There were 78 homicides of human rights defenders in Colombia in 2021, according to the UN

(CNN Spanish) — The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia revealed this Wednesday in a report that they received 202 allegations of homicides of human rights defenders in 2021.

The agency indicated that of the total it has already verified 78 cases, 39 are still in that process and 85 cases are “inconclusive.”

In the report they detail that the verified cases meet two criteria: the murdered person was a human rights defender under the UN definition and that one of the hypotheses of the homicide is linked to his activity in defense of human rights.

In the 78 verified cases, there is a total of 8 women, 5 identified as indigenous, and 70 men, of whom 6 were Afro-descendants and 6 indigenous.

In the 39 cases still in the verification process, there are 5 cases of women, 2 of them indigenous and one from the LGTBQ community. The remaining 34 cases are men, including 2 Afro-descendants and 6 indigenous people.

According to the UN report, among those verified, the departments with the most cases are Valle del Cauca with 31, Cauca with 11, Antioquia with 6 and Chocó with 5.

CNN asked the Presidency and the Ministry of Defense for comments on the report, but is still waiting for a response.

In September 2021, President Iván Duque indicated that the country is making progress in clarifying crimes against human rights defenders and blamed the FARC dissidents and other armed groups for them. He affirmed that from his government they fight them so that their actions do not go unpunished.

On January 5, the Attorney General’s Office reported that in 2021 there was a 68.3% progress in clarifying crimes against social leaders recognized by the UN. They indicated that in 285 of the 417 known cases there were effective judicial actions.

Fernando Ramos contributed to this report