By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Mar 29 2006 (IPS)

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Governing Body recognised the Colombian government’s efforts to improve protection for trade unionists, but urged it to take measures to put an end to the violence of which labour activists are a target.

Figures provided Wednesday by Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos during the ILO executive council’s current session put the number of trade unionists murdered last year in Colombia at 40, down from 196 in 2002.

But the National Trade Union School (ENS), a research centre founded in 1982 by academics and trade unionists in the Colombian city of Medellín, released different statistics in Colombia this week.

According to the ENS, 70 members of trade unions were killed in 2005, and 260 received death threats, 56 were arbitrarily detained, and seven were injured in bomb attacks.

None of the participants in Wednesday’s debate by the ILO Governing Body – a tripartite council made up of representatives of governments, employers and workers – refuted the Colombian government’s claim that the number of violent incidents targeting members of labour unions had diminished.

Santos told IPS that in the past three years, “immense progress” has been made in terms of protecting trade unions and their members, and in reducing the levels of violence.

In Colombia’s four-decade civil war, trade union leaders are among the favourite civilian targets of extreme right-wing paramilitary groups, which have been documented to work in close collaboration with the army.

The spokesperson for employers in the ILO, Daniel Funes de Rioja, acknowledged that Colombia has taken significant steps forward.

“But obviously the issue is very critical, and we are extremely concerned,” Funes de Rioja commented to IPS. Nevertheless, “we appreciate Colombia’s contribution, its good disposition, and the presence of Vice President Santos in the Governing Body’s session,” he added.

However, trade unionists say it is a simplification to claim that respect for trade unions has improved because the number of victims of violence has declined from one year to another.

Julio Gómez, secretary-general of the General Confederation of Democratic Workers of Colombia (CGTD), told IPS that “Perhaps in five years, not a single trade unionist will be killed. But perhaps in five years, there won’t be a single trade union left in Colombia.”

The outsourcing of jobs is becoming a more and more widespread phenomenon in Colombia, with the resultant weakening of workers’ rights, like the right to organise, to collective bargaining, and to strike, said Gómez.

“All of this is leading to a dizzying decline in the number of trade unions. Although I do not have reliable figures, I can state that dozens of unions have disappeared,” he added.

The resolution approved by the Governing Body concurs with the report submitted by the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association, which recognised the reduction in the number of violent incidents, but called on the government to put an end to violations of the right to organise.

The resolution also stated that the ILO should seriously study the possibility of opening an office in Colombia, to “facilitate dialogue” with the authorities.

As in the case of the U.N. human rights system, the opening of a national office in any given nation by one of the multilateral agencies is interpreted as a sign that the country and its government are under intense scrutiny by the international community..

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) already has an office in Colombia.

Santos remarked to IPS that he was surprised by the idea of opening an ILO office in Colombia, “just when we are moving in the right direction” and “everything is improving. Why change things?” he added.

The employers’ group in the ILO does not support the creation of a special office in Colombia, but recommends that the current programme of technical cooperation with Colombia, “which is already successful,” be encouraged, said Funes de Rioja.

The idea of opening an office in Colombia “was only a suggestion for the Governing Body to consider,” he maintained.

Gómez, meanwhile, said an ILO office in Colombia could help the Colombian government, “if it really is sincere in its statements, and would allow the perpetrators of anti-union activities to be persuaded not to commit them.”

“The government gets nervous when the possibility of opening an ILO office in Colombia is mentioned,” said the trade unionist. “It says we are being compared to Sudan and Burma, even though we are ‘different’.”

“But if we are different, what’s the problem with having an ILO office? I don’t think any citizen of Switzerland is bothered by the fact that the ILO headquarters is located in Geneva,” he added. “So why can’t an office be opened up in Colombia?”

Colombia is the main concern of the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) in Latin America, said Eduardo Estévez, deputy secretary-general of the Brussels-based international labour organisation.

Estévez said the ILO “has done, and is doing things, but it must step up its efforts in order to facilitate concrete advances and restore full respect for international labour conventions.”

In Latin America, Guatemala follows Colombia in terms of serious violations of labour rights, Estévez told IPS.

“The point in common between the two countries is that they are experiencing very similar situations of violence, although the case of Guatemala is not as serious, and we hope it will never become as severe as what is occurring in Colombia,” he added.

But Guatemala also shares the problem of impunity, because while the number of murders of labour activists has gone down – but not disappeared – those responsible for these kinds of violations are not brought to justice, he said.

Estévez stressed that in Guatemala, just as in Colombia, “Trade union leaders are killed, trade unions are destroyed, and nothing happens. There is appalling impunity.”

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