had resulted in delays for other family law cases such as divorces, maternity suits, inheritance, support and others (El Espectador 21 Nov. 1996).

Fempress describes as a significant achievement the launching in 1998 of a working group of thirteen institutions, led by the National Directorate of Equity (Dirección Nacional de Equidad), to analyse intrafamily violence and review the procedures that these various institutions applied to deal with this kind of violence (Dec. 1998).

The report also states that in recent years the number of police stations, public attorney offices, family courts, legal aid and prosecution units tending to intrafamily violence has been multiplying; at the same time, many public attorneys' institutions (fiscalías) have established a unit specialized in dealing with crimes against sexual honour and freedom and a unit dedicated to intra-family violence, to handle the increasing number of reports received (ibid.). These specialized units have been carrying out legal actions as well as social work, with assistance from psychologists and social workers, to prevent and eradicate these forms of violence (ibid.).

However, a non-governmental study of the various specialized entities mentioned in the preceding paragraph discovered shortcomings in the training of officials who handle cases of sexual or domestic violence, inadequate facilities, shortcomings in the supply and organization of tasks, and found varied reasons for victims' reluctance to report cases and impunity among cases received and processed (ibid.).

A study of 1,735 cases presented before 22 family courts showed that 1,532 of these were presented by women and 203 by men; 1,586 of them reported men as the abuser and 149 named women; 849 cases referred to "permanent physical abuse" and 48 were defined as occasional physical abuse, 448 referred to permanent emotional abuse and 42 to occasional emotional abuse, 55 referred to sexual abuse, 153 to "social abuse," and 95 to "economic abuse" (Fempress Jan. 1999). Another recently-concluded study showed that only four percent of rape victims report the crime, and 60 percent of those expressed disappointment with the resulting legal process (ibid.).

An editorial in El Espectador stated that few victims of rape report the crime, sometimes due to fear, ignorance of legal procedures, or certainty that the attacker will not be positively identified (27 Nov. 1998). The article adds that in cases where a rape is reported, the probability of punishment for the perpetrator is low (ibid.).

Various reports name a large number of federal and departmental government institutions, foundations and non-government organizations working in the fields of domestic and sexual violence, through lobbying, education and awareness campaigns, and legal or psychological support. Another Fempress report describes in general terms the various actions on the subject, stating that the establishment of shelters and accompaniment programs for victims of abuse or rape has taken place in numerous locations, including PROMUJER centres and Casas de la Mujer (Women's Homes) (Dec. 1998b). These centres have also been providing group therapy, health and psychological support (ibid.).

A report published on the most recent International Day Against Violence Towards Women by the Bogota daily El Espectador reported on a study by the Legal Medicine institute of Colombia (25 Nov. 1998). The institute's figures showed that in 1997, 93 percent of domestic violence victims were female, and that the year averaged 110 cases reported every day; the number of reports had increased year on year, by 5,218 in 1995, by 4,415 in 1996, and by 4,649 in 1997 (ibid.). The highest incidence of domestic violence injuries were reported in Bogota, San Andres and the departments of Meta, Quindío and Amazonas, with Bogotá and San Andres showing the highest incidence for three years in a row (ibid.). The study also showed that 100 percent of victims of sexual violence 15 years of age and under were related to their attackers (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998. 26 February 1999. "Colombia." Washington, DC: U. S. Department of State. [Internet] [Accessed 3 Mar. 1999]

El Espectador [Bogota]. 27 November 1998. "Violencia a la mujer." [Internet] [Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]

_____. 25 November 1998. "Mujeres: Por una vida en paz." [Internet] [Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]

_____. 26 November 1996. "Juzgados de Familia en apuros." [Internet] [Accessed 3 Mar. 1999]

Fempress [Santiago]. January 1999. No. 207. Socorro Ramirez. "Corriendo el velo." [Internet] [Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]

_____. December 1998. Socorro Ramirez. "Procesos en marcha y logros institucionales." [Internet] [Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]

_____. December 1998b. Socorro Ramirez. "Acciones de las mujeres en movimiento." [Internet] [Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]