COLOMBIA: New report published

Religious persecution is rarely associated with Colombia. Internationally known mega-churches and rapid church growth over the past decades have contributed to a widespread perception held both in and outside of the country that religious persecution does not exist. However, while many Christians in Colombia exercise their right to meet and worship freely, the daily reality for a significant percentage of Colombian Christians is very different.

These men and women, particularly those living in conflict zones or areas controlled by illegal armed groups, but also many living in the supposed safety of major urban areas, suffer direct persecution because of their faith. Across the country an estimated 200 churches are believed to be forcibly closed. In some regions, religious activity has been forbidden by order of the armed groups. Entire Christian communities have been displaced and pastors and church leaders have been marked for assassination. In many cases these threats have been carried out.

Work as a church leader, pastor or priest, carries particular danger. While Protestant pastors have been declared a legitimate military target by some leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), all of the illegal armed groups, including the FARC, the National Liberation Army (ELN) and right-wing neo-paramilitary groups are responsible for assassinations of and threats against church leaders. An estimated 25-30 pastors are murdered by the armed groups each year. Many more have been forcibly displaced while others live and work under constant threat.

In addition to these more direct forms of persecution, Christians pay a high price for actions rooted in their faith. Christian adults and youths who refuse to join illegal armed groups for reasons of conscience and converts to Christianity who wish to leave the armed groups must go into hiding or be killed. Christian families and communities who resist the armed groups’ demands, which they find incompatible with their faith, often face horrific and inhumane consequences. The majority of victims come from already historically marginalised communities with little public voice; a significant percentage are campesinos, small-scale and subsistence farmers, living in rural parts of the country, and many are from Afro-Colombian or indigenous communities.

Violations of religious freedom on indigenous reserves, though of a different nature, are also serious. Colombian courts have ruled, in contravention of Colombia’s international human rights obligations, that, when it comes to religious freedom, indigenous Colombians do not have the same rights as the rest of the population. This has resulted in indigenous Christians being subjected to discrimination, corporal punishment and, in the worst cases, banishment from their lands for refusing to reconvert back to traditional beliefs – all with the tacit support of the state.

Download full report96KB PDF