Recognizing 2007 as the Year of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia, and offering support for efforts to ensure that the internally displaced people of Colombia receive the assistance and protection they need to rebuild their lives successfully.

I want to thank my colleague from Texas (Ms. Jackson- Lee) for her generous words and for yielding me the time and for all of her work on behalf of human rights.

I want to thank the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Lantos, for his leadership throughout the years on behalf of those who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their land through violence or natural disaster.

I would also like to recognize the ranking member for her work in educating Members of Congress about the suffering of refugees and the internally displaced.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 426, which shines a light on Colombia's more than 3 million internally displaced people, or IDPs, a number second only to Sudan.

In 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees described the IDP situation in Colombia as one of the most invisible humanitarian crises in the world. This is a crisis that the government of Colombia cannot handle alone.

Earlier this year, the UNHCR, the Colombian Catholic Church, and the Consultancy for Human Rights and Internal Displacement jointly declared 2007 as the Year of the Rights of the Internally Displaced People in Colombia. This resolution commends this initiative and encourages the United States and the Colombian governments and other donor nations to place greater priority on providing the necessary resources to aid and protect Colombia's internally displaced so that they might rebuild their lives.

Mr. Speaker, an estimated 3.8 million people have been displaced inside Colombia over the past two decades. This is approximately 8 percent of Colombia's total population. Currently, 200,000 people continue to be internally displaced every year. Almost one-third of these people are Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples, and with conflict escalating in the regions of Narino and Choco, this number is likely to increase. A large majority, like displaced people all around the world, are women and children. Very few can return to their original homes. Many are displaced multiple times, finding no safety anywhere. It comes as no surprise then that Colombia's IDPs are poorer and more disenfranchised than the general population. Around three- quarters suffer from lack of food, inadequate shelter, and limited health care and other services. And, sadly, the harsh realities of life faced by the internally displaced are invisible even to most Colombians. They are a forgotten people, a marginalized people.

Mr. Speaker, I have traveled to Colombia several times, and on each trip, I have included a trip to internally displaced communities. On my very first trip in 2001, I went to Barrio Kennedy in the slums of Bogota. The majority of these families are from Tolima. They had been violently displaced by attacks mainly from FARC guerillas. They were rural families used to growing their own food and making a living by farming. In the capital, they were lost. They had no jobs. They couldn't grow their own food. They would get up early in the morning and hang around the trucks that brought in produce for the markets and gather up the food that fell off the trucks into the mud. They picked through the garbage looking for food to eat or items to barter. Alcoholism and domestic violence were rising. They lived in horrible conditions with a growing sense of hopelessness.

In 2003, I traveled north to the Department of Sucre. In Sincelejo, I visited the community of Cristo Viene. These families had been violently displaced by paramilitaries from their

communities in the mountains of Maria. They had small shacks for shelter. They had organized their teenagers into a group making bracelets and other items to sell in order to give purpose to the young people and generate some income for their community. All the youngest children had the rusty colored hair indicative of malnutrition. Nearly all the infants and toddlers had serious eye disorders or were already blind from vitamin deficiency. They could get access to rudimentary electricity and water, but only if they sold their vote to a corrupt local politician.

The Colombian Catholic Church and the Mennonite churches had joined together in their first ecumenical initiative to provide schools of basic humanitarian aid for these people.

In 2001 and 2007, I visited IDP communities perched precariously on barren hills next to the municipality of Soacha, on the outskirts of Bogota. On my first visit, I saw a school and a school feeding program, both funded by the United States and carried out by World Vision and the World Food Programme. For these children, these programs were the only stability in an insecure world. Paramilitary and FARC agents roamed freely trying to recruit children into their ranks. A mother came up to me and thanked the United States for supporting the school and free meals. She told me that if these programs didn't exist, her 11-year-old son would have gone into one of the armed groups just so he could get something to eat.

