04.4 (English) Judgement T-291-09 of The Constitutional Court of Colombia

CiViSOL would like to acknowledge WIEGO’s efforts in translating to English this Colombian ruling on the waste pickers’ rights
to entrepreneur in the formal

economy of urban waste management and the recycling indystry. It is an important contribution to international academic analysis on development and law, and
moreover for the international migration of constitutional argumentation and jurisprudence for the legal empowerment of the poor.
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REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
Second Revision Courtroom
SENTENCE Nº T-291 from 2009
Reference: Proceedings T-2043683 and

accumulated1
Appeals for legal protection filed by Cecilio

Cesar Caicedo Izquierdo; Neisy Gómez
Vargas; Mariela Tenorio Carabalí; Conrado de
Jesús Cardona; Julio César Gómez Ramos;
Grecia Valencia Viáfara; José Armando Arias;
Álvaro Castillo Quiñónez; Fabio Andrés
Velasco Martínez; María Victoria Carlosama;
José Hernando Miranda Rodríguez; Freddy
Orlando Tenorio Quiñones; Alexander
Mayorga; Raquel Tamayo Cáceres; Segundo
Camilo Quiñonez; Fernando Ramírez; Luz
Mery Rodríguez Valentierra; Safra Ruth
Méndez Muñoz; Ana Beiva Bejarano; Ninfa
Rosalba Ramírez; Lucena Vargas; Ayda López
Jojoa; Ángela María Alzate; Diego Ruiz
Angulo; Leidy Johana Torres, against the
Municipal Contractor of Public Cleanliness
Services “EMSIRVA ESP” of Cali, the
Regional Autonomous Corporation – CVC of
Valle, the Environmental Administrative
Department – DAGMA, and the Municipal
Planning Administrative Department of Cali’s
City Hall.
Final Judge:
CLARA ELENA REALES GUTIÉRREZ.
Bogotá, D.C., April the twenty third (23), two thousand and nine (2009)
The Second Courtroom of Revision of the Constitutional Court, made up by

judges Clara Elena Reales Gutiérrez, Gabriel Eduardo Mendoza Martelo and
1
Accumulated proceedings T-2094526; T-2094503; T-2088107; T-2100533; T-2094109; T-2100590; T-
2100537; T-2100536; T-2100659; T-2088003; T-2085999; T-2100591; T-2092631; T-2092630; T-2092148;
T-2092004; T-2090545; T-2088111; T-2079744; T-2084644; T-2070143; T-2079694; T-2140927; and T-
2146448.
Proceedings T-2043683 and accumulated 2
Luís Ernesto Vargas Silva in the exercise of their legal and constitutional
competences, have pronounced the following
SENTENCE
In the proceedings of revision of the sentences pronounced by the Seventeenth

Administrative Court of the Cali’s Circuit and the Court for Contentious
Administrative Proceedings from Valle del Cauca (T-2094526); Nineteenth
Penal Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial
District (T-2094503); Seventh Administrative Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-
2043683); Second Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of the
Cali’s Judicial District (T-2088107); Tenth Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit
and Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2100533); First Family
Court of Cali and Court for Contentious Administrative Proceedings from
Valle del Cauca (T-2094109); Seventh Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit and
Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2100590); Second Civil Court
of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-
2100537); Fourth Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of the
Cali’s Judicial District (T-2100536); Eleventh Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit
and Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2100659); Superior Court
of the Cali’s Judicial District, Family Court (T-2088003); Cali’s Sixth Family
Court and Court for Contentious Administrative Proceedings from Valle del
Cauca (T-2085999); Seventh Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior
Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2100591); Twelfth Labor Court of the
Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2092631);
Seventh Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of the Cali’s
Judicial District (T-2092630); Ninth Labor Court of the Cali’s Circuit and
Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2092148); Seventh Penal
Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District
(T-2092004); Second Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior Court of
the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2090545); Tenth Civil Court of the Cali’s
Circuit and Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District (T-2088111); Fourth
Administrative Judge of Cali’s Circuit and Court for Contentious
Administrative Proceedings from Cali (T-2079744); Second Penal Court of
the Cali’s Specialized Circuit (T-2084644); Eighth Civil Court of the Cali’s
Circuit (T-2070143); First Penal Court of the Cali’s Circuit and Superior
Court of the Cali’s Judicial District, Penal Court (T-2079694); Eighteenth
Penal Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2140927); Eighteenth Penal Court of the
Cali’s Circuit (T-2146448).
By means of the court order from October the ninth (9), two thousand and
eight (2008) pronounced by the Tenth Selection Court of the Constitutional
Court, proceeding T-2043683 was selected.
By means of the court order from November the fifth (5), two thousand and
eight (2008) pronounced by the Eleventh Selection Court of the Constitutional
Court, proceedings T-2070143, T-2079744, T-2079694 and T-2084644 were
selected and accumulated as they presented the same subject.
By means of the court order from November the eighteenth (18), two thousand
and eight (2008) pronounced by the Eleventh Selection Court of the
Constitutional Court, proceedings T-2085999, T-2088003, T-2088111, T-
2088107, T-2092004, T-2092148, T-2094503, T-2094526, T-2090545, T-
2094109, T-2092630, T-2092631, T-2100533, T-2100536, T-2100537, T-
2100590, T-2100591 and T-2100659 were selected and accumulated as they
presented the same subject.
By means of the court order from January the twenty-ninth (29), two thousand
and nine (2009) pronounced by the First Selection Court of the Constitutional
Court, proceedings T-2140927 and T-2146448 were selected and accumulated
as they presented the same subject.
I. BACKGROUND:
A group of waste pickers from Navarro waste dump, ² in the city of Cali, have
filed appeals of legal protection of their right to a decent life in connection
with the right to work. The appeals of legal protection were filed individually
and the Constitutional Court has selected several from the hundreds of cases
sent for their eventual revision. The appeals of legal protection were presented
in identical formats and, in general, are accompanied by the same evidences.
For that reason the facts that led to those appeals of legal protection shall be
narrated in a general manner and the names of the petitioners shall be included
in a chart in the Annex of this sentence, along with the instance decisions and
the particularities which, eventually, each case may present in the proof of
facts. The same procedure shall be applied in relation to the replies from the
defendant entities, which are identical in all cases.
1. Appeal of legal protection.
The appeal of legal protection reported that since 1976 Navarro has been used
as a dumpsite for household waste. During that period, more than one
thousand families found their livelihoods collecting: “(…) all kinds of
materials that represent income for industries such as plastic, paper, glass,
siderurgy, among others.” It should be highlighted the fact that although such
activity was developed in subhuman conditions, it represented a decent
income for those families.
2
The details of each proceeding accumulated in the present action are in the annexed chart, which is an
integral part of the same
Several years ago discussions concerning the closure of the waste dump began
:”(…) because the leached products reach the subsoil beneath the dumpsite
contaminating the Cauca River, which gets to the treatment facilities of Puerto
Mallarino as untreatable water, not because of the waste pickers’ fault,
neither due to the recycling process, since the appropriate techniques for
separation of solid waste, such as plastic, glass and cardboard, were not used,
as well as those for the inoculation of thermogenic bacteria, which converts 6
tons of organic material into one ton of fertilizer for soil recovery with
homogenous characteristics.” Such techniques were not used although: “That
technology was presented to EMSIRVA in several occasions but it was not
heard. It has been successfully used in other parts of the world and with such
technology thousands of work positions would be created and land
overwhelmed by single-crop farming would be recovered.”
In June the thirteenth (13), 2008, a meeting between the waste pickers from
Navarro and some municipal authorities was carried out in order to find
solutions for the problem that would be generated for the families which
would be left without options of work after the permanent closure of the waste
dump. Representing the authorities, the following participated in such
meeting: “doctor Eliana Salamanca, Govern Secretary; doctor Héctor
Guillermo Banguero, Director of DAGMA; doctor José William Garzón,
Director of CVC and doctor David Millán Orozco, Sub director of POT”.
The commitments established between the waste pickers and the municipal
authorities were:
• “Mayor’s office: work relocation of 200 waste pickers from Navarro waste
dump
• DAGMA: employment offer, depending on resources transferred by CVC, of 50

positions for meadow pruning and embellishment of green areas.
• Education Secretariat: free education for the children of this population.
• Social Welfare Secretariat: housing for the mothers head of households
• Housing Department: 100 families to other projects
• Municipal Planning: accompaniment in the association of waste pickers,

including the integral management plan PGIRS
• CVC: eight hundred and fifteen million pesos, to be executed by the entity
and projects which generate employment related only and exclusively to
recycling.
• ESMIRVA: affirms that will employ 150 waste pickers, extendable to 2090,
for the positions of collection and sweeping.”
In June 25th, 2008, the Navarro waste dump was permanently closed. That
date was the one previously set as the deadline for the employment of the
workers, however the waste pickers affirm: “Today, July 18th, 2008, after 23
days without the opportunity of getting the minimum income from the work
that has been taken away from us, we see the lives of our children, as well as
our own, threatened by the lack of food, since it is very little what we can get.
In the same way, the whole family life is at risk due to the lack of access to
health services.”
The waste pickers regard to that situation as “(…) a violation of the right to
work (art.25 of the Political Constitution), and therefore of the rights to life
(art.11 of the Political Constitution), health (art.49 of the Political
Constitution), social security (art.48 of the Political Constitution) and the
right to a livelihood (…).”
Based on the above mentioned facts, the following pretensions arise:
“(…)in order to protect the fundamental rights invoked in the present appeal of
legal protection, in virtue of the principle of legitimate trust which allowed us to
develop the work of recycling for several years, being that our only source of
income and therefore of livelihood, the defendant entities or its representatives
shall be ordered the following:
1. It shall be immediately set in motion by the defendant entities or its

representatives, in coordination with the pertinent municipal authorities, an
immediate plan of decent work relocation in order to prevent the
deterioration of our life quality and to assure our access to our
constitutional rights.
2. The right of my children and my whole family to a decent life shall be

guaranteed. That right is at imminent risk and is being violated by the fact
that our only source of work developed for so many years is being taken
away from us.
3. The salary correspondent to each day out of work from Navarro waste dump,
shall be recognized, considering that it generated an average daily income
of $50.000 working from Monday to Saturday, according to what is
established in the current Colombian laboral law.
4. Special laboral treatment shall be given to those belonging to vulnerable

groups such as the disabled and the elderly, who are not on equal terms but
who also obtained their livelihood from the work in Navarro waste dump.
5. Special protection shall be given to the minors that are involved so they can
have access to their fundamental rights.”3
In the trials of legal protection, different decisions were adopted by the judges
of first and second instances. In some cases the legal protection was granted
and in others it was denied. Those decisions are in the annex accompanying
the present sentence.
2. Interventions of the defendant authorities:
2.1. Intervention of the Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services,

