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Internal displacement in Colombia: humanitarian, economic and social consequences in urban settings and current challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

Angela Consuelo Carrillo
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Abstract

This article provides an overview of internal displacement and the internally displaced person (IDP) assistance system in Colombia. It analyses the humanitarian consequences faced by IDPs when they move to an urban environment, and examines the impact of the influx of IDPs into cities on the different actors involved, such as the government, national and international organizations and host communities.

Type
Displacement
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 91 , Issue 875: Displacement , September 2009 , pp. 527 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2009

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References

1 As at 2008. See Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2008, IDMC, 2009, p.12.

2 Cited in Ana María Ibáñez, Andrés Moya, Andrea Velásquez, Hacia una política proactiva para la población desplazada (Towards a Proactive Policy for the Displaced), Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, May 2006.

3 Between 1995 and 1998, the Ministry of the Interior and Justice was responsible for collecting information on IDPs in Colombia. In 1999, the Red de Solidaridad Social (Social Solidarity Network – RSS) was set up to co-ordinate the Sistema Nacional de Atención Integral a la Población Desplazada (National System for Integrated IDP Assistance – SNAIPD), and the formal declaration and registration process, including the unified registration system, was put into operation in 2001. From 2005 to the present day, the Agencia Presidencial para la Acción Social y la Cooperación Internacional (Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Co-operation, known as Acción Social – the former RSS) is responsible for IDP registration and the compilation of statistics. The figures on IDPs in Colombia provided here refer to the period from 1995 to March 2009.

4 Comisión de seguimiento a la política pública sobre el desplazamiento forzado (Commission to monitor public policy on internal displacement), National process to verify the rights of the displaced, Fourth Report to the Constitutional Court, April 2008, p. 58.

5 According to population projections by the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadistica (National Administrative Department of Statistics – DANE), Colombia has a population of 44,957,758 (2009).

6 Massive displacement is defined as the displacement of ten or more households together, while individual displacement is the displacement of a person or family on its own.

7 In 45.6% of cases, there is no information available about who caused the displacement. 20.5% of IDPs report that they were displaced as a result of a guerrilla group and 12.7% as a result of other groups, 10.8% do not identify the group that led to their displacement, 9.6% blame counterinsurgent and paramilitary groups, 0.5% the armed forces and 0.4% more than one actor. Source: Acción Social, March 2009.

8 In the first two cases, there is no official information on whether IDPs come from rural or urban areas.

9 Durable solutions for IDPs in protracted situations: three case studies, Brookings Institution/University of Bern, October 2008, available at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2008.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/RMOI-7LX2ZX-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf (visited 30 September 2008). This figure roughly coincides with the one provided by the commission to monitor public policy on internal displacement, which reports that 54.5% of IDPs come from rural areas. Source: Comisión de seguimiento a la política pública sobre el desplazamiento forzado, National process to verify the rights of the displaced, First Report to the Constitutional Court, January 2008.

10 Official statistics on internal displacement in Colombia are compiled by Acción Social and only take into account people registered in the unified IDP register (RUPD). Various studies have been carried out in the country including both registered and unregistered IDPs. The data from some of these studies have been used here as supporting information to determine the characteristics of the IDP population.

11 Encuesta Nacional de Demografía y Salud (National Demographic and Health Survey – ENDS), Profamilia, Bogotá, 2005.

12 Survey on the socioeconomic conditions of internally displaced persons assisted by the ICRC in Bogotá, Cúcuta, Florencia and Medellín, ICRC, Bogotá, May 2008.

13 ICRC/World Food Programme (WFP), Una mirada a la población desplazada en ocho ciudades de Colombia: respuesta institucional local, condiciones de vida y recomendaciones para su atención, ICRC/WFP, Bogotá, November 2007, available at http://www.icrc.org/web/spa/sitespa0.nsf/htmlall/colombia-interview-131207/$FILE/report-summary-131207.pdf (visited 21 December 2009).

14 Ibid., p. 25.

15 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Judgement T-025, 22 January 2004.

16 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Writ 092, 14 April 2008.

17 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Writ 251, 10 October 2008.

18 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Writs 004 and 005, 26 January 2009.

19 Colombia, Law 1190, Por medio de la cual el Congreso de la República de Colombia declara el 2008 como el año de la promoción de los derechos de las personas desplazadas por la violencia y se dictan otras disposiciones (whereby the Congress of the Republic of Colombia declares 2008 the year of promotion of the rights of persons displaced by violence, and other regulations are announced), 30 April 2008.

20 For example, a survey showed that, in the city of Cúcuta, only 0.5% of IDPs receiving ICRC assistance wished to return to their original place of residence; 14.8% had not yet taken a decision; 0.9% were considering moving to another country; 4.7% wished to relocate elsewhere in Colombia; and the majority (79.1%) intended to remain in their current place of residence. The figures are similar for Bogotá, Florencia and Medellín. See Survey on the socioeconomic conditions of internally displaced persons assisted by the ICRC, ICRC, Bogotá, May 2008.

21 ‘Aggregate figures for assets, properties and land abandoned, ransacked or lost amount to 1.7% of Colombia's GDP in 2004. Farming income not earned after displacement amounts to 2.1% of agricultural GDP in 2004’. See Ibáñez et al., above note 3.

22 Ibid.

23 DANE, Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares (National Household Survey), available at www.dane.gov.co (visited 30 September 2009).

24 These figures are for the cities of Florencia and Bogotá and are equivalent to USD121 and USD164 at the exchange rate of June 2007. These amounts are 53 and 72%, respectively, of the legal minimum wage in force at that time. See ICRC/WFP, above note 13, p. 6.

25 Equivalent to USD217.15 at the April 2009 exchange rate of USD1 to COP2,288.64.

26 Invaded areas are defined as privately or publicly owned land or waste ground where IDPs build their homes.

27 ICRC/WFP, above note 13, p. 4.

28 Decree 951 of 2001 establishes an amount of up to 25 times the minimum monthly legal wage for the purchase of social or second-hand housing or for home improvements.

29 ICRC/WFP, above note 13, p. 5.

30 Law 715 of 2001 on the general participation system.

31 Law 617 of 2000 establishes six categories of municipalities and a seventh ‘special’ category. The country's 1120 municipalities belong to one of these categories depending on the size of their population and unearmarked current income.

32 Colombia's last general census was carried out in 2005, and the one before that in 1993. Since 2005, official population figures are based on projections made by DANE.

33 Living in a city changes the mentality of IDPs; it can empower women, as they become integrated into a more egalitarian society offering greater opportunities for their sex. Roberto Vidal, Desplazamiento interno y construcción de paz en Colombia (Internal displacement and building peace in Colombia), 2008.

34 Ibáñez, Moya, Velásquez, op. cit.

35 ‘Low school attendance and drop-out rates can also be explained by the pressure on all the members of the household to engage in income-generating activities’, La población desplazada en Colombia: examen de sus condiciones socioeconómicas y análisis de las políticas actuales. Misión para el diseño de una estrategia para la reducción de la pobreza y la desigualdad (The displaced population in Colombia: study on socioeconomic conditions and analysis of current policy), Departamento Nacional de la Planeación, Bogotá, 2006.

36 ICRC/WFP, above note 13, p. 6.