Stop the killings: thousands of trade unionists murdered!

The situation of trade unionists in Colombia is, in short, dire. Over recent years hundreds of trade union activists have been murdered for the simple fact of their trade union membership and activities. Sometimes the amount of information coming from Colombia is daunting, with urgent action request after urgent action request.ICTUR's secretariat is working to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas around the campaign to defend labour rights in Colombia.

ICTUR has also supported jurists' inquiries, called high-level international meetings and initiated practical strategies to counter levels of impunity and to seek justice for the victims of human rights violations against trade unionists and their families.

Project activites

ICTUR publishes a regular information resource (access the bulletin below) on the situation facing Colombian unions. The bulletin is syndicated worldwide across numerous websites and bulletin boards. The bulletin exists to support the flow of information to trade unions and campaign groups worldwide. It is available in English and Spanish language editions and may be re-produced or translated freely.

In 2006 ICTUR and the lawyers' collective CAJAR opened a Trade Union Rights Unit in Colombia to work to counter the levels of impunity and to seek justice for the victims of human rights violations against trade unionists and their families.

Sign up for ICTUR's regular Colombia bulletin

To receive the bulletin by email (in 2006, four editions per year) please enter your email address below and click 'submit', or email us directly on ictur@ictur.org.

Support for ICTUR's activities on Colombia

ICTUR began its work to investigate labour rights violations in Colombia in 1987 with the launch of its first major report. Since 2003 ICTUR has run a full project around the situation in Colombia which has secured the participation and support of many Colombian trade unionists.

Thousands of trade unionists, labour lawyers and human rights workers around the world subscribe to ICTUR's Colombia bulletin, and many trade unions and lawyers organisations have provided small but extremely important donations to support the project's activities.

In 2005 ICTUR was pleased to be able to established the Trade Union Rights Unit in Colombia, thanks to the sponsorship of the UNISON International Trade Union Development Fund. with additional generous support for the project provided by Amnesty International UK Section Charitable Trust and by the trade union centre LO-Norway.

As we move into 2008, ICTUR has received further pledges of funding from the SEIU (US), UNISON (UK), and has held positive discussions with Thompsons solicitors (UK), who are also considering supporting the TUR Unit in Colombia.