EMSIRVA ESP:
The Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services from Cali “EMSIRVA ESP”

intervened before the first instance judge opposing to the pretensions,
justifying that “there is no legal or contractual relation between the petitioner
and our company; therefore no responsibility can be placed upon us
concerning the facts reported.”
It was reported that EMSIRVA is an industrial and commercial company

which, according to Law 142 from 1994 and Law 689 from 2001, has the
purpose of: “collecting waste, mainly of the solid type, with the components,
modalities, classes and its complementary activities of transport, treatment,
use, recovery and final disposal of such waste.” That activity is carried out in
the city of Santiago de Cali, as part of a market in which there is free
competition with approximately ten companies developing the same activity.
The company affirms that before Law 142 from 1994 the waste disposal was
carried out mainly in open air dumps with very ineffective results during the
whole process. During the nineties several regulations were adopted
concerning themes of environmental protection, such as: “(…) according to
Resolution 336 from September 15th, 1999, CVC imposed an environmental
management, recovery and restoration plan for the closure of Navarro waste
dump and the recovery of a transitory landfill in the City of Santiago de Cali.
The administrative act cited exposed that the construction of the transitory
landfill in Navarro constituted a measure of strictly transitory character,
considering the current inexistence of another appropriate site for the final
disposal of the City’s solid waste, and therefore in a maximum period of three
(03) years, the municipal administration, EMSIRVA ESP and the company of
Environmental Services and Techniques SERVIAMBIENTALES must locate
and prepare and appropriate site for the correct disposal and management of
the solid waste generated in the city of Cali (…).”
Among those norms, oriented towards the improvement of the conditions of

final disposal of solid waste, the Technical Regulation of the Potable Water
and Basic Sanitation Sector, RAS, the Decree 1713 from 2002 (article 86) and
the Decree 838 from 2005 (article 10, section 9) were also adopted, through
which it was determined that: “(…) in the site where the final disposal is
carried out, the access and coexistence of people inside its limits are
prohibited , as well as activities related to recycling in the sites of the
complementary activities of such final disposal service” Due to that
circumstance, in several opportunities the support of the public force was
required in order to assure the development of the final disposal of waste,
about which it expressed that: “(…) when the final disposal was carried out in
Navarro, the legal dispositions that rule the operation of sites where the
activity of landfill is developed under the set of norms previously mentioned,
especially concerning the environmental laws, could not be complied with.”
In the contract signed by EMSIRVA, measures to protect the waste pickers’

activities, recognized by its economic nature, were stipulated. The company
highlighted: “(…) it was agreed that a system should be implemented, through
which the people dedicated to recycling could carry out that economic activity
under terms which would not allow them to be in charge of the operations in
the site of the final disposal, as a transitory measure and with the objective of
attenuating the situation of compliance with the set of norms cited, under
which the responsibility for the presence of the waste pickers had always
fallen upon the operator of the site of final disposal in Navarro; even
considering that it was not the operator’s responsibility given that it is of the
public authority’s competence and of a social nature, and although the
intervention of the municipal authority had been requested, it was not possible
to find a solution to that social problematic.”
The creation of systems for the use of solid waste was delegated to the city
councils, according to Decree 1713 from 2002 (Title I, chapter VII, articles 67
to 87), which should, in conformity with the Solid Waste Integral
Management Plan, PGIRS, define:”(…)an arranged set of objectives,
programs, projects and activities defined by the territorial entity (…)”
oriented towards the recovery and use of solid waste. Such Plans, according to
the Solid Waste Integral Management Policy, should comply with the
following principles:
» Integrated management of solid waste, GIRS, (reduction at the source, use

and appreciation, controled treatment and transformation and final disposal.)
» Integral analysis of the product’s cycle.
»Differential management of usable waste and garbage.
»Identification of the different degrees of responsibility.
» Planning.
» Gradual quality.
In that regulatory framework, recycling is considered an economic activity

which can be carried out by anyone in a free market: “(…) even though the
activity of recovery and use is regulated and must be contained in the PGIRS
of each municipality, they are considered economic activities and should be
carried out in a free manner, however in compliance with the norms which
regulate them as activities, by any natural person or legal entity. In fact
article 68 from Decree 1713 from 2002 establishes that the activity of use of
solid waste may be carried out by companies responsible for rendering the
public service, by natural persons or legal entities.”
From the above mentioned arguments it may be concluded that EMSIRVA

has not violated any fundamental rights and, on the contrary, has strictly
complied with the norms of environmental protection in that matter. The waste
pickers can continue developing the activities they used to do before the
closure of Navarro waste dump within the terms established by the current set
of norms: “(…) the matter claimed by the petitioner in this constitutional
action is a problem of social nature and of reinsertion in the work market,
based on an alleged lack of work source, a situation which, according to the
previous paragraph, does not correspond to the reality since the activity of
use or recovery under technical conditions has not been prohibited; those
people may carry out their work as anyone in Colombia, seeking their own
clients and not in an authoritarian manner as they used to do in Navarro,
using the force(…)”.
In relation to the facts presented in the petition, the company affirms that: “It
is certain that the activity of final disposal in Navarro was carried out for
more than thirty years and, as expressed in the legal background formulated
in the beginning of the present document, the norms and technical procedures
which regulate the operation of sites of final disposal did not exist, norms that
nowadays prohibit the activity of recycling in the waste dumps; if it used to be
developed, it was done in opposition to the current set of environmental norms
and has contributed to the generation of the public sanitation problematic in
Navarro.
The company highlights that it is not correct that the closure of Navarro waste
dump is attributed to bad management in the technical aspect but to the fact
that since 1996 it was considered a transitory landfill: “(…)since 1996 in
compliance with the current legal dispositions for environmental matters, the
competent environment authority has imposed a management plan through
which, in a clear manner and considering the referred set of norms, it
authorized the final disposal in Navarro using the technology of transitory
landfill (…)”.
In relation to the commitments established between the administration and the

waste pickers, it expressed: “(…) it is certain that in relation to the closure of
the site of final disposal, the Mayor of Santiago de Cali, as the maximum
administrative authority and whose competence includes complying with and
determining social policies within his territory, considering the petitions and
requirements filed by the waste pickers individually as well as collectively,
grouped through cooperatives, has called several meetings in order to analyze
and seek alternatives for the different situations claimed by those dedicated to
the activity of recycling, and in which different proposals or demands were
expressed by the participants, worried by the social problems faced by a part
of the community. EMSIRVA ESP and other instances have attended some of
the meetings, although it does not mean that the above mentioned company
can legally lay off 200 of its employees in order to find a solution to a social
problem and substitute them with people to whom it does not have any legal
connection; the matters claimed in the meetings constitute hypotheses related
to a possible contribution,as well as the reorganization of the company and
the availability of resources enable the development of the company’s current

scheme of intervention from the Domiciliary Public Services
Superintendence.”
According to EMSIRVA, it is necessary to make a distinction between the

economic activities of collection and transport of solid waste, which are the
ones executed by companies such as EMSIRVA, and the activities of use and
recovery of solid waste, which may or not be carried out by such companies
and in which anyone who complies with the environmental regulations may
participate. It considers that there are no constitutional or legal reasons which
demand the protection of the development of that economic activity
exclusively by the waste pickers. The explanation: “(…) the activity of
recycling and the claims of the petitioners do not constitute an imperative
matter for the operator of the activity of final disposal, neither for any of the
companies responsible for rendering the cleanliness service through the
activities of collection and transport because, although the waste pickers
sustain that the waste should be delivered to specific people such as
themselves, as a free economic activity it could be carried out by the same
companies rendering the public service or by any other natural person or
legal entity who chooses to develop such economic activity; besides the above
mentioned, there is no constitutional or legal obligation to protect that
economic activity in order to make it exclusive for the use of a few people
(…)”
The company concludes that no fundamental right is being violated

considering that there is no contractual relation with the waste pickers and it
has complied with the legal norms concerning the protection of the
environment. The appeal of legal protection, in its understanding, should be
declared inapplicable, as the constitutional resource suitable for this kind of
case is the popular action.
Finally, the company requests: “(…) to be disconnected from the present

constitutional action” and, due to the number of appeals of legal protection
presented with the same object: “that the actions which correspond to be
known by the same be accumulated.”
2.2. Intervention of the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous

Corporation
The Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation – CVC -, in relation

