The collective defense of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia

Alicia Pradera Martínez, educator, researcher, and human rights defender, is the Program Coordinator of Social Thinking and Action – PAS. For more than 8 years, she has been supporting various community organizational processes that defend collective rights in the southwestern part of the country. Her professional and community work has earned significant recognition from communities, traditional authorities, institutions, networks of social organizations, human rights organizations, and the international community towards PAS.

Why did you get involved in human rights in Colombia?

Since my youth, I have been involved in defending human rights, and I was part of the creation of a community centre in one of the most vulnerable areas of Bogotá. Over 12 consecutive years, I worked with a collective of vulnerable youth called "CAYAC," with whom we created various initiatives and spaces known as “lunadas en defensa de la vida” to fight for the right to life of young people from popular neighbourhoods, at a time when extrajudicial executions were concentrated in these areas.

What human rights issues affect Indigenous communities in Colombia?

Although the Indigenous movement in Colombia has historically persisted due to the organisational social fabric built from struggles for land access and the preservation of the collective form of property, these communities face serious threats, such as the increase in illicit crop cultivation, constant violations of the fundamental right to free, prior, and informed consultation, cultural erosion, the co-optation of leaders, and other consequences that have a significant impact on their defense work. Additionally, due to dispossession, there is a lack of land for the development of cultural practices and the implementation of Indigenous peoples' life plans.

What does Pensamiento y Acción Social (PAS) do?

Pensamiento y Acción Social (PAS) is a non-governmental organisation with over 20 years of experience supporting rural communities (Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant) and civil society organisations of women and youth. Over the years, PAS has implemented participatory methodologies and strategies for territorial peacebuilding and the defense of human rights with a differential approach. We aim to strengthen the capacities of social organisations for political advocacy, the creation of networks and alliances, risk analysis, security management, and research through the following three areas of work: Peacebuilding, Territories and Human Rights, and Security and Protection.

What are the biggest challenges in defending Indigenous communities in Colombia?

These challenges are diverse, but they are mainly related to efforts to dismantle the Indigenous social movement through a genocide concentrated in the numerous murders of Indigenous defenders who oppose the project of death, territorial destruction, and cultural eradication. This rupture has left significant effects on organisational processes and the development and implementation of life plans. Other factors related to legal insecurity include the failure to enforce judicial rulings that restore territorial rights, the uprooting of territories caused by the corporate model of resource extraction imposed by governments and corporations, and armed conflict. All of these impacts continuously endanger the autonomy, governance, and survival of Indigenous peoples in Colombia.

Why is it important for PAS to use a community-based approach in its projects for Indigenous communities in Colombia?

This is crucial because we are an organisation that supports organisations and political subjects in defending collective rights, which are exposed to high levels of harm, whether from armed or socio-environmental conflicts. This means that we work based on the cultural reality of each Indigenous people, their forms of self-governance, and their life plans. This approach does not aim to assume the defense of communities and organisations; instead, we seek to be a strategic ally in their struggles and in defending life, care, and the permanence of communities in their territories.

What are your hopes for the future of indigenous territorial rights in Colombia?

Indigenous peoples are the primary protectors of the land due to their ancestral work of care and conservation, and they offer real solutions to overcome the global climate crisis. Therefore, hopes for the future must focus on ensuring the fulfilment of the claims for rights that have historically been taken from them, allowing them to remain on their lands while developing their cultural and spiritual practices, free from armed conflict and the presence of transnational companies, respecting their autonomy, governance, and the development of their life plans in accordance with the worldview of each Indigenous people.