When I returned to Soacha this March, little had changed. If anything, things were worse. Over the past 6 years, violence has forced hundreds of thousands out of the countryside. Many ended up in Bogota, settling in the Soacha slum. They were from all over the country. So- called landlords are charging them outrageous rents when IDPs build themselves a shack. Children can't walk to school without fear of being assaulted, robbed or raped. The price of water was several times higher than that of regular Bogota residents. IDP community leaders working with Colombian and international NGOs were doing their best to address the community's problems but lacked the necessary resources. And the local officials of Soacha were struggling to meet basic needs.

Madam Speaker, I am proud that the United States has always targeted resources for IDP communities, and the recent House-passed Foreign Operations appropriations bill increases that funding.

Madam Speaker, H. Res. 426 is a bipartisan bill, and I want to thank my colleague, Congressman Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, for joining me in introducing this legislation. It is supported by Refugees International, Catholic Relief Services, the Mennonite Central Committee, Jesuit Refugee Services USA, the Jesuit Conference of the United States, Lutheran World Relief, the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps and several other national organizations.

Madam Speaker, I commend the UNHCR, the Colombian Catholic Church and CODHES for bringing attention to this humanitarian crisis facing Colombia's internally displaced. I hope that there will be a renewed effort by the United States and the world community to help these people.

I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 426.

July 10, 2007.

Dear Honorable Members of Congress: As organizations

concerned with refugees and internally displaced persons

around the globe, we write to express our support for House

Resolution 426 regarding the situation of internally

displaced persons in Colombia.

More than 3.8 million people have been internally displaced

over the past twenty years, and high levels of displacement

continue to occur. Despite efforts by the international

community and the Colombian government, internally displaced

persons lack access to basic health care, shelter, adequate

nutrition, secure employment, and educational opportunities.

In many cases, they also lack basic protection from human

rights violations and continued displacement.

The Colombian Catholic Church, United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees, and Colombian nongovernmental

organization established an initiative to declare 2007 the

Year of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in

Colombia in order to call attention to a dire humanitarian

situation which has been largely invisible both

internationally and within Colombia. This resolution

expresses support for this initiative and recognizes certain

advances by the Colombian government such as establishing

landmark legislation. The resolution calls for the

international community, U.S. and Colombian governments to

prioritize attention to help Colombia's internally displaced

persons to ``rebuild their lives in a dignified, safe, and

sustainable manner.''

We encourage you to help bring attention to this pressing

problem of internal displacement in Colombia by supporting

House Resolution 426.

Kenneth H. Bacon, President, Refugees International; Rev.

Kenneth Gavin, S.J., National Director, Jesuit Refugee

Service/USA; Sean Callahan, Executive Vice President,

Overseas Operations, Catholic Relief Services; Gimena

Sanchez-Garzoli, Senior Associate for Colombia and

Haiti, Washington Office on Latin America; Rebecca

Phares, Director, Public Policy and Advocacy Lutheran

World Relief; Adam Isacson, Director of Programs,

Center for International Policy.

Marino Cordoba, Charo Mina Rojas, AFRODES USA; Theo

Sitther, Legislative Associate for International

Affairs, Mennonite Central Committee, U.S., Washington

Office; Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director, Latin

America Working Group; Kimberly Stanton, Country

Representative, Colombia, Project Counselling Services;

Barbara Gerlach, Colombia Liaison, United Church of

Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries.

Madam Speaker, last week the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved H. Res. 426, recognizing 2007 as the Year of the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Colombia. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees, UNHCR, praised its passage, noting that ``It is the first time the U.S. Congress has singled out forced displacement in Colombia as one of the worst humanitarian crises on the American continent.''

More than one-third of the over 3 million internally displaced people in Colombia are Afro-Colombians or indigenous peoples. On July 11, 2007, the Association of Internally Displaced Afro-Colombians, AFRODES, issued a statement welcoming the action taken by the U.S. Congress in passing H. Res. 426 and bringing attention to the plight of Colombia's internally displaced.

I encourage my House colleagues to reflect on the words of Colombia's Afro-Colombian community and I welcome the opportunity to submit the statement of AFRODES into the Record of the debate on H. Res. 426.