to the facts presented in the petition, expresses that between the entity and the
waste pickers from Navarro waste dump there was “no contractual relation”.
Concerning the technical reasons which explain the closure of Navarro waste
dump, it highlights that:
“(…) the decision to permanently close Navarro waste dump was based on
the fact that it is not the most appropriate site from the technical point of view,
as well as when it comes to the use of the soil for the activity of final disposal
of solid waste. Such decision was made in compliance with the order from
December 20th, 2006, issued by the Southwestern Environmental Management
Director’s Office in conformity with the order from June 4th, 2008, issued by
the General Director, through which the immediate termination of the solid
waste disposal was ordered; as well as the permanent closure of the former
dumpsite, the transitory landfill and the transitory cell number 7 and it was
also prohibited the final disposal of solid waste from Cali and other cities in
the lot belonging to EMSIRVA ESP, located in the town of Navarro, city of
Santiago de Cali, due to the facts that its useful life was over, it had serious
environmental and technical limitations and it was considered an area for the
future urban expansion of the city of Cali, according to the territorial
planning of that city. Besides the above mentioned facts, the dumpsite was
built, from the environmental point of view, on the aquiferous system of the
Cauca River; considering the hydrological aspect, it is located in a humid
zone over a bed from the Cauca River, a body of water that, according to the
reports from the Corporation, is contaminated by the activities of bad
operation and disposal of solid waste; geologically, the area is part of the
quaternary alluvial deposit of the Cauca River, formed by the intercalation of
sand, gravel, mud and clay, being the terrain located over thin layers of clay,
insufficient for fulfilling the necessity of cover material; hydro geologically,
the ground water level of the area during the winter varies between 1.00 and
2.00 meters deep, and in the summer between 2.00 and 4.00 meters, depths
considered inappropriate for the presence of a landfill, as well as of a
dumpsite; contamination of the aquifer by the presence of high concentrations
of chlorides, iron, hardness, phenols and fecal coliforms way above the
admissible levels established by the Social Protection and Health Department
for potable water, with the additional presence of nitrites, nitrates and heavy
metals are characteristics that indicate a large scale process of
contamination; the Puerto Mallarino aqueduct, which supplies 75 % of the
water used by Cali’s population, is located 4 Km away from the Sur de
Aguablanca interceptor canal, known as the Navarro Canal, which presents
contamination by leached materials from the disposal area, combined with the
inefficient operation, the lack of daily coverage of the waste, the presence of
birds of prey, rodents, vectors and the illegal presence of waste pickers in the
working front, who prevented the daily cover. Also, there is no system for the
treatment of leached materials, which have accumulated in lagoons that
overflow in the winter and are pumped into the interceptor canal that reaches
the Cauca River. All the facts mentioned represent a threat to life, the
environment and the public sanitation, according to the technical opinion
issued by the Minister of the Environment, Housing and Territorial
Development in January 16th, 2003, through which, from the technical point of
view, all administrative actions oriented towards the permanent closure of the
dumpsite are supported, considering the city of Santiago de Cali responsible
for the final disposal of solid waste generated in that city as well as in others,
so that in coordination with the entities rendering the public cleanliness
service another lot or site appropriate for the final disposal can be prepared;
a solution that must be technically and environmentally viable and whose
process of conception must consider that such projects require an
environmental permit in conformity with the established in Law 99 from 1993
and the current norm contained in Decree 1220 from 2005.”
In relation to the commitments established with the waste pickers prior to

the closure of the dumpsite, it highlights that: “(…) in the present
document there is no evidence that indicates the commitment of the
Corporation to solve the waste pickers problematic, given that there has
never been a contractual relation with them. Furthermore, it is not of our
competence to provide solutions to social problems generated by the
rendering of public services (…)”, as its function is, specifically: “(…) to
administrate the area in its jurisdiction, the environment and the
renewable natural resources and facilitate its sustainable development,
with the objectives of assuring the harmonic and respectful relation
between men and nature and defining, as the environmental authority,
the policies and regulations related to the recovery, conservation,
protection, territorial planning, management and use of the renewable
natural resources and the environment, as well as the imposition and
execution of the appropriate measures of vigilance, fining, prevention
and sanction that are necessary (…)”.
About the new Yotocó waste dump, the Corporation affirms that it is
environmentally viable but it does not include the participation of the
waste pickers from the former waste dump in Navarro. The intervention
indicates: “(…) the solid waste disposed in the Yocotó site, an area duly
licensed according to Decree 1220 from 2005 in conformity with Decree
838 from March 23rd, 2005, appropriate to be technically operated using
the technology of landfill, among whose operation conditions is not
included the possibility of presence of any waste pickers carrying out the
waste separation at the source, considering that their presence prevents
the activities of coverage and compacting of the waste, conformation of
slopes and confining of residues, causing delays in the operation front,
besides the risks to the health and life of those developing such activity.”
Finally, it affirms that it has no responsibility concerning the situation of

the people who used to develop the activity of recycling in Navarro waste
dump and indicates the ones who, in its understanding, should seek
solutions to the social problem they represent: “(…) my client has not
established any work or contractual relation with the petitioner,
therefore it has not practiced any violation of fundamental rights, as well
as the individual activity carried out motu propio in a site regarded to as
inappropriate for such activity, highlighting that, by means of the
Resolution SGA number 336 from 1999, article 3, an obligation of
mitigating the possible social impact created by the permanent closure of
Navarro waste dump, as well as the duty of implementing a Social
Management Plan that favored the waste pickers were imposed upon the
municipality and EMSIRVA ESP. In relation to the appeal of legal
protection, we consider it inapplicable, given that although it is claimed
as resultant from facts of legal nature, the situation should be dealt with
through other mechanisms predicted in the ordinary law (…)”. For those
reasons it requests: “(…) to be exonerated from any responsibility and
that each and every pretension expressed by the petitioner should be

denied (…)”.
The Corporation annexes the following to its intervention:
- The Resolution 336 SGA (Sub direction of Environmental Management) from

1999 from the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation “through
which a management, recovery and restoration plan for the permanent closure
of Navarro waste dump is imposed, as well as the construction of a transitory
landfill in the city of Santiago de Cali”.
- The Resolution 394 SGA (Sub direction of Environmental Management) from

1999 from the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation “through
which the motion to set aside filed against the 336 SGA Resolution from
September 15th, 1999, is resolved”.
- The 412 DG (General Director) Resolution from 1999 from the Regional
Autonomous Corporation “from which the appeals filed against the Resolution
336 SGA from September 15th, 1999, result”.
- Concept signed by Cecilia Rodríguez González Rubio, Ministry of the

Environment, by invitation from the municipality of Santiago de Cali.
- Order from December 20th, 2006, from the Southwestern Regional

Environmental Director’s Office of the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous
Corporation “through which the compliance with the conditions established by
the Resolution 000183 Southwestern from 2005 is declared and the immediate
termination of the disposal of solid waste in Navarro transitory landfill is
ordered”.
- Resolution 052 DG (General Director) from November 2nd, 2007 “through

which a delegated faculty is reassumed and sanctions and obligations are
imposed upon Cali’s Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services EMSIRVA
ESP”.
- Resolution 079 DG (General Director) from February 5th, 2008 “through which
a precautionary measure is imposed, an investigation is opened and charges are
formulated against Cali’s Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services EMSIRVA
ESP, under the jurisdiction of Cali’s municipality”.
- Resolution 084 DG (General Director) from February 7th, 2008 “through which
Resolution 0100 number 00711-0079 from 2008 is partially modified and other
decisions are made.
- DG (General Director) Order “through which the compliance with the deadline
established by Resolution 0100 No. 711-0084 from February 7th, 2008 is
declared and the immediate termination of the final disposal of solid waste is
ordered, as well as the permanent closure of the former dumpsite, the transitory
landfill and the transitory cell number 7-, and the final disposal of solid waste in
the lot belonging to EMSIRVA ESP located in the town of Navarro, city of
Santiago de Cali, is prohibited”.
2.3. Intervention of the Environment Administrative Department,

DAGMA:
The Environment Administrative Department – DAGMA- begins its

intervention describing the history of the development of the waste picker’s
economic activity in Navarro waste dump: “Since its beginning in 1967,
Navarro has functioned as a dumpsite for household waste. Therefore, year
after year, its extension was expanded as well as the population contributing
with the management of all materials that could be recovered, such as plastic,
paper, glass and metals, among others. The Environment Administrative
Department – DAGMA- since its creation after the Agreement number 18
from December 30th, 1994, and in the exercise of its functions among which
are the reformulation and implementation of public policies in conformity with
the superior environmental norms and the follow up and control of such
dispositions in relation to the companies and individuals likely to produce
contamination of soil, water, air, flora, fauna and the community, concerning
the area of Navarro has watched over the environmental management adopted
in relation to the disposal of waste and the environmental impact caused by
the area. However, it has not intervened in the work infrastructure created in
the beginning of Navarro by the collection of recyclable materials.”
In relation to the commitments established with the waste pickers in Navarro,

it indicates that: “(…) considering that DAGMA does not have economic
resources of its own, it could not be regarded to as an entity that generates
direct employment. Therefore, counting on the approval of transference of
resources by CVC to our entity, we could create solutions to the social
problematic by employing the waste pickers for the activity of meadow
pruning and embellishment of green areas (50 workers), having the present
offer been denied by the CVC Director. For that reason, DAGMA cannot
fulfill its commitments with the waste pickers until an agreement with CVC’s
Director’s Office is achieved.”
It highlights that the closure of Navarro waste dump took place in compliance
with an order originated in a popular action and the reiterated request from
the inhabitants of Cali. However, it makes no requests in relation to the
appeal of legal protection.
It annexes to its intervention a copy of the minute “Meeting between the waste
pickers’ representatives, the municipal administration representatives, CVC,
EMSIRVA and Solicitor’s Office” celebrated in June 13th, 2008.
2.4. Intervention of the Territorial Director’s Office of the

Environmental Southwestern Regional Director’s Office of the Valle del
Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation.
The entity begins its intervention highlighting that it is “(…) the one whose
functional competence includes all matters related to Navarro final disposal
site (…)”, however “(…) once revised all proceedings correspondent to the
follow up and environmental control of Navarro solid waste final disposal
site, the minute from June 13th, 2008, signed by the General Director of the
Corporation was not found.”
This intervention represents in its totality a copy of the one presented by the
Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation transcribed above, and for
purposes of this entity’s intervention, it shall refer to item 2.2.
II. EVIDENCES:
1. Evidences requested by the Court.
By means of the Order from February 13th, 2009, the Court requested the
following evidences:
“First.- Through this Corporation’s General Secretary, we request Cali’s

Mayor’s Office, Cali’s Environmental Management Administrative
Department, Cali’s Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services, the Municipal
Planning Administrative Department and the Valle Del Cauca Regional
Autonomous Corporation to inform the Court, within Five (05) days from the
notification of the present order, about:
1. The progresses achieved concerning the compliance with the commitments

established with the representatives of the waste pickers from Navarro waste
dump, in June 13th and August 8th, 2008, specifying actions for each one of the
commitments, dates of compliance and the beneficiary. In the same way, they
must indicate what commitments have not been complied with yet, as well as
the reasons for the non compliance and the chronogram established by the
entity for the compliance.
Second.-. Through this Corporation’s General Secretary we request Cali’s

Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services, SERVIAMBIENTALES, Social
Plan and UFPRAME to inform the Court, within five days from the
notification of the present order:
1. If any census has been taken in relation to the waste pickers population
from Navarro waste dump
2. If any process of card issue of the same population has been carried out.
3. About the benefits granted to those present in the census or having the
entity’s card.
4. The complete list of the people present in the census or who have received
a card.”
2. Reply from EMSIRVA SA.
In compliance with the order, Cali’s Contractor of Public Cleanliness

