OMBUSDSMAN'S OFFICE'S RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE PROGRAM
TO
ERADICATE ILLICIT CROPS THROUGH AERIAL FUMIGATION WITH GLYPHOSATE
Yamile Salinas Abdala
−ABSTRACT−
The Colombian Ombudsman's Office has declared that
aerial eradication with chemicals has not proven its effectiveness in the
struggle against the production of psychotropic substances.
The struggle against said substances stresses
criminal policies which contravene the Colombian state's constitutional
obligation to protect its citizens’ rights and private property and fails to abide
by the public policies which regulate the state’s obligation to this end,
namely:
a-
to provide, as of the positive
differentiation principle, special protection for the most vulnerable of its
peoples (minors, displaced populations, members of ethnic groups and rural
populations);
b-
to protect its citizens’ right to
health, food, public health and, consequently, to their lives and a dignified
life;
c-
to protect its citizens’ right
to not be displaced from their homes; and
d-
to provide environmental
protection and conservation, the protection of the nation's natural resources
and of ethnical, ecological, and culturally protected areas as of the
sustainable development principle.
All of the aforementioned rights are decreed by the
stated social-state-of-law objectives whose guiding principles are solidarity
and human dignity. Within this framework
of ideas, all of the state's institutions should address their efforts to
guaranteeing the defense of human rights as stipulated by international
treaties and the Colombian constitution and legislation. That is to say that,
the nation's authorities cannot, when implementing public policies (in this
case the war on drugs), neglect or apply exceptional measures which disregard these
rights.
Accordingly, the Ombudsman's Office has asked the
national government to abide by the following:
1- To suspend the illicit crops forced eradication
program until it has not taken the steps required to guarantee the rights of
the inhabitants of the regions where these programs are being implemented.
2- To decriminalize small-crop growers;
3- To seek the international community's
participation as of the shared-responsibility principle.
Translated from Spanish
by MM Moreno,
Mama Coca
www.mamacoca.org