Highlights of Guterres Report on UN Mission in Colombia

The communique covers the period from Sept. 25 to Dec. 27, 2021, when the UN Verification Mission in this Latin American country analyzed the fulfillment of the agreed commitments. Some highlights of Guterres’ report are presented below:

Economic and social reintegration

The National Reintegration Council (NRC) approved 107 collective productive projects, with which it benefited 3,687 former combatants, 1,030 of whom are women.

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The Agency for Reintegration and Normalization (ARN) approved 3,560 individual productive projects, with which it benefited 4,285 former combatants, including 981 women.

Health visits to former Territorial Areas for Training and Reintegration (TATRs) have been carried out as planned and included vaccination campaigns against COVID-19. 

Over 98 percent of the 1,222 former combatants with disabilities have received certification to access services, and the government has purchased land for nine out of the 24 former TATRs.

Political reintegration

In preparation for the upcoming legislative elections in March 2022, the Comunes party presented 41 candidates, including 18 women and 25 former combatants.

Nine out of the 89 candidates presented by the Comunes party were elected to municipal youth councils.
Security guarantees

Since the signing of the Peace Agreement, the UN Mission in Colombia has verified 303 killings, 79 attempted homicides, and 25 disappearances. However, the killings of former combatants decreased by 27 percent from 2020 to 2021.

Ten former combatants were killed during the period covered by the report, including two former Indigenous combatants. The Special Investigations Unit of the Attorney-General’s Office has made 49 convictions and currently investigates 352 cases. 

For security reasons, the former TATR of La Macarena - Meta department had to be urgently relocated to the Caqueta department. Killings and threats against former combatants in Argelia City have forced them to leave the area and their productive initiatives.

During the period covered by the report, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) received information about 34 killings of human rights defenders and social leaders and documented nine massacres. 

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs registered 34 events of forced mass displacement, which affected over 11,800 persons in ten departments.
Comprehensive rural reform

The government completed 13 out of the 16 stabilization roadmaps and 49 out of the 494 projects that were approved with resources from mineral and hydrocarbon royalties.

Close to 250,000 hectares have been handed over to 10,032 families.

Political participation 

Preparations are ongoing for the election of 16 special transitional electoral districts for peace.

The Colombian government issued a decree establishing the requirements for candidate nominations. Candidate registration closed with 403 candidates, among which 202 were women.
Substitution of illicit crops

Almost 100.000 families eradicated at least 45,002 hectares of illicit crops as part of the National Comprehensive Programme for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS). 

As of October 2021, the government had reported cumulative investments of US$398 million.