Services, EMSIRVA ESP, indicates the following activities:
- The company has studied the possibility of celebrating a commodatum

contract with the waste pickers for the use of some recycling conveyors in
Navarro. However, the procedural and legality studies showed that “(…)
EMSIRVA ESP cannot exercise acts of property or domain in relation to those
recycling conveyors, neither activities of disposal (…)”, considering that they
are property of SERVIAMBIENTALES SA ESP.
- We have initiated a pilot program of separation at the source in the area of

Brisa de los Álamos commune Number 2, with approximately 3500
subscribers in 35 groups, which consists of: “(…) creating a chain of supply of
usable, generator, recovery and commercial waste. EMSIRVA ESP has
carried out the citizen sensibilization oriented towards all sectors of the area;
with the companies of the sector we have managed resources to finance
consumables such as the blue container for each dwelling, defined by the
community and presented to a PGIRS employee; the recoverers and waste
pickers of the sector, with their cart and identified with a T-shirt of the
program, in an organized manner and in more decent conditions are in
charge of selectively collecting the solid waste provided separately by the
houses in a blue container for recyclable elements like paper, carton, plastic,
glass and metal duly washed and drained (…)”
- We intend to implement a selective route program in 6 communes from the

north zone, in which: “(…) the vehicle defined for the collection is the R105,
with capacity for 7 tons, model 1998, which is currently in reparation for
enlistment beginning in the first week of December. We have a proposal of a
logo to be placed on the vehicle. The micro and macro routes are in process of
definition.”
- A commodatum contract was celebrated between EMSIRVA ESP and the

Santiago de Cali’s Mayor’s Office in order to allow the use of a platform
weighbridge truck, property of EMSIRVA ESP, in the Waste Recovery
Mechanized Center CMR.
- “Through the companies EJERSER CTA and ACERTAR, and as the

interested parties gathered the required documents, we have managed the
initial employment of 85 waste pickers in November 2008, reaching 112 in
January 2009 for the activities of sweeping, collection and driving in Cali.
Besides that, with the cooperative UFPRAME we have managed the
employment of 25 waste pickers for the activities of pruning of green areas,
cleanliness of rain water canals and environmental control”. Furthermore: “It
should be clarified that due the fact that three new operators began the
activity of collection in the eastern, southern and central areas in February
6th, 2009, the waste pickers hired by the companies EJERSER and ACERTAR
worked until February 5th, 2009”. However, “(…) the same will try employ
approximately 30 waste pickers as long as they are required”.
Finally, concerning the same point the following balance is made:
• In the northern area, still operated by EMSIRVA ESP, 10 waste pickers remain
employed.
• In Navarro, and through the Cooperative UFPRAME, the 25 waste pickers remain
employed
• With Consorcio Sellado Navarro 2008, company executing contract number 105
from 2008 (…) we have also reached the agreement of employment for 30 to 35
more workers.
In relation to the census and the processes of card issue, EMSIRVA has taken
a census of the population of waste pickers from Navarro waste dump.
However, it was not followed by any process of card issue. “The city of Cali,
through the Municipal Planning Administrative Department (as coordinator
of the PGIRS) in compliance with the established in its strategic line number 4
– (quality in the rendering of the cleanliness services) which is contemplated
in the subprogram of Empowerment and Organization of waste pickers and
wheel barrowers, has formulated the project “census and characterization of
the waste pickers and the recycling activity in the city of Santiago de Cali.”,
with the objective of establishing the cultural, social and economic aspects
and other components which influence that activity in order to promote the
formal organization of the waste pickers and shopkeepers enabling their
participation in the recovery, use and commercialization of solid waste, with
no relation to the municipality and the people rendering the service.”.
However, as previously mentioned, such census was not followed by a process
of card issue.
The company annexes to its reply a list of the 112 waste pickers contained in
the staff hired in February 5th, 2008 through EJERSER and ACERTAR, as
well as a list of the 25 waste pickers contained in its own staff, working in
Navarro final disposal site through the Cooperative UFPRAME by means of
service orders.
3. Reply from the Municipal Planning Administrative Department of

Santiago de Cali’s Mayor’s Office.
The Municipal Planning Administrative Department of Santiago de Cali’s
Mayor’s Office describes the progresses achieved in the compliance with the
commitments established with the waste pickers as follows:
“Commitment number one (1) established by EMSIRVA ESP, registered in the

Minute from August 8th, 2008 to deliver transport conveyors in commodatum
to the waste pickers HAS NOT BEEN FULFILLED due to the fact that they
are part of a litigious action and cannot be delivered to third parties, having
such conveyors been replaced with a weighbridge, which will be used in the
operation of the pilot stocking centre in an association between Cali´s
municipality and the waste pickers.
Commitment number two (2) established by the city of Santiago de Cali and
EMSIRVA ESP, registered in the Minute from August 8th, 2008, to
permanently deliver an identified volume of waste for the functioning of the
conveyors HAS NOT BEEN FULFILLED due to the facts presented in relation
to commitment number one, HOWEVER WE HAVE FULFILLED with the
conformation of the Entrepreneurial Management Committee to support the
association of Navarro waste pickers, with the participation of EMSIRVA
ESP, the city of Santiago de Cali, Cali’s Municipal Attorney’s Office, the
Waste Pickers’ Association and Cali’s Archdiocese.
Commitment number three (3) registered in the Minute from August 8th, 2008
concerning the delivery of the functioning waste separation plant within 90
days HAS NOT BEEN FULFILLED. However the construction of the
Inorganic Solid Waste Recovery Center in commune four (4) is in progress,
through which between 25 and 30 waste pickers have been employed for the
process of selection, classification and process of the recyclable material.
Commitment number four (4) registered in the Minute from August 8th, 2008,
through which Cali’s Mayor’s Office was supposed to provide 375
employments for three (3) months all the contracts for the beneficiary waste
pickers HAVE BEEN FULFILLED completely, and were fully remunerated.
The work was developed through DAGMA, with support from the Archdiocese
in the educational see of Santa Isabel de Hungría. It adds that will extend for
another two months “(…) the emergency employment of the same 375 waste
pickers (…)”
In relation to the health aspects, the entity indicates that “(…) has
identified through SISBEN 1247 people in the head of Navarro in the
waste pickers program”. About the other entities, it affirms that:
“EMSIRVA ESP has complied with the generation of one hundred and ten
(110) employments from the two hundred and twenty offered, in other words
50%; CVC has complied with the 30 emergency employments for the period of
three months, in other words, 100%.
Additionally, through the Social Welfare Secretariat, 90 women from the

waste pickers’ community have been employed in a project of social
entrepreneurial development.”
In relation to the other commitments:
“Commitment number five (5), registered in the Minute from August 8th, 2008
to mobilize the amount of $815.000.000.00 by CVC HAS NOT BEEN
FULFILLED and to this day it remains pendent by this corporation, which
shall be destined to the waste pickers’ community in order to meet the
Navarro waste pickers’ capacity building and organization project.
In the matter of education, we have filed the request of education for the waste
pickers’ children in the total of twenty (20) quotas.
The city of Santiago de Cali –Social Housing Secretariat has carried out
before the Department of Environment, Housing and Development a
mobilization in order to obtain 375 benefits for waste pickers in the
framework of the National Housing Plan.
The municipal administration of Navarro Health Center has carried out a

health attention day for the population.
Cali’s Mayor’s Office – Planning Administrative Department, in the facilities

of the Municipal Counsel, in December 30th, 2008, offered a meeting with
Navarro waste pickers connected to the support programs offered by the
Mayor’s Office in coordination with EMSIRVA and CVC. It consisted of a
space for integration and presentation of the results achieved with the waste
pickers’ community in the end of 2008 fiscal year, of which we have annexed a
copy”.
4. Reply from the Territorial Director’s Office of the Southwestern

Regional Environmental Director’s Office of the Valle del Cauca
Regional Autonomous Corporation.
Before referring to the commitments established with the waste pickers, the
entity exposes all the reasons why it considers itself free of any responsibility
in the matter and, on the other side, the reasons why the waste pickers should
not have any rights in relation to the development of the productive activity of
recycling.
In relation to the commitments contained in the Minute, it affirms:

“Concerning the fulfillment of the commitment to provide employments,
contained in point 4 of the commitment Minute from August 8th, 2008, the
same was not signed by this Corporation, considering that it does not have
any work or contractual relations with such people.” However, in conformity
with the Operational Plan of Project 1500 “(…) we have employed 30 people
from the Mayor’s Office’s official lists, who presumably used to develop the
activity of recycling in Navarro waste dump, for a period of three (3) months
beginning in January 5th of the current year (…)”.
It also affirms that, in relation to the previous point: “The Corporation has
carried out a process of capacity building and pedagogic socialization in
terms of the recovery of green areas impacted by debris, through which the
opportunity of working for three months will be offered and, after that, they
will be able to present proposals to continue the work of recovery of the green
areas from the city of Cali.”
5. Liquidator’s reply on behalf of SERVIAMBIENTALES SA.
It affirms that its contractual relation with the city of Cali extended until 2002
and nowadays it is in process of liquidation in conformity with Law 222 from
1995, reason why it requests: “(…) that Serviambientales SA is excluded from
the coordination of inclusion of productive and housing projects, work
activities, as well as from the provision of assistance, credit or other

incentives available at this moment or in the future (…)”.
6. Reply from the Cooperative of Associated Work United Towards the

Future Protecting the Environment, UFPRAME CTA.
The Cooperative of Associated Work United Towards the Future Protecting

the Environment, UFPRAME CTA, has intervened in order to briefly explain
the cooperative’s creation process, the process of card issue and the benefits
derived from it:
“1- In the year 2003, driven by the will to be heard, the waste pickers saw the
necessity of creating a juridical entity that would represent them. In that
context UFPRAME CTA was created and in the following negotiation
meetings carried out with the several municipal entities, with the objective to
be recognized before them, it has conducted an organizational census whose
result was the identification of 29 waste pickers groups, or EAT, each one
consisting of 20 people, in the total of 625 waste pickers municipally
recognized.
2- The card issue carried out with the waste pickers in the year 2006, due to
the order of exclusive participation of waste pickers belonging to Navarro
Landfill Social Plan which EMSIRVA wanted to impose aiming to prevent the
infiltration of other waste pickers, was not 100% complied, considering that
such people are reluctant to following rules, and in the present moment 313
cards have not been delivered, due to the non cancelation of the card, the
admission contribution and the monthly contributions which the people
associated to the cooperative must comply with, according to the statutes that
rule us as a cooperative.
3- The people associated to our cooperative who carry out their respective
contributions, besides being part of the Social Plan recognized by the
Municipal Attorney’s Office, are entitled to:
-Participate in the several benefits granted by the Mayor’s Office and its
entities to the waste pickers’ association, such as:
-Decent work (direct contracts with the cooperative)
-Housing
-Capacity building programs”
It annexes to its intervention a list “(…) of the 29 groups created in the

negotiation meeting carried out in 2003 before the Mayor’s Office and
recognized by the Municipal Attorney’s Office. We should also highlight
that from that list only 22 are still active in our cooperative.”
7. Reply from the Director’s Office of the Environmental Management

