Bogota

: Mexican volunteer Andrea Vera accompanying during Human Rights Week in Bogota

The Bogota team accompanies various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the metropoplitan area as well as making many visits to other parts of the country.

Due to its position, the Bogota team is in charge of public relations and is in regular contact with the Colombian Government, nationwide security forces, the diplomatic core and various international organisations with their headquarters in Bogota.

Association of the Families of the Detained – Disappeared (ASFADDES)
Established in 1982, ASFADDES is an organisation created and composed of family members of the detained-disappeared, which provides moral support and legal aid to family members of victims, compiles figures maintains a data bank of cases, and investigates cases of forced disappearance. Since 1998, PBI has provided accompaniment at the ASFADDES offices and to its members in Bogotá, Medellin, Neiva, Bucaramanga and Popayan.

Association for Alternative Social Advancement 'MINGA'
Established in 1992. MINGA provides legal aid in cases of forced displacement and massacres. It carries out education and regional consultancy work with grassroots organisations. It circulates findings from research on Human Rights, both nationally and internationally. MINGA has been given many awards, among them the Robert Kennedy Award for Human Rights (1998). www.asociacionminga.org

Inter-church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP)
The Bogota team is in regular contact with the Justice and Peace headquarters as a way of supporting the extensive cooperation the two organisations have developed on the ground in Uraba, near the border with Panama.

'Jose Alvear Restrepo' Lawyers Collective Corporation (CCAJAR)
Established in 1978. One of the founders, Eduardo Umaña Mendoza, was murdered in his Bogota home in 1998. The Collective offers legal advice on human rights to individuals and organisations. It has taken many cases to the Inter-American Tribunal of Human Rights and has received many international awards for its work. Volunteers in Bogota currently accompany CCAJAR lawyers in their work representing victims of the country’s armed conflict, as well as in their legal proceedings in Bogota. They have taken on well-known cases such as the occupation of the Palace of Justice, the execution of Cano Seco trade unionists (in Arauca) and the Cajamarca massacre in Tolima. www.colectivodeabogados.org

'Manuel Cepeda Vargas' Foundation
This organisation takes the name of Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas, Presidential Candidate of the Patriotic Union, who was murdered 9 August 1994. It is part of the National Movement for Victims of Crimes of the State (along with MINGA, Inter-church Justice and Peace Commission, CCAJAR, ASFADDES and two hundred more organisations). The foundation’s executive committee members are Ivan Cepeda, Manuel Cepeda’s son, and his wife Claudia Giron. Ivan Cepeda writes fortnightly columns in the newspaper El Espectador.

Solidarity Committee for Political Prisoners (FCSPP)
The FCSPP was founded by trade unionists and social organisations with a donation from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Its purpose is to ensure that the rights of people detained for political reasons are respected and guaranteed. It also checks up on the prison system in general.

Grassroots Women’s Organization (OFP)
A women’s safehouse was opened in 2001, in Ciudad Bolivar, Bogota – one of the poorest and most violent areas of the capital.

NGOs and other Bogota-based organisations PBI is in regular contact with:
The Research & Popular Education Centre (CINEP), the Colombian Lawyers’ Commission (CCJ), the Alternative Legal Services Institute (ILSA), ONIC, Reiniciar and Yira Castro.