RELIGION: Ethics – The Best Weapon Against Domestic Violence

Domestic violence, which is widespread in Latin America as in the rest of the world, makes it imperative to recover ethics as the core value for practices and efforts aimed at creating more equitable and just societies.

RELIGION-COLOMBIA: Children of Hope in a Violent World

When she was 12 years old in her native Colombia, Ornella Barros decided that she did not want to be "the future, but the present; not a hope, but a certainty." Six years later, as a political science student, Barros says she made the right decision when she joined the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC).

COLOMBIA: Violent Society, Violent Schools

In a survey carried out in 807 public and private primary and secondary schools across the social spectrum in the Colombian capital, 56 percent of students said they had been robbed within the school premises.

COLOMBIA: The Food Basket Is Running Out

Boyacá, known as the "food basket of Colombia", is currently the country’s second poorest province, and small farmers there say it is more expensive to raise crops than to buy pre-packaged food.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Thousands Come Out for Anti-Paramilitary March

"I will march against the members of the security forces who have betrayed the honour of the military and the police, and have betrayed their fatherland, by selling themselves out to paramilitaries and drug traffickers to serve their interests," said Colombian Senator Juan Manuel Galán in a speech given at the spot where his father was assassinated in 1989.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Displaced Pay Homage to Victims of Paramilitaries

"It was an homage to the indigenous people, Afro-Colombians, peasant farmers and everyone else who has been killed in this absurd war," indigenous activist Manuel Bautista told IPS at the start of a three-day march that will end in the Colombian capital Thursday.

ASTRONOMY-COLOMBIA: Dazzled by Stars, Dreams and Doubts

Esteban Felipe is six years old and wants to be a policeman when he grows up. Or better still, an astronomer, he says as he plays with a plastic rocket that he decorated with coloured paper at one of the children’s workshops at the 11th Festival of self-taught astronomers.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: No Immediate End to Kidnap Victims’ Pain

While the eyes of the world are on the imminent release of three hostages held by Colombia’s FARC guerrillas, hundreds of other kidnapping victims in this South American country are living their own personal nightmares, but outside the glare of the spotlight.

COLOMBIA: Fighting Human Rights Abuses and Violence in Ciudad Bolivar

Human rights violations are still a major problem in Ciudad Bolívar, a poor suburb in the hills on the southwestern edge of the Colombian capital, despite some improvements.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Cooperation for Peace, Not War

"A state becomes a violator of human rights when it fails to guarantee, promote or defend them," said Argentine ambassador to Colombia Martín Balza during the Third International Conference on Colombia.

COLOMBIA: Quarries in Slums Seen as Health Risk

Local residents of shantytowns on the outskirts of the Colombian capital complain that sand, gravel and limestone quarries operating in the area pose serious risks to their health as well as the danger of landslides. But they are afraid to speak out.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Defying Threats, Thousands Take to the Streets

Arbitrary arrests, menacing warnings from the army and harsh crackdowns on protesters did not daunt the tens of thousands of Colombians who took to the streets over the last three days to protest against the rightwing government of Álvaro Uribe.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Paramilitary Crimes Should Be Tried by ICC

The International Criminal Court (ICC) should open an investigation into the crimes against humanity committed by the paramilitary militias in Colombia, even if they have demobilised, says a new report by the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH).

COLOMBIA: Local Candidates Sign Agreement with Civil Society in Slum

In Soacha, a violence-wracked slum on the outskirts of the Colombian capital, civil society groups persuaded six of the eight candidates for mayor of the municipality to sign an agreement on governance and transparency, ahead of the Oct. 28 local and regional elections.

COLOMBIA: Inquiry Fails to Clear Up Mystery of Hostages’ Deaths

"We didn’t need an International Forensic Commission to tell us this was homicide. The Organisation of American States (OAS) report about the deaths of the legislators from Valle del Cauca (in Colombia) saddens and disappoints us," lawyer Faisury Perdomo told IPS.

COLOMBIA: Voting for Peace

More than 100 social groups in Colombia are calling for the inclusion of a ballot in favour of peace and an exchange of imprisoned guerrillas for rebel-held hostages, in the country’s Oct. 28 local and regional elections.

COLOMBIA: Campaign Seeks to Make Water a Constitutional Right

Sixty environmental, indigenous, labour and social organisations in Colombia are carrying out a campaign for a constitutional amendment that would make access to clean water a fundamental right.

COLOMBIA: Thousands of Poor Line Up All Night for Gov’t Aid

Spending the cold Bogotá night outside on a sidewalk is not recommended. But thousands of poor Colombians, including many displaced by the civil war, had no choice this week if they wanted to register for the meagre assistance offered by the government’s Families in Action programme before the deadline expired.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Victims Speak Out and Demand Respect

"One encounter, many paths: united against forgetting," the placards read, as 3,500 victims of the civil war in Colombia demand recognition and respect, from the authorities and society.

COLOMBIA: &#39Independence? What Independence?&#39 Indigenous Peoples Ask

Colombia celebrated 197 years of independence from Spain on Friday, Jul. 20. On Monday, at dawn, some 5,000 indigenous people set off on an 800-kilometre journey to ask the government, "what independence?"

COLOMBIA: Using Communication to Build Peace

"We don't want to give birth to children who go off to war. We want our children to be filmmakers, painters, dentists, whatever they want, but not to repeat this disgraceful war," a Colombian woman tells IPS.