Administrative Department, DAGMA.
The Director’s Office of the Environmental Management Administrative

Department, DAGMA, recognizes in its intervention having signed two
commitment minutes with the waste pickers, one from June 13th and the other
from August 8th, both in the year of 2008.
Concerning the first one it affirms that several activities oriented towards
accompanying Cali’s waste pickers’ association have been carried out:
“1.2 In the commitment minute signed last June 13th by the Municipal
Administration and the waste pickers, it is mentioned that the Municipal
Planning Administrative Department from Santiago de Cali, whose Director is
Doctor: JOHANNIO MARULANDA ARBELAEZ is accompanying Cali’s waste
pickers’ association project included in the Solid Waste Management Plan.
Also, contracts with Mr. Ernesto José Piedrahita, a Social Communicator and
Master in Business Administration, and Mr. Espolito Murillo are being executed
by the Municipal Planning, which have the objective of supporting the gremial
empowerment of Cali’s waste pickers. They have been developing a plan of
support to that sector, which for the Navarro waste pickers consists of:
1.2.1 Support and coordination of the process of food supply to the waste
pickers (delivery of three basic food parcels in a total of 2050 with an agreed
total of four deliveries (one per week).
1.2.2 Support to the processes of agreement between the Mayor’s Office and the
Navarro waste pickers, carried out until the present date in three Meetings
inside CAM, two in CAM’s small square and one in a Council session.
1.2.3 Management of the punctual requests presented by Navarro waste pickers.
1.2.4 Analysis and consolidation of the planning data base, SISBEN, and the
organizations of Navarro waste pickers, with the objective of offering the
respective supports within the support social plan contemplated by the
municipality.
1.2.5 Coordination of a health care day, in association with the Health
Secretariat, in favor of Navarro’s population and the waste pickers at the health
office from the city of Córdoba.
1.2.6 Meetings for the organization of the waste pickers and supply of
information with the support from the Catholic Church (Archdiocese).
1.2.7 Mobilization before the National and Sectional SENA (national learning
service), representing the Mayor’s Office, for designing and setting in motion
capacity building plans with the expected goal of two hundred Navarro waste
pickers and three hundred street waste pickers.
1.2.8 Such team (conformed by Mr. Piedrahita and Mr Murillo), has been
working with the PGIRS also in the design of a socio entrepreneurial proposal
with Navarro waste pickers, which involves the participation of entities like
EMSIRVA, CVC, SENA and others.
It adds other actions being carried out by the Municipal Administration

concerning the improvement of the situation in the aspects of housing and
employment generation:
“2.The Municipal Administration has stipulated the Agreement Number 237

from July 3rd, 2008”THROUGH WHICH THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2008-
2011 TO LIVE LIFE WITH DIGNITY IS ADOPTED” CHAPTER IV “CALI IS
MY HOME” number 4.4.4 MACRO PROJECT NEW ECO-CITY OF

NAVARRO. Policy orientation. According to the natural vocation and the
socio cultural dynamics of the territory, a new model of eco-city is created by
means of the macro projects of national interest, with not less than thirty
thousand (30.000) HOUSING UNITS, around the territory known as Cauca
River Park, with possibilities of development of productive, recreational,
administrative and housing activities; in the framework of the responses to the
global warming, the water supply crisis, food security, the disappearance of
the formal employment and the recovery of the agricultural sector, with the
collaboration of Raizal communities, and structuring the development of the
Eco-City’s sector for the community organization as support for an integral
vision of the dwelling and the habitat.
Objectives:
• To promote an integral intervention in the rearrangement of Navarro

• To promote the economic, social and environmental sustainability.
• To destiny the agricultural vocation areas to projects of security and food
sovereignty.
3. At 12:00 from Wednesday, August 6th, 2008, the Mayor had a meeting with
the waste pickers at the Ermita Church and offered to pay them six hundred
thousand pesos ($600.000) every month for them to clean the green areas
and to collect waste in Cali, until the city’s first recycling plant has started
functioning. It would represent three hundred employments added to the two
hundred promised by EMSIRVA to Navarro waste pickers and to the thirty
(30) offered by CVC. The offer was not accepted by the waste pickers.
In relation to the commitments established by means of the Minute from

August 8th, 2008, it transcribes the commitments established without making
any reference to their compliance, in order to conclude: “According to the
previously exposed and despite the fact that the institutional commitments are
clear and correspond to the waste pickers’ demands, in the first meetings
external factors to the waste pickers community that were present at the
meeting table as advisers of its representatives did not allow the participants
to reach a prudent term of agreement. It was only in August 8th that the above
mentioned COMMITMENT MINUTE was signed”.
It concludes by making a list of the activities effectively developed, by

different entities, in relation to the Navarro waste pickers:
“IV.- ACTIONS DEVELOPED: In the following lines we indicate to the

office the activities that have been carried out in compliance with the
commitments signed, according to the report delivered by Eng. Ernesto
Piedrahita, Master in Administration, who currently works as Contractor of
Solid Waste Management Areas from DAGMA:
- In relation to the commitments signed in January 13th, 2008, the municipality
has set in motion the following activities:
1. Development of a company creation program for 50 women heads of
household from the community of Navarro through the Social Welfare
Secretariat.
2. Negotiation of 365 housing benefits before the Environment and Housing
Department by the Municipal Housing Secretariat.
3. Execution of a health day in Navarro by the Health Secretariat.

4. Enrolment of 25 children and teenagers from the community of waste
pickers in free primary and secondary educational programs by the Education
Secretariat.
5. Delivery of 2.400 basic food parcels with an average unitary value of
$30.000 to the waste pickers’ families.
In relation to the commitments signed in August 8th, 2008, the waste pickers
from the former Navarro waste dump have received benefits from:
1. Emergency Employments Plan during four months through the employment

of 375 people from the 625 belonging to Waste Pickers’ Census taken by the
same community. Such program costed $ 2.400 million.
2. Therefore we have complied with 100% of the commitments established by

the municipality through DAGMA with the waste pickers in terms of
employment. However, DAGMA with Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina’s directive
has set in motion the process of employment of the same number of waste
pickers for another two months. Such investment will cost $800 million.
3. In order to comply with the city’s commitment in relation to the creation of

a solid waste recovery plant, we have reserved 1.300 million pesos from
DAGMA’s budget for 2009, which is in process of hiring to start operating a
stocking centre on the city’s north area and, after that, an inorganic solid
waste use plant. In that space a weighbridge, property of EMSIRVA, will
function in replacement of the transport conveyor that was firstly supposed to
operate in the site.
4. The stocking center will start its operation on the second semester of 2009
using labor force form the Navarro waste pickers’ sector- between 50 and 60
people. The routes of selective collection in the northern and central areas of
the city, areas which shall supply the stocking center, are currently in process
of design by EMSIRVA and Ciudad Limpia (Municipal Contractors of Public
Cleanliness Services).
5. We are also currently working in the organizational design of the company

that will be in charge of managing the stocking center. The waste pickers will
participate in the company not only as workers, but also as partners, and
there will be also the participation of entrepreneurs from the city’s recycling
sector, including the formalized shopkeepers.
6. Additionally, and although it was not among the commitments established

with the waste pickers, we have offered benefits of $750 thousand each to 40
families of Navarro waste pickers who have invaded the margins of the Cauca
River, through the Housing Secretariat.”
8. Amicus Curiae presented by the CIVISOL Foundation.
The Civisol Foundation “Foundation for the civic-solidary construction of a

systemic change” has presented an Amicus curiae signed by Adriana Ruiz-
Restrepo, Colombian citizen, ID Card number 66.836.163, Arbeláez,
Colombian citizen, ID Card number 31 539836; Camilo Barrera, ID Card
number 80.871.866; Sebastian Torres, ID Card number 80.874.049; Maria
López Castaño, ID Card number 53.905.239 and Claudia Benavides Hurtado,

ID Card number 67.019.163 and Shailly Barnes, citizen from the United
States, social security number ending in 469.
The intervention begins explaining the conditions of poverty and marginality

