:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/E6AZIBDVNRDODH4HTQMXEIRLIY.jpg "Forced recruitment: the Ombudsman leads a campaign in Cauca to report and prevent cases of children and adolescents in the region 1")
Growing concern about the forced recruitment which takes place in different regions of Colombia and which attacks minors, puts the country’s authorities on red alert, whose representatives have reiterated the call with denunciations of cases that increase the number.
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Thus, Luis Fajardo, vice-defender of the Mediatorheaded by Vanessa Martínez, delegate for childhood, youth and old age, and other officials who are part of the Cauca Regional Ombudsmanannounced the campaign against the forced recruitment of minors in the region.
With an awareness-raising activity that took place in Popayán and Santander de Quilichao, officials reiterated prevention messages to communities and made visible the cases in which they were involved boys, girls and teenagers.
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Remember that these regions have historically been affected by the presence of violence and in this, the illegal armed groups. Thus, with the aim of reaching as many of the population as possible, the disclosure was also taken up by the media, such as the police stations of the department, as well as the Universidad del Cauca and Radio Super.
In addition to this, the campaign against forced recruitment also occupied other spaces in which they engaged with civil society organizations, leaders, international cooperation organizations and members of the Departmental Recruitment Prevention Committee.
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The meetings focused on the assessment of the situation in the department, as well as on the analysis of the current dynamics and the actions that must be implemented in order to prevent this behavior described by the Mediator as a “serious violation of the rights of the man “.
The campaign also enabled a dialogue with children and adolescents. There, the miners expressed to the Ombudsman what they think of the forced recruitment; furthermore: “the idea of the ‘NO IT’S NO’ campaign was reinforced, because boys and girls should not go to war”.
The facts of violence in the country they have endangered the integrity of minors who, in many cases, have been used and continue to be sought as participants. However, the Ombudsman assures that this is not the first campaign undertaken in the prevention and treatment of these cases.
Carlos Camargo Assis, in his capacity as Ombudsman, launched a strategy in 2021, which was called: “Defence Strategy: 2021, year against the forced recruitment of children and adolescents”.
Thanks to this initiative, actions for the prevention, promotion, care and dissemination of this important problem have begun to be promoted. Even during the project, the implementation and development of strategies before state bodies was also introduced, the purpose of which was to recognize the problem and seek solutions to guarantee the rights of minors.
The Ombudsman pointed out that:
“With the dissemination campaigns, we seek to let the community know that the Mediator also carries out legal support, actions aimed at providing care and advice to children and adolescents and victims of forced recruitment or at risk of being coerced and to their families, and the activation of the judicial apparatus for investigation, judgment and repression of cases of recruitment of children and adolescents”.
In the document released to public opinion on February 24, 2023also ruled that the Cauca regional conducted a survey of entities such as the Attorney’s Office, ICBF, Attorney General’s Office and the Red Cross, which are part of the Recruitment Prevention Committee, where relevant data was obtained.
Among them, it was found that they had identified with 213 children and adolescents who would have been recruited between 2021 and 2022. According to the figures, here are the records according to the ages of the minors:
16 years: 48 cases
14 years: 39 cases
15 years: 42 cases
17 years: 28 cases
13 years: 27 cases
12 years: 4 cases
11, 10 and 7 years old: 2 cases each
In addition, the case of 18 minors whose age was not specified and the abduction of a minor under the age of 2 were noted. Of the total, 106 the miners were women and 107 men.
It was also learned that, among the registered cases, which according to the document: “do not constitute the reality of the situation”, being a national problem for which all the data are not yet available, 6 of them belong to the ‘Afro-, 111 are from indigenous groups, 57 have no particular ethnicity and there is no related information on the other 40 children.
According to the entity, the “phenomenon is gigantic and in part, from the Office of the Ombudsman, we have identified that it is due to fear of denunciations, fear of reprisals by armed groups and threats against families and communities”.