EU statement at the 282nd Session of ILO on Colombia - Geneva

Mr President,

I have the honour to take the floor on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European Countries associated with the Union - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia - and the associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey have expressed a wish to align themselves with this statement.

We wish to reiterate our great preoccupation regarding the constant violence that is present at all levels of the Colombian society and that keeps claiming an ever-growing number of victims among the trade union members. The European Union is concerned by the lack of progress on the part of the Colombian authorities in implementing the legislative and structural measures aimed at the promotion and the protection of human rights in general, and of the trade union rights in particular, in Colombia.

The European Union thanks the Office for having prepared the special technical cooperation programme for Colombia that is in front of us. We have noted that this programme is supported both by the Minister of Labour and the social partners of Colombia and aims at addressing the most pressing needs in the field of labour rights, namely protection of the lives of the trade union members, defence of freedom of association, promotion of collective bargaining and fundamental principles and rights at work, as well as the strengthening of the social dialogue.

We hope that the programme will be able to operate as described in a political environment as intense and dangerous as that in Colombia. Although the first activity identifies a protection programme for leaders under threat, other activities are described as though the environment in which they will operate is neutral. In fact, many people working in areas such as labour rights and freedom of association are likely to find themselves under threat at different times. The project will need recognise the real danger that this could pose and attempt to mitigate the effects.

A strong political commitment of the Colombian authorities will be required, on top of the technical, institutional and financial arrangements of the kind that are exposed here, to find an appropriate response to the basic needs of the Colombian social partners through this programme. This seems to us a very worthwhile and ambitious goal. In this respect, we wish to remind the Government of Colombia of the need to continue fighting the paramilitaries while undertaking the necessary socio-economic reforms independently of the peace process. We urge again the Colombian Government to cooperate constructively with the social partners in trying to identify and implement every possible measure to address effectively the violence affecting trade union members. Once more, the EU wishes to reaffirm here its full support to the peace process in Colombia.

The European Union hopes that this programme is a step in the right direction and we look forward to the progress report on its implementation, as well as on the situation regarding the respect of labour rights in general, at the next Governing Body in March 2002.

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