YouSaid · the spoken record

Umenza Velasco

lines on the record
10
first
2021-10-21
most recent
2021-10-21
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “Women around the world demonstrate daily that they have the courage and conviction to fight for peace. Today we call on the Council to fight for us all.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  2. “Fourthly, it must immediately demilitarize the police force and redirect funding to social investment. Finally, it must ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women leaders in the implementation of the peace accord and in negotiations with other armed actors in Colombia. Peace is more than the absence of war. To indigenous women, it means an end to discrimination, respect for human rights, justice, economic equality and transformative change, with human life at its centre. As the primary international organ responsible for peace and security, I urge the Security Council to not allow this open debate to become yet another occasion where the Council listens to women civil society representatives but fails to act on our concerns. The plight of Afghan women illustrates all too clearly the cost of inaction.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  3. “First, it must fully implement and resource the peace accord, in particular the ethnic chapter and the gender provisions. Secondly, it must adhere to free, prior and informed consent processes with rural labourer, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities with regard to economic development in their territories and must ensure that development processes comply with international human rights law and principles and the peace accord. Thirdly, the Government must address the crisis of violence against human rights defenders, including by ensuring adequate resources for the development of collective and territorial self-protection measures for indigenous, rural labourer and Afro-descendant communities, as well as supporting their permanent presence in forums where protection policies are debated.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  4. “Despite the adoption of 10 resolutions and the repeated affirmations of the value of civil society, the issue of women human rights defenders remains a critical gap in the Security Council’s implementation of the women and peace and security agenda. Colombia is no different. Although the members of the Security Council have regularly condemned the targeting of women human rights defenders and social leaders, they have not done enough to turn words into action. Ending attacks against women human rights defenders — not only in Colombia but in all conflicts on the Council’s agenda — and ensuring the full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership of women in all their diversity is essential for sustainable peace. I therefore urge the Security Council to call on the Colombian Government to take certain steps.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  5. “Implementation is most delayed in provisions for comprehensive rural reform, which would give women access to land and enable them to chart a path to inclusive and holistic development for their communities. Instead, we see the expansion of extractive activities that exploit natural resources, violate territorial rights, exacerbate conflict and increase violence against human rights defenders, especially those who defend their land. Colombia’s peace accord may be unprecedented in its incorporation of international standards of gender equality, but what good are agreements and promises if they are not kept? Threats faced by women peacebuilders and human rights defenders in one community are a threat to all women everywhere.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  6. “The gravity of that situation led to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to call for the general demilitarization of the police in Colombia. The peace accord, with 130 provisions on gender equality and women’s rights, was achieved due to the determined struggle of Colombian feminist movements. On paper, the peace accord provides the foundation for a democratic country. However, five years since its adoption, implementation is at a standstill, especially of its gender provisions and the ethnic chapter. The Special Forum on Gender and the High-Level Forum of Ethnic Peoples are both underfunded and lack political support. Members of the Special Forum on Women have been threatened and attacked.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  7. “The only State presence that we have in our territories are the military and the police, who often seem to protect the economic interests of the powerful sectors, not the rights of the local populations. That represents a failure to comply with the provisions of the peace accord. Furthermore, during the recent national protests, police used excessive force against peaceful demonstrators across the country, particularly in Cali, where a large percentage of the population is of African descent and where our indigenous security guards were attacked. State forces have committed sexual and gender-based violence. Peaceful protesters have been subject to torture, illegal detention, disappearances and killings, echoing the violence that has marked more than five decades of war.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  8. “Indigenous communities oppose logging, mining, agribusiness and other large-scale extractive and infrastructure projects because they threaten the environment and deplete our natural resources. Many such projects are actively supported by the Government of Colombia. Indigenous defenders in Colombia are viewed as a threat because we challenge powerful economic interests. My people are killed for protecting our waterways, forests, flowers and fauna, when their courage and dedication should be held up as a model in the non-violent struggle for territorial rights. Violence against our communities also demonstrates the devastating impact of militarized responses to social crises.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  9. “We stand with them. Colombia remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for defenders of human rights and land and territorial rights. Attacks on human rights defenders, especially women, LGBTQI persons and peasant- farmer, Afro-descendant and indigenous leaders continue, including in response to the recent protests in Colombia against extreme inequality, violence and the limited implementation of the peace accord. On average, at least one indigenous defender is killed every week. In my territory, Cauca, three indigenous women leaders with whom I worked were killed in 2020. Their brutal murders illustrate how women often pay a terrible price for their leadership. For an indigenous person, land means everything to us. We are nourished by it, and it is a part of our identity and our history.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source

  10. “I am Celia Umenza Velasco. I am an indigenous woman activist dedicated to my people, our territory, the environment and the cause of peace. I bring participants greetings from the spirits of the natural world. I am honoured to address the Security Council today on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, as well as indigenous women and women in all their diversity — peasant farmers, women of African descent, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) persons, refugee and migrant women, women with disabilities and women from countries around the world who suffer from war, poverty and discrimination. On that note, I want to express my solidarity with the women and LGBTQI people of Afghanistan, who continue to risk their lives fighting for their rights and an equal place in Afghan society.”

    2021-10-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8886 (2021) · source