in which Cali’s waste pickers have been living for decades, since the
beginning of such productive activity as a means of livelihood for several
families:
“In the context of urban poverty, the waste pickers are the poorest among the
poor. For many generations, Colombian elderly, men, women and children,
many great-grandchildren of the population displaced by the violence from
the mid-twentieth century, have arrived at the cities as refugees from the
violence that has sent them away from the countryside. For them, as for their
great-grandchildren, only the waste dumps have represented an opportunity
of livelihood in the cities. Among the piles of waste from the rest of the
society, these marginalized people have learned over the past decades how to
dig and select the materials that could be recovered for their own use or to be
sold. Pharmacies or drugstores that, for instance, were interested in buying
flasks to bottle herbal mixtures and compounded medications, among other
businesses that bought cardboard, metal cans and newspaper several years
before the invasion of the plastic bags, served to pack the merchandise in
retail sale.
With the growth of the cities and their population, came the growth in the
production of waste and the cities had to create large central dumps where
the waste from the whole society could be disposed. The city of Cali started
operating Navarro waste dump in 1967. Naturally, the people without other
opportunities to obtain their livelihood besides looking for life among the
waste of the rest of the population, followed the waste to its new destination,
Navarro waste dump, a giant extension of waste with mountains and ground
formed by solid waste compacted by the passage of time. Also a landscape
guarded by vultures, the paradise for rats and cockroaches and the only
option of life for several families from Cali who, as other Colombians and
Latin Americans, face the disgrace of living in one of the richest, in terms of
natural resources, but most humanly unequal parts of the world.
In Cali, other waste pickers, equally poor, and for a longer time than the
waste dump waste pickers, have found their livelihood recovering and
separating recyclable materials on the city streets. It is done directly from the
waste bags and containers that the cleanliness service users leave on the
sidewalk for its public collection. Such street waste pickers carry the material
for miles on their shoulders, back and sometimes they use human traction (or
family traction) wheelbarrows. Other times, when the poor business is
prosperous enough, they use horses in order to carry more material via
animal traction to sell it to the intermediate shops and to the big industries. In
fact, the big actors in the waste business buy recyclable solid waste from the
poorest people in the city and turn them into secondary raw materials to be
reinserted in the production economic cycle.
In both cases, many of the female waste pickers who are still breastfeeding
and the fathers who do not have someone to look after their children, are
forced to take them to work or leave them on their own, being looked after by
their brothers and sisters or by some neighbor. For those reasons, due to the
extreme poverty and abandonment of those adults, the children of parents with
no opportunities, invisible in their poverty, are born and grow up in such
difficult circumstances that, paradoxically shock and touch the whole society
that eventually finds out about the innutrition and sexual victimization of its
most helpless children. The abandonment represented by poverty and the
urgency of survival are the reasons why waste pickers’ children start working
in the business of digging waste since such young age. After all it is their
parents’ and grandparents’ business, the occupation that since the beginning
of last century, the poorest and most excluded families in our country have
been developing. For obvious reasons, when the law does not persecute them,
the society does not discriminate them, the dogs do not bite them, the police
does not harass them, the public opinion does not insult them, the media does
not make them invisible, the administration takes away their access to the
waste without giving them another option of livelihood.”
In the opinion of the intervenient party, those historic poverty conditions

typical from waste pickers have become accentuated for the ones from
Navarro due to the closure of the waste dump, which was not followed by any
measures to reduce the impact of the decision:
“It should not be difficult for the administration to imagine that if people
depend on the waste and it is taken away from them, their life is at risk. In the
same way, it should also not be difficult to imagine that if someone only finds
opportunities among the waste of others, it is because that person does not
have other options of work and livelihood at her disposal.
It is precisely the great vulnerability of the waste pickers population what

explains why the decision to close the waste dump has aggravated the poverty
situation of several people, and therefore put their minimum vital at more
risk.(…)
The closure of Navarro waste dump without being offered appropriate

alternatives that could assure the minimum vital to the people who lost their
source of work and livelihood is equivalent to closing even more the poverty
entrapment in which they have been living without offering them a way out.
The closure of a source of informal economy in a developing country facing a
conflict situation is the same as reducing the citizenship of the Colombians
living in poverty until the space occupied by them in the country has been
shrunk to inexistence.”
The situation in which such population was found in the city of Cali is
described as follows:
“In the occasion of the visit to Cali’s waste pickers in order to help with the
compilation of evidences for the Court, CIVISOL could observe the worsening
of their poverty conditions, as well as their angst for being in a dead end
situation. Many of those confessed to be feeding from the charity of the society
or from the rests left on the ground at Cali’s market. Several who had
managed to have ceiling above their heads face nowadays the legal cut of
public domiciliary services by delay in the payment, as well as the possible
eviction from their houses for not paying their tenant obligations. The food for
their children is running short and either they have to face hunger or separate
the family sending away the younger ones to live with relatives who can
guarantee their food and shelter. (See testimonies in CIVISOL’s video for the
Constitutional Court annexed)
In its visit, CIVISOL could observe that many of the people visited are
mothers heads of households, some disabled, a high percentage of adults and
an important afro descendent sector. Also, and with great preoccupation, we
could observe that an important sector of the waste pickers consists of young
adults between 20 and 35 years old seeking the opportunity to make their
dreams come true. However, given that the work they had carried out for
years has disappeared, some of them confessed that were being forced to
practice crimes in order to survive.”
At a later stage of the intervention we present a chronology of the waste

pickers’ situation since the beginning of their activity in the sixties until
the last meeting between them and the municipal authorities after the
closure of the waste dump, in August 8th, 2008. In relation to the
commitments established with the waste pickers in that meeting, we have
grouped them in three categories: (1) temporary work solutions to assure
the livelihood, (2) businesses solutions to assure the livelihood and (3)
solutions other than to livelihood.
We wish to highlight the exclusion of responsibility before the matter

claimed by the intervenient authorities. Concerning the intervention from
Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation, we have transcribed
some parts of its intervention and highlighted:
“Contrarily to the indicated by CVC in the proceeding, the corporation was

obliged to participate in the prevention of the social crisis, both for its
function of preserving the harmony between men and nature and due to article
3 of the Resolution 336 SGA from 1999. In such article CVC, in 1999,
imposed the obligation upon the municipality of implementation of a social
plan. And as all policies, once formulated it is not only expected that it is
implemented by the entity responsible for it, but also that the entity that has
imposed it carries out its evaluation, in other words, verifies if the objective
has been fulfilled. Therefore, CIVISOL does not understand why CVC has not
monitored the implementation and impact of the obligation imposed by the
same upon the municipality, as well as how and why, without having verified
the implementation of the social management plan before the closure of
Navarro waste dump or having verified its insufficiency, CVC has proceeded
with an incomplete policy closing the waste dump and taking away from the
waste pickers their only source of food and work. The situation becomes even
more serious considering that it has had ten (10) since the issuance of the
resolution to perform the task satisfactorily”
Concerning the conduct of Cali’s Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services,

EMSIRVA, we highlight that:
“(…) for CIVISOL it is surprising that a national operator of such hierarchy

did not know that its actions should be adjusted to the Rule of Law. Also,
obligations do not result only from contractual relations, and as a state
authority such company is subjected to the Political Constitution, therefore its
decisions and actions should have the essential objective of protecting all
Colombian residents concerning their lives, assets and other rights, as well as
facilitating the participation of all in the Nation’s economic life and the
decisions that affect them. The previously mentioned is particularly correct
for EMSIRVA regarding to the elaboration of the reference terms of Cali’s
public domiciliary cleanliness services, an activity intrinsically connected to
the city’s waste pickers’ population. In other words, EMSIRVA is the
authority that determines the development of the waste collection, transport
and final disposal, via transference station, at the Yocotó Landfill, as well as
the regulation contracts. And, obviously, the entity that formulates the
development of the use or recycling of solid waste in the city.
It is also surprising that it was the Superintendence’s Special Agent Mrs.

Susana Correa Borrero the one who, with absolute knowledge, control and
capacity of decision concerning EMSIRVA, had signed in August 8th the
Minute in which it is promised to the waste pickers the delivery of the
recycling transport conveyors by means of a ten-year commodatum, duly
installed and technically appropriate for the operation of “a volume” of
waste. We also do not understand how such entity could reply the Court’s
requirement concerning the compliance of the commitments expressing that
the conveyors have not been delivered, that it cannot be complied because
“(…) such conveyors are part of an asset inventory delivered by
Serviambientales [former operator of Navarro waste dump] to EMSIRVA for
its operation and custody, usable as long as Serviambientales SA ESP was the
one developing the operation of Cali’s final disposal, which is not carried out
nowadays because it is being developed by a third party [the third party is
Interaseo, the company who has adjudicated the concession of Yocotó-
Contract 010 from 2008]”
From the above mentioned it can be concluded that, both the inspection agent
and EMSIRVA’s responsible Mrs. Susana Correa Borrero (a) forgot that it
had signed a contract with Interaseo two months before and therefore could
not make the conveyors available, or (b) Mrs. Correa Borrero has committed
an abuse of the waste pickers’ good faith and with the objective of plotting the
situation made promises that she could not keep. CIVISOL discredits the
hypothesis that the Special Agent did not know what she was doing, given that
she is a high rank national official representing the Services Superintendence
and, consequently, the President of the Republic of Colombia.”
Finally, regarding to the intervention from the Environmental

Management Administrative Department-DAGMA / Municipal Planning
Administrative Department, we indicate:
“In relation to that theme, CIVISOL can only regret that Cali’s Mayor’s
Office, represented by those two entities does not seem to understand that
the minimum vital is the right to live a decent life throughout time and not in
a fractioned, uncertain manner and in permanent anxiety. It is also
surprising how DAGMA has evaded the responsibility for not having
resources of its own, as if the situation could only be solved by circling
money to generate employment and there were no other forms through
which, as a municipal authority, it could protect the citizens. In the same
context, the Municipal Planning seems to believe, as all authorities, that a
poor person’s maximum aspiration is to receive minimum wage. There
seems to be no innovation or political will in order to help them find a
livelihood through the reorganization of their own business, in other words,
via the right to develop their own enterprise that all Colombians have.
CIVISOL highlights that a census of the Navarro waste pickers has been
conducted and the population consists of 1247 people.”
We proceed with the intervention reminding the obligations derived

from the design and implementation of policies in the Rule of Law,
implicating the orientation towards the reduction of the existing
inequalities, rather than aggravating them. In relation to the concrete
case we indicate that the unfulfilled obligations and the environmental
policy have led to the closure of Navarro waste dump causing the
worsening of the waste pickers’ poverty and marginality:
In that sense, it is clear that in this concrete case the public policies in terms of
public services and the environment led to the closure of Navarro waste dump – as an
environmental sanitation policy- and the authorities involved were obliged to act oriented
by the Rule of Law. The whole set of decisions and public acts – the State in action –were
supposed to improve the material conditions of the Navarro waste pickers instead of
worsening them, making them legally weaker as in fact happened and was evidenced.
Considering the marginality and the vulnerability of the waste pickers from
Navarro, facts of public knowledge, the State in local level, predicting the
closure of Navarro due to reasons of general interest, fact that would cut the
waste pickers’ access to their livelihood, should have created and offered
alternative measures to preserve their minimum vital. In other words,
extending a hand when letting go of the other; offering measures that would
allow the waste pickers to maintain their legitimate trust on the authorities
which had always known their way of life and with which they had interacted
through their work and efforts of participation.
In fact, in the case studied we can observe how, for the petitioners as for
several other people, the form through which the administration has
formulated the public policies of development of Navarro waste dump has
ultimately violated the trust such people had on the administration. Although
the recycling work developed by the petitioner and the former Navarro waste
dump inhabitants is qualified as irregular by the defendants in the present
proceeding, it is in fact an informal activity that was carried out for more than
forty years in Navarro and that was tacitly allowed or at least tolerated by the
administration. In other words, a public conduct which results in the creation
of “(…) private rights consolidated and based on the objective conviction
derived from the administration’s external deeds considered conclusive
enough, which create an image of apparent legality of the conduct carried out
by that natural person”.”
We affirm that in the present case the doctrine of legitimate trust results
admissible, not only due to the Authorities’ incompliance with the
commitments established with the waste pickers, but also because of the
historic participation efforts by the waste pickers, which led them to trust
that the waste disposal policies would be inclusive:
“(i) in the proceeding is stated that in the year 2003, 29 associative work
companies were created in order to participate in the negotiation meetings;
(ii) that both the promulgation of Law 511 from 1999 and the PGIRS
constitute normative promises which led the waste pickers to understand that
the horizon of inclusion and articulation of their informal economy with the
public services was close; (iii) that the Minutes from June 13th are not only
hypothesis as qualified by EMSIRVA nor charity acts of personal generosity,
but they constitute public commitments by the State in local level which
consequently generate real expectations on the citizens. Besides having to
base its action on a principle of legality, which seemed to be wrongly
interpreted by the administration as martial, rigid and empty, the authorities
in the Rule of Law must also act in good faith. Therefore, we wish to remind
that their power is only justifiable if oriented towards a general interest and
addressed to a social objective, in other words, a State in which – and above
the juridical form of the texts –predominates the material justice of those it
of.
Contrarily to the above mentioned arguments, the Navarro waste pickers

