Irish lawyers call on government to shelve trade deal

A group of Irish solicitors and barristers are to ask the Government to delay ratifying an EU trade deal with Colombia because of continued violence against the country’s lawyers and judges.

The group are part of The Colombian Caravana, a 70-strong international team of lawyers and judges who visited the south American country this summer to investigate violence against human rights lawyers at the hands of armed groups.

The head of the seven-strong Irish delegation, Sean T O'Reilly, said they now plan to ask for a meeting with the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee to present their findings and ask for the trade deal to be shelved.

Colombia is a hugely dangerous place to practise law, particularly in the area of human rights. Since 1991 more than 400 lawyers have been murdered, the equivalent of one a month. In 2013 alone 15 were killed. “We don’t say that lawyers have a better right to protection than anyone else in Colombia,” said O’Reilly, a Dundalk solicitor. “What we say is that if lawyers are targeted and not protected you get a disproportionate effect on the community because the poor can’t go to anyone else.”

During August the group travelled around Colombia collecting evidence of rights abuses from judges and lawyers. According to O’Reilly they found that lawyers representing indigenous communities are among the biggest targets. Many communities have been driven off their land by paramilitary groups associated with large businesses and landowners. When these communities seek redress in the courts, the few lawyers willing to represent them often come under threat themselves.

Judges are not immune either. Dozens have been murdered over the years after presiding over cases against paramilitaries and landowners.

“Added to this is the government’s tactic of stopping judge’s wages or bringing charges against them,” said O’Reilly. “You could spend two years defending against these charges; they might be dropped at the end but your reputation is in tatters.”

The armed groups who carry out the threats and killings operate with near complete immunity. The Caravana reports that impunity for crimes against human rights defenders stands at 97 per cent. According to O’Reilly the laws to prosecute these crimes are there but the will is lacking.

"Colombia is not a failed state, it has fabulous human rights laws, they're just not implemented." Many assumed the situation would improve when President Juan Manuel Santos was elected in 2010. Government statements against lawyers appeared to die down but the change was temporary. The most recent Caravana report could find little reason for optimism. It states that lawyers and judges continue to be subjected to "threats, attacks and assassinations."

Just last month 91 human rights lawyers and activists received death threats from an unnamed group. The UN has called on the Colombian government to publicly condemn these threats.

"It's one thing to bring in legislative measures, it's quite another enforcing them," said Katherine Finn, a Dublin barrister on the last 2014 Caravana delegation. "They have brought in some reform but the violence is so entrenched, it's been going on for 50 years in one form or another. It's a long hard road."

Generally speaking, Ireland’s influence over Colombian affairs is minimal. However, O’Reilly believes it is currently in a position to exert at least some pressure. The wide-ranging free trade deal between Europe and Colombia has been ratified by every EU country except Ireland. The Government has pledged to vote it through by the end of 2014, despite pleas from aid agencies that it will further damage the livelihoods of indigenous communities.

“As the only country left to vote, Ireland can have an influence despite its small size,” said O’Reilly. “The deal should be shelved until the Colombian government makes a firm commitment to defend the lives and well-being of Colombian judges and human rights lawyers.”