Colombia Allows UN Rights Agency To Stay Another Year
Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter Bogota, Colombia (AHN) - Colombia will allow a United Nations human rights agency to stay in the country for another year, even though it has criticized the government for not taking action against abuses. The agency's four-year mandate expires this month. Vice President Francisco Santos says it will be extended for one year to give officials a "prudent amount of time" to go over the agency's work and negotiate alterations to its monitoring activity. The European Union and more than a hundred rights groups urged Bogota to renew the mandate for another four years. The U.N. agency has documented more than 8,100 cases of abuse by leftist rebels, paramilitary groups and government forces as a result of a 40-year civil war. The right-wing paramilitary groups are accused of some of the worst atrocities in Colombia's history. The agency has angered high-ranking officials by saying the government has neglected to protect and investigate abuses against labor leaders, indigenous activists and other groups. It has also spoken out against security forces who were involved in killing civilians. Santos has been trying to eliminate the agency's most powerful tool, an annual report on Colombia's human rights violations.
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