believed in good faith that the tolerance and multiple solution proposals
parallel to the development of Navarro would lead to a life solution. Promises
which, until the present date, either have not been kept by the ones who made
them, are insufficient, have been kept for a short period of time or for the
benefit of only a share of the population.
The facts previously exposed indicate that the administration has abused the
trust deposited by the poorest and mostly in need of protection part of the
society upon CVC, EMSIRVA and Cali’s Mayor’s Office.”
We conclude that: “(…) an alternative measure that represents an

affirmative action for the waste pickers should not be a difficult and
complex matter, considering that (a) the waste recycling market – so well
known by the waste pickers – can nowadays be formally economically
explored and is a profitable and growing one and (b) it is not a private
market. On the contrary, the extension, dynamism and profitability of the
cleanliness market and all its components (transport, collection, final
disposal, treatment, and use) depend entirely on the regulations made by
the State through its domiciliary public services policy, in other words,
on the game rules set by the State and the actors invited by the same to
play the game developed with the spaces, conditions and fees designed,
imposed and offered by the State, or which the same leaves abandoned
and free for the benefit of the private sector. Also, a game created not to
reaffirm the State’s power, neither for the joy of the players in the public
services system, but for the benefit of all Colombians users of public
services such as the domiciliary cleanliness.”
After the previous analysis made in the intervention, we wish to rebuild

the descriptive and normative framework through which the orders in the
concrete case should be given, with the objectives of overcoming the
vulnerability concerning the minimum vital faced nowadays by the waste
pickers and formulating the future conditions of insertion in the
productive activity. In the context of the orders we request to be given,
we affirm:
“The advantage of ordering the affirmative action of the waste pickers’

economic inclusion in the formal economy of public services is that there is
a multimillionaire market that could be shared by the State and the society
with those who, before any other actors, have worked and taken advantage
of such market since last century. For decades now, the waste pickers have
contributed with the prevention of a greater environmental deterioration of
the country, in silence and facing serious privations.
Therefore, we request the Court to consider the reiteration of a prohibition

of the legal impoverishment of the poor and to give an order that provides
the juridical empowerment of the poor sectors which, as the waste pickers,
try to survive with honesty among a big mess of norms, policies and State
indolence. A decision that also reiterates that the public policies are not the
materialization of all the ideas of the official on duty, but the chain of
actions and decisions that, as articulated links, connects the State to its
constitutors including, and above all, the ones in marginality, vulnerability
and defenselessness. Therefore, we also request to be reiterated that it is a
structural duty in the Rule of Law to consult its constitutors before making
its decisions and formulating its solutions, particularly if they are trapped in
poverty so that the State decisions that affect them do not end up
asphyxiating them even more and, on the contrary, create for them windows
of opportunities which gradually allow them to escape poverty.
It would be contrary to the sources of law in Colombia, considering the

work and social identity forged by the waste pickers over the decades by
means of an honest and legitimate work developed with the acquiescence of
the State and the society, contrary to their effective participation and the
foment of the Solidary Economy, that the administration did not consider the
effective inclusion of the waste pickers in Cali’s cleanliness economy and
the Court did not uphold it through a court order.
In that point, CIVISOL insists that if a firm decision is not made by the
Court, with clear and precise orders, the power of the profit, the inversion
and the greed will ultimately exclude from the recycling market honest
Colombian workers who, although in poverty and marginalization, have
been in the waste market for almost one century, obtaining their livelihood
and forging an identity.
If in the moment the waste is finally valued in Colombia the nation cannot
share it with its compatriots who mostly need opportunities and protection,
then a statement from the Nobel Colombian García Marquez shall become a
premonition: “(…) they’ll see, he used to say, they’ll share everything (…)
and nothing for the poor, of course, because they are always so fucked up
that if someday shit has any value, the poor shall be born with no asshole,
they’ll see (…)”.
Considering that, as evidenced in the present proceeding, and by means of

context analysis, it was also observed that neither the Sectional Council, nor
the Mayor’s Office, the CVC, the EMSIRVA, the Superintendent could
protect Cali’s waste pickers’ minimum vital, work, health, social security or
right to development, CIVISOL humbly and respectfully requests the Court
to protect the above mentioned rights and to give orders that uphold
affirmative acts of inclusion for the petitioners, as well as for the other
waste pickers from Cali, also as a guarantee of their right to
development.(…)”
Finally, we request the Constitutional Court to give the following orders

in the present action:
“1. Ordering, as a precautionary measure, the non implementation, execution

and start of the selective route adjudicated by EMSIRVA-intervened or
liquidated, as the adjudication of the public cleanliness service in its special
modality was carried out in opposition to the Constitution, with no legal
grounds and against the municipal will and a vulnerable population already
included. The concessionaries shall be prohibited to start operating. In the
events of conflict, the waste pickers’ rights to be included in the selective
route are of higher rank, of legal nature and predominate over the rights of
the concessionaries as the adjudication of the selective route lacks legal
fundaments.
In case responsibility acts are suitable, the same shall be filed against the
decisions made by the official receiver and not against the intervened entity
which has lost control of the situation.
2. Ordering that within two weeks a Municipal Committee is conformed in the

city of Cali for the inclusion of the waste pickers in the formal cleanliness
economy. Such Committee shall be co-presided by the Mayor, the Regional
Human Rights Defender, the Director of DANSOCIAL or its delegate with
voice and vote, as well as by a DAGMA representative, a representative from
the entity that coordinates PGIRS, the FERESURCO’s legal representative,
the UFPRAME’s legal representative, the Navarro Waste Pickers’
Association’s legal representative, the National Waste Pickers’ Association’s
legal representative, the Bogotá Waste Pickers’ Association’s legal
representative (organization invited to the Committee with voice and vote due
to its experience in Bogotá’s similar situation and for its recognized
international leadership (UNHABITAT Award)). In all cases, the waste
pickers may attend accompanied by their advisors.
The following shall also be able to attend the meetings with voice but with no
vote and to appear as accompaniers in the proceeding and the investigation:
one delegate from Cali´s Archdiocese, one from the University del Valle and
one from Carvajal Foundation representing Cali’s organized civil society. If
at the moment of such decision EMSIRVA has been liquidated, its liquidator,
lacking further competences than the function of liquidating, may participate
in the committee without participating in its decisions. Also, as a consequence
of the Rule of Law which the same also represents, he/she shall seek the
greatest social impact possible in the decisions which, with technical nature,
he/she makes in the moment of the liquidation. The committee shall inform the
Constitutional Court periodically about the progress of its management, the
reach of its decisions and the deadlines for implementations.
3. Ordering an Inclusion Committee to be responsible for the decisions and

configuration of the affirmative acts, for a period of 6 months, implemented by
Cali’s administration, within the deadline defined by the committee. The
Committee is obliged to configure solutions that include the Navarro former
waste pickers and the street waste pickers.
The following shall be considered as Navarro former waste pickers: the

people included in DAPM’s census and in a second term could be considered
as former waste pickers the people present in the database of the
cooperatives, EATs and other organizations that functioned in Navarro and

who were registered before March 1st, 2009. The above mentioned procedure
shall also be used in the process of identification of the street waste pickers in
the city of Cali.
Once Law 1259/08 has been declared unachievable, the former Navarro
waste pickers shall have priority in the inclusion.
Among several other alternatives the Committee shall evaluate and make
decisions concerning the feasibility of transferring the totality of the selective
route to the organized waste pickers form the city of Cali, or if such transfer
shall be done partially or if both ways shall be done in a staggered manner. It
shall also make decisions concerning the necessity and admissibility of a
business scheme that attracts investments from the private sector into the
waste pickers’ solidary economy.
The Committee shall also make decisions about the stocking centers or Plants
of Separation of materials functioning in Cali.
As indicated by the State Council, the waste is property of the State and may
be handed over to whom, representing the same, collects it on the streets.
Therefore the municipality shall hand over the waste to the organized waste
pickers operating the selective routes and/or stocking centers according to the
Committee’s decision.
SENA, in the appropriate time, shall set in motion the capacity building and
the technical decisions.
4. Urging the Environment, Housing and Development Department, the

