Recent headlines drew attention to the role UK lawyers are playing in exposing threats to lawyers at risk in Colombia. Concern for access to justice, and respect for the rule of law and human rights are priorities for the Law Society’s International Human Rights Committee, which supports human rights lawyers at risk of attack and assassination.

The recent report of the August 2008 Caravana Internacional de Juristas (International Lawyers Delegation) highlighted the assassination of 400 Colombian human rights lawyers since 1991.

The 70-strong Caravana delegation, which included lawyers from Canada, France, Spain, Germany, and the UK, examined the plight of Colombian human rights defenders. Each of the Caravana’s national delegations liaise with their own governments in seeking support for human rights defenders.

Subsequent changes in UK government policy on aid to Colombia have become public over the last six weeks. On 30 March, foreign secretary David Miliband informed the House of Commons of changes in the way the government delivers its objectives in Colombia. The government believes that Colombia’s progress over recent years is being undermined by ‘continuing problems of abuse of human rights, poverty and inequality, impunity and the drugs trade’. Impunity is a problem which particularly affects the victims of paramilitary and extra-judicial killings, and it also affects the lawyers representing the victims.

The Caravana delegation heard evidence from lawyers in eight regions of the country about the failure of the Colombian authorities to investigate threats, attacks and assassinations against lawyers. ‘Impunity is something of a cancer,’ stated Gillian Merron, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at the launch of the Caravana’s report on 7 May.

The corrosive effect of impunity eats away at the rule of law, and lawyers and human rights defenders put their lives on the line daily to carry out their professional duties and defend the rule of law. In 2006, the Colombian government adopted a policy against impunity in cases of infractions of international humanitarian law. Progress cited in a Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs report last month included an 86% increase in funds allocated to the judiciary between 2002 and 2007; 2,166 new posts created at the Prosecution Service since January 2008; and improved security for judicial officers.

Lack of knowledgeSince 2006, a special prosecution unit has been investigating the murder of trade unionists. However, despite the efforts of the Colombian government, the 2008 delegation was shocked at the reality they encountered and was concerned to hear about lack of knowledge, both at the Prosecution Service and among other government officials relating to the extent of threats, harassment and assassinations of human rights lawyers. Last August, the Caravana delegation was promised a dedicated prosecution unit to investigate the assassinations of lawyers, but that promise has not yet been made good.

UK government policy focuses on combating the drugs trade in Colombia because of its devastating effects on UK citizens. Combating the drugs trade includes the fight against impunity.

Merron stated at a public meeting with the Colombian ambassador to the United Nations on 11 May: ‘While impunity exists there is no equal and consistent justice for all.’

The UK government’s stand on impunity is very welcome and where our colleagues – Colombian lawyers – are threatened, the support of the UK government is a crucial factor in persuading the Colombian government to take the threats to lawyers seriously. The Caravana delegation returns to Colombia in 2010 and wants to see progress in protection for human rights defenders and the battle against impunity.

Sara Chandler is director of pro bono services at the College of Law, and is the Law Society Council member for the voluntary sector, and a member of the Law Society’s International Human Rights Committee.