Brussels, 29/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's sub-committee on human rights is concerned at the deterioration of the situation in Colombia since the signing of the free-trade agreement in 2012.
At the meeting of the sub-committee on 27 November, MEPs expressed concern at the human rights situation in Colombia, which “seems to have worsened” in a country now enjoying free trade with the EU after the provisional entry into force of the trade agreement on 1 August, the Parliament states in a press release. The issues of land restitution in rural areas and labour conditions for the working classes are considered “particularly worrying”.
Those speaking at the debate -Juan Carlos Monge, Deputy Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner's Office for Human Rights in Colombia; Diego Martinez, Director of the Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and national spokesperson for MOVICE in Colombia; and Winston Gallego Pamplona, the representative from the EU-Colombia-US coordination group - agreed that Bogota must do more to use the free-trade agreement as an instrument for improving the lives of trade unionists, who regularly receive death threats and persecution at the hands of paramilitary organisations. (EH/transl.fl)