Document #1302096
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
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] http://www.state.gov/
www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/colombia [Accessed 3
Mar. 1999]
El Espectador [Bogota]. 27
November 1998. "Violencia a la mujer." [Internet] http://
www.elespectador.com/9811/27/opnotici.htm [Accessed 4 Mar.
1999]
_____. 25 November 1998. "Mujeres: Por
una vida en paz." [Internet] http://
www.elespectador.com/9811/25/genotici.htm [Accessed 4 Mar.
1999]
_____. 26 November 1996. "Juzgados de
Familia en apuros." [Internet] http://www.
elespectador.com/9610/21/opnotici.htm [Accessed 3 Mar.
1999]
Fempress [Santiago]. January
1999. No. 207. Socorro Ramirez. "Corriendo el velo." [Internet] http://www.reuna.cl/fempress/207/revista/velo.html
[Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]
_____. December 1998. Socorro Ramirez.
"Procesos en marcha y logros institucionales." [Internet] http://www.reuna.cl/fempress/206/revista/procesos.html
[Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]
_____. December 1998b. Socorro Ramirez.
"Acciones de las mujeres en movimiento." [Internet] http://www.reuna.cl/fempress/206/revista/acciones.html
[Accessed 4 Mar. 1999]