[July 11, 2007]

Internal Displacement in Colombia and Its Impact in Afro-Colombian

Territories and Communities

In Colombia, a chronic and sustained humanitarian and human

rights crisis persists, due to the ongoing presence of the

causes of forced displacement, and the limited and

contradictory security policies that the national government

has adopted to stop the exodus of the population. Under the

government of President Alvaro Uribe, military confrontations

between the public security forces and illegal armed groups

have intensified; during President Uribe's first term, there

were 8,001 such confrontations, an increase of 149 percent

over the 3,211 which occurred during the previous government

of President Andres Pastrana. This shows there is a greater

military presence in the country, but that does not

necessarily imply that conditions for the security of the

civilian population are being met. In other words, there are

no guarantees for the security of internally displaced

communities to return to their regions of origin.

Defining the dimensions of the problem of internal

displacement should be a priority, in order to define the

conditions faced by victims of the internal armed conflict

and thereby establish peace, justice and reparations. The

System of Information on Forced Displacement and Human Rights

(SISDHES), which has been operated by CODHES since 1995 and

which takes into account data from the Episcopal Conference

of Colombia from 1985-1994, indicates that around 3,832,527

people have been displaced during the last 20 years in

Colombia (from January 1, 1985 through June 30, 2006). The

United Nations just recently stated in a June 2007 report

that the number of internally displaced in Colombia has

reached 3,000,000. According to the U.N., out of the 13

million internally displaced persons (IDPs) their

organization attended to over the past year, three million--

or 23 percent of the world total--are Colombian. This

according to the U.N. brings Colombia to the undesirable

first position of the greatest number of IDPs in the world.

Yet the Colombian government reports only 1,877,328 IDPs for

the period from January of 1995-June of 2005.

Due to the lack of sufficient political will on the part of

the government to attend to the IDP population, the Colombian

Constitutional Court has delivered two rulings with the

purpose of protecting the rights of the internally displaced:

Ruling C-370 of 2005, relating to Law 975 of 2005, through

which the Constitutional Court defines the scope of the

rights and guarantees due to victims of the internal armed

conflict under the system of transitional justice.

The Constitutional Court also issued Decree 218 of 2006,

following Ruling T-025 of 2004 which declared the state of

things to be unconstitutional in Colombia and ordered the

government to develop a public policy designed to guarantee

the effective protection of the rights of the internally

displaced.

This decree examines the completion of the orders

established through decrees No. 176, 177 and 178 of 2005; its

principal conclusion is that the situation of

unconstitutionality has yet to be overcome, while the

necessary measures are not being taken to do so.

Finally, the Civil Commission for the Evaluation if

Completion if Ruling T-025 and the Public Policy if Forced

Displacement was formed as a plural and diverse coalition of

civil society dedicated to overcoming displacement, at the

same time that new protests and proposals for strengthening

organizations of the internally displaced are being formed by

the affected population.

Decree 218 illustrates the structural problems with the

lack of a public policy for forced displacement and opens the

possibility for greater public debate to examine the report

presented by the government on September 13, 2006, such as

the use of rights-based progress indicators.

We would also like to applaud the 42 co-sponsors of H. Res.

426 and in particular our Afrodescendant brother Donald Payne

and humanitarian James McGovern for raising the visibility of

the plight of the many internally displaced Afro-Colombians

to the U.S. Congress. In the last decade, especially during

the last 5 years, internal displacement has intensified in

areas of the Pacific Coast, in the departments of Narino,

Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Choco in the collectively titled

lands of Afro-Colombians. The particular characteristics of

these displacements show them to be planned and deliberate,

in order to cause communities to vacate their territories.

This is corroborated by the study carried out by AFRODES and

Global Rights in 2005, which illustrates that 61.73 percent

of those people with collective titles to land in 50

municipalities with Afro-Colombian populations have been

displaced from their territories. Most alarming is that there

currently exists no public policy for attention to Afro-

Colombian displaced populations, while the humanitarian

crisis in their territories continues to worsen.

