full version - World Organisation Against Torture

Colombiahusbands or partners, or because of the partner they have chosen, or forprotecting their sons and daughters from forced recruitment.” 42I am 21 years old and used to work at a bar. One day, a milicianoof the FARC arrived and proposed me and other colleaguesto travel and work with the guys. They requested allmy documentation, because they decide who goes and whodoesn’t… they promised me I would earn three millionpesos in three months and that after that I could return toMedellín. They sent me by airplane, great, with some otherslike me… The first day they showed us the place where wewere going to live and work, but the thing got complicatedwhen I saw the line of men touching me, dirty and withlooks that disgusted me… They forced me to lay with all ofthem and with those to come. I also had to take part on communitarianworking days, that is sweeping the streets,scratching coke, cooking and fucking extra with them, youcan’t imagine how terrible this was, I’m here because I gotill and they let me go, otherwise I would still be there likethe others, they all stayed, poor them! (Testimony as reportedin Mesa de Trabajo, Mujer y Conflicto Armado, p. 91).Although sexual violence by combatants appears to be widespread, suchincidents are underreported and the police often fail to adequately investigatethese crimes. When women are found raped and murdered, policereportedly only register the murder and not the sexual violence. 43 Suchpractices show a lack of concern about violence against women and maypartially explain why many women are hesitant to go to the police concerningsexual violence.3.1 Violence against Women Human Rights DefendersThe Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders has expressedconcern over the murders of several women human rights defenders inColombia. She also recognized that before human rights defenders arekilled, they are often “tortured, raped or mutilated, often atrociously.” 44Certain women’s organizations have been particularly targeted for threatsand violence. Once such example is the National Association for Rural,167