Finally, as an organization of internally displaced persons

and in the name of many more who have lost their territories

in Colombia, we appreciate and commend the efforts undertaken

by the U.S. Congress and the international community to raise

visibility of this humanitarian tragedy, specifically through

H. Res. 426 in the U.S. House of Representatives. By working

in partnership with the United States, the United Nations and

many religious and non-governmental organizations, our

communities can once again live with dignity and respect for

their rights.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 426) recognizing 2007 as the Year of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia, and offering support for efforts to ensure that the internally displaced people of Colombia receive the assistance and protection they need to rebuild their lives successfully, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation and yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would first like to express our appreciation to our colleagues, Congressman Jim McGovern and Congressman Joe Pitts, for introducing this important legislation. Let me also thank the Chair of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Mr. Eliot Engel, and the Chair and ranking member of the Africa and Global Health Subcommittee, Mr. Payne and Mr. Smith, for bringing this issue to our attention. For those who have recently visited Colombia, I can assure the sponsors of this legislation that this is a timely and important and constructive addition to the assistance of displaced persons in Colombia.

The McGovern resolution brings long overdue attention to the continuing plight of Colombia's internally displaced people. Ongoing violence over the last 20 years among paramilitary groups, guerillas and government security forces has forced millions of civilians to leave their homes, wander the streets and the countryside and simply struggle to survive. It has to be a miserable existence.

Colombia's internally displaced population represents one of the worst humanitarian crises in the hemisphere and the second largest population of internally displaced in the world after Sudan. While the entire world knows about the hardships facing the people of Sudan, Colombia's internally displaced suffer in great silence.

For this reason, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees has deemed it the greatest hidden humanitarian crisis in the world. Over the past two decades, approximately 3.8 million Colombians, or about 8 percent of Colombia's entire population, have been displaced from their homes due to violence and conflict and through no fault of their own.

President Uribe is a solid ally of the United States in South America. He has made enormous strides in protecting his own people, but clearly he faces an uphill battle. In our conversations, in my visit to Colombia, along with several Members, including Congressman Greg Meeks, we made this a very strong point, meeting with some of the internally displaced persons and recognize that this is an enormous challenge that this Congress must confront and provide assistance to these people and to the government to do what is right.

Sadly, an estimated 200,000 people are forced to flee their homes or places of refuge each year. For these people, Colombia is home, but Colombia has no

home for them. One-third of the internally displaced are from the Afro- Colombian and indigenous peoples communities, a percentage likely to increase this year. This type of ethically based displacement is particularly abhorrent. It is important to note as well that the people continue to be displaced, and they continue to be without a place to go.

Like many refugees around the world, the overwhelming majority of Colombia's internally displaced are also women and children. Few of these millions of people have been able to return to their homes. Tragically, these refugees often are misplaced multiple times. They are poor and more disenfranchised than the general population, and they are more fearful of repercussions should they attempt to identify their attackers. The World Food Programme and the UNHCR estimate that more than 70 percent suffer from food insecurity and inadequate shelter or limited health care services.

I am grateful to acknowledge the Mickey Leland Center, which my friend and colleague, Mr. McGovern, serves on, as do I, and the efforts they have made in providing food for persons like those displaced in Colombia.

With passage of this important measure, the United States Congress will encourage the United States, the international donor community, and the Colombian Government to create coordinated responses that address this humanitarian crisis, provide increased resources and protection for this highly vulnerable population and help them to successfully build their lives.

Bringing attention to the humanitarian crisis of Colombia's internally displaced people and assisting them to live in safety with dignity are priorities that every Member of Congress can and should embrace.

It is a call to our shared humanity, and I urge all Members to support H. Res. 426.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 8 minutes to the distinguished member of the Rules Committee, Mr. McGovern, the author of the legislation, and a strong and dedicated and committed advocate for the displaced persons of Colombia, indigenous Afro-Colombians and others in need.

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from California, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a member of the Committee on Appropriations and a Member with a long history of advocating for those unempowered persons around the world.

Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for her leadership on this issue and the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Lantos. Again, my appreciation and the committee's appreciation to Mr. McGovern and Mr. Pitts for their joint collaboration on a very instructive and important lifesaving measure.

As someone who has recently returned, let me again say that the voices of these individuals have to be heard through the humanitarian efforts of this Congress.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, over the past 20 years, more than 3 million people have been internally displaced in Colombia, and each year 200,000 more are internally displaced.

This massive displacement is a little-known fact about the long and tragic conflict that goes on in Colombia. One of the goals of Plan Colombia was to help end the violence, violence from that conflict and, in turn, stop the ongoing displacement. Plan Colombia has, indeed, reduced the violence, and the numbers of newly displaced people are down.

For example, according to the Colombian Government, from the years 2002 through 2005, incidents of terrorism are down 63 percent; and for the same time frame, homicides are down 37 percent, along with an 80 percent decrease in kidnappings.

In turn, the number of displaced people is down 64 percent from a high of 424,193 in the year 2002 when our aid program of Plan Colombia started to kick in and to help the situation on the ground. Now things are much better. Seventy percent of these displaced people still suffer from food insecurities, from inadequate shelters, and limited health care facilities.

In 1997, the Government of Colombia passed legislation known as Law 387, to guarantee rights and assistance to its internally displaced population. Since then, the Government of Colombia has expanded its ability to assist internally displaced people, but the constitutional court of Colombia has called the government's efforts to meet the basic needs of internally displaced persons insufficient. This resolution commends the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Colombian Catholic Church, and the Coalition for Human Rights and Internal Displacement for their initiatives in declaring the Year of the Rights of the Internally Displaced People in Colombia.

It also encourages the Government of Colombia and international donor communities to prioritize the discussions of humanitarian assistance and internal displacement with the international donor community, especially within the context of the London-Cartagena Process, which set the scene for an international cooperation, in addition to guidelines and a mandate for working on bringing peace and stability finally to Colombia.

House Resolution 426 also calls on the United States to increase emergency humanitarian assistance and to assist Colombia's internally displaced people in rebuilding their lives in a dignified, safe and sustainable manner.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of our time.

Madam Speaker, I recognize Mr. Pitts of Pennsylvania for such time as he may consume, the cosponsor of this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 426, recognizing 2007 as the Year of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia, and offering support for efforts to ensure that the internally displaced people of Colombia receive the assistance and protection they need to rebuild their lives successfully.

This resolution recognizes the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' finding that Colombia's estimated 2-3 million internally displaced persons (IDP) ranks only second to Sudan as the world's largest internally displaced population. As a close ally and strategic partner in Latin America, it is in the deep interest of the United States to assist Colombia's IDPs in rebuilding their lives in a dignified, safe, and sustainable manner.

The violence and poor economic situation in the country has disproportionately affected the Afro-Colombian community. Between 1995 and 2005, an estimated 61 percent of Afro-Colombians who received land titles through ``Law 70'' were forcibly displaced from their homes in a deliberate strategy of war by armed groups, many of whom are paramilitaries. In April of this year, my colleagues and I sent a letter to Secretary Rice urging her to ensure that the needs of Afro- Colombians and IDPs are a prime focus of American policy and assistance. It remains our recommendation that initiatives that help develop the capacity of Afro-Colombian communities, including technology transfers, management expertise, global distribution, and economic growth opportunities, and foreign investment that respects the collective land rights of Afro-Colombian communities, would best stabilize the living condition for the impoverished communities.

Furthermore, there must be a concerted effort to provide diplomatic and technical support to help secure the return of land to Afro- Colombians and indigenous communities internally displaced by violence, and to increase aid to protection programs. As a newly appointed member of the House Appropriations Committee, I am very pleased to report that the recent State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill for FY2008 includes important language in assisting Colombian IDPs through stronger economic aid. It is our hope that the leadership of the United States through the implementation of progressive programs will finally help heal this open wound on universal human rights.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 426 as we help internally displaced persons of our close ally Colombia rebuild their lives safely and swiftly.