Potable Water and Basic Sanitation Regulation Commission, the Domiciliary
Public Services Superintendence and DANSOCIAL to call a national forum in
which the civil society and the academics are invited to discuss the best way to
use the solid waste. The waste pickers shall have a space to explain their
vision of the business as a strategy to reduce poverty. The entrepreneurs and
investors in the cleanliness sector shall expose the business projection and the
opportunity niches. As a result from such forum, the convener entities shall
elaborate a plan for the use of solid waste with social inclusion which in an
unequivocal way serves to guide the territorial entities in the development of
the fifth objective of the use policy. It shall be announced beforehand the
presentation of the rough copy in the institutional channel, which shall soon
be widely spread and subjected to the effective participation of the civil
society. The solid waste use policy with social inclusion shall be widely
transmitted by the institutional channel.
Special attention shall be given to the decision concerning the use as a price
component of cleanliness, the free competition in the waste market and the
holder of the economic value whose purpose of inclusion serves to correct
poverty and not adopting regressive measures. The right and the compared
public policy shall serve to broaden the horizon of alternatives.
5. Ordering EMSIRVA’s Special Agent to mobilize before the national

governments, within 2 weeks, the social aid for the Navarro waste pickers
promised in the Minute from August 8th.
6. Ordering CVC to modify the entry that remained recorded in the Minute
from August 8th for entrepreneurial projects of the Navarro former waste
pickers within the deadline of one month.
7. Urging the concessionaries, in the light of the constitutional duty of

solidarity of the Colombians and the Entrepreneurial Social Responsibility, as
the current entrepreneurial management practice, to link the Navarro former
waste pickers in their operation concessioned by the municipality.
8. Urging the Autonomous Corporations and other environmental authorities

to execute their mandate to watch over the harmony in the relation between
men and nature, regarding to the Rule of Law. In other words, to ensure that
their measures, programs and policies, both general or technical, do not
result as socially regressive for the society and are oriented, whenever
possible, towards the reduction of poverty and the accomplishment of social
justice in the country.
9. Ordering Cali’s Administration to suspend new evictions in the Navarro

area, as requested by the regional Defender, until the social crisis caused by
the indolence of the defendant authorities has been compensated
10. Ordering DAGMA to create and promote – with the participation of the
Civil Society Organizations interested in joining the effort – civism and
solidarity campaigns oriented towards Cali’s citizens, with the objectives of
encouraging the users of the city’s cleanliness service to (a) start separating
at the source and (b) to hand over to the organized waste pickers the property
of their recyclable waste once initiated the operation of the selective routes in
the city. In order to accomplish so, the municipality shall facilitate automotive
transport and space for the task of separation, as well as the card issue of the
waste pickers’ associations in the city.
11. Ordering the defendant authorities to extend and/or renew their contracts
with the petitioners until the Cali waste pickers’ business which shall give the
petitioners priority integration have started operating.
12.Ordering ICBF to articulate a campaign, in coordination with the

Regional Defender, that will uphold, without the need to separate the
underage from their families, the minimum vital of all underage children of
the Navarro former waste pickers and inhabitants of the unpaved road that
was Navarro waste dump.”
III. CONSIDERATIONS AND FUNDAMENTS
1. Competence:
It is of the Constitutional Court’s competence to revise the sentence reviewed,

in conformity with articles 86 and 241-9 of the Political Constitution and 31 to
36 of Decree 2591 from 1991.
2. Juridical Problems:
In the present case, a group of waste pickers from the city of Cali filed a
appeal of legal protection against several municipal entities considering that
the same have violated their rights to work and a decent life through the
closure of Navarro waste dump, where they developed for 30 years the
economic activity of recycling in order to provide a livelihood for themselves
and their families. They affirm that only two weeks before closing the waste
dump the authorities agreed to talk to them and signed a minute through which
several commitments were established, among which opportunities of
employment, capacity building programs, health and education. Such
commitments have not been honored. They insist that until the present day
they do not have employment opportunities or means of livelihood.
The CIVISOL Foundation, intervenient in this action, supports the demands

and aggregates that the violation of the fundamental rights of the petitioners is
not generated exclusively by the omission of the defendant authorities in terms
of adopting measures that could benefit the waste pickers after the closure of
the waste dump, but also due to several actions oriented towards the exclusion
of the waste pickers’ participation in a profitable economic activity such as the
solid waste recycling.
Regarding to such charges, the defendant entities express that they have not
violated the fundamental rights of the petitioners because, firstly, their acts are
based on general and abstract norms created with the objective of protecting
the environment and assuring the efficiency in the collection, treatment and
use of solid waste. Secondly, because they did not shut doors for the
petitioners’ participation in the recycling economic activity. Simply, general
and abstract rules have been determined and they must be followed by those
wishing to participate in the free market of collection and use of solid waste.
Thirdly, because in the understanding of the defendant entities they do not
have any obligation regarding to the development of positive actions in favor
of the Navarro waste pickers, due to the fact that there are no contractual
relations between them and, considering their environmental competences,
they are not obliged to solve the social problems generated by the closure of
the waste dump.
In relation to the previously mentioned and although the petitioners did not
present equality charges through their petitions4, for the Court it is clear that
this case should be analyzed in the light of article 13 from the Constitution,
given that the arguments expressed in the several appeals of legal protection,
as well as in the amicus presented by CIVISOL organization, are that through
the decisions made regarding to the closure of Navarro, the opening of Yocotó
waste dump and the bidding processes for the management and use of Cali’s
solid waste, the defendant entities not only established discriminatory treaties
excluding the petitioners from the possibility of participating in a profitable
economic activity, but also evaded their duty of adopting positive measures in
order to compensate the level of marginality faced by the waste pickers after
the closure of Navarro waste dump.
4
See sentences T-492 from 1992, FJ: Alejandro Martínez Caballero y Fabio Morón Díaz, T-554 from
1994, FJ: Jorge Arango Mejía, T-532 from 1994, Jorge Arango Mejía, T-501 from 1994, FJ: Vladimiro
Naranjo Mesa; T-463 from 1996, FJ: José Gregorio Hernández Galindo, T-390 from 1997 FJ. José
Gregorio Hernández Galindo; T-684 from 2001, FJ: Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, T-358 from 2004, FJ:
Alfredo Beltrán Sierra, T-227 from 2006, FJ: Jaime Córdoba Triviño; T-501 from 2007, FJ: Manuel José
Cepeda Espinosa T-137 from 2008, FJ: Jaime Córdoba Triviño;
Additionally, given the incompliance with the established commitments by the

defendant entities, the present case brings a problem of legitimate trust
regarding to the acts carried out by the administration, which shall be analyzed
by the Court.
In that context, the juridical problems relevant in the present case are the
following:
• Is the right to equality violated when a measure, program, or policy

adopted by the administration causes severe impact on a marginalized
group and no mechanisms are adopted in order to mitigate such impact?
• Is the right to equality violated i) when measures, at first impersonal,

general and abstract, are adopted generating the exclusion from the
development of a productive activity of a group which historically had
been developing such activity and ii) when such group is in special
conditions of vulnerability?
• Is the waste pickers’ legitimate trust violated when, before the closure
of the waste dump where they used to obtain their livelihood, the
authorities had established with them commitments regarding to the
generation of new employment, capacity building programs, education
and health access, among others, and the same authorities do not
comply with those commitments using the argument that they are not
formal contractors and that given their environmental competences they
do not have social obligations towards the waste pickers?
In order to find the answers to those questions, the Court shall reiterate its
jurisprudence regarding to marginalized and discriminated groups before
analyzing the concrete case.
3. The authorities’ duties regarding to the marginalized groups’ right to

equality:
Equality is one of the pillars upon which is based the Colombian State. The
Constitution recognizes equality as a principle, a value and as a fundamental
right that goes beyond the classical equality formula before the law, used to
build a postulate that points towards the realization of conditions of material
equality. In that perspective, a central objective in the equality clause is the
protection of traditionally discriminated or marginalized groups; protection
expressed in the Rule of Law in a double dimension: on one side, as an
abstention mandate or interdiction of discriminatory treatment (abstention
mandate) and, on the other side, as an intervention mandate , through which
the State is obliged to carry out actions oriented towards the overcoming of
the material inequality faced by such groups (intervention mandate).
In relation to the first one, the administration has the duty of abstaining from
establishing, promoting or executing policies, programs or measures that lead
to the worsening or the perpetuation of the situation of exclusion, marginality
or discrimination of groups traditionally situated in a position of disadvantage
in relation to the society. The above mentioned argument derives mainly from
the formal equality clause and from the principle of non-discrimination
established in section 1 of article 13.
A point that must be highlighted, for being object of controversy in the present
case, is that the abstention mandate derived from section 1 of constitutional
article 13 is not oriented exclusively towards avoiding that the administration
openly adopts discriminatory measures, programs or policies. It also has the
objective of avoiding that measures, programs or policies, adopted in the
framework of general and abstract assumptions, cause severe impact on
marginalized or discriminated groups or, in other words, put them in a
situation of greater adversity. The Constitution prohibits the so called direct
discrimination – acts that use suspect or potentially prohibited criteria in order
to inhibit or exclude a person or group of people from the exercise of a right or
the access to a certain benefit, as well as the indirect discrimination – the use
of apparently neutral norms, but which in fact cause and adverse and severe
impact on a group traditionally marginalized or discriminated.
The above mentioned concepts do not mean that all measures that cause an
adverse impact on a marginalized or discriminated group shall be banned by
the Constitution. However, it means that considering such impact, it is of the
administration’s competence to show that despite the disproportional effect on
a marginalized group, the measure, program or policy suits conditions of
reasonability and proportionality, and that the same was implemented
accompanied by other acts oriented towards the compensation of the adverse
effect that could be generated on a marginalized or discriminated group.
Considering that the rights of specially protected groups are at risk, in cases
such as the present one a presumption of discrimination is qualified, the
administration is the one responsible for distorting such presumption5,
overcoming a strict judicial scrutiny6. In other words, it must show that its
deeds, despite having generated an adverse effect on a marginalized or
discriminated group, i) obey an imperative finality, ii) are necessary to achieve
such finality and iii) are proportional, in the sense of not excessively
sacrificing other constitutionally specific interests in order to promote such
finality7.
5 For instance, in sentence C-225 from 1998, FJ. Eduardo Cifuentes Muñoz expressed: In fact, in such events,
as in the ones referring to the protection of the minimum vital of the poorest and marginalized population, it is
of the public authorities’ competence to demonstrate the facts that lead to the exoneration of their
constitutional responsibility.
6 See, among other, sentences C-275 from 1999, FJ: Alfredo Beltrán Sierra; C-371 from 2000, FJ. Carlos
Gaviria Díaz; T-500 from 2002, FJ: Eduardo Montealegre Lynett; C-401 y C-964 from 2003, FJ: Álvaro Tafur
Galvis, C-667 from 2006, FJ: Jaime Araujo Rentería; C-075 from 2007, FJ: Rodrigo Escobar Gil
7In relation to the above mentioned, it is important to reiterate that the presumption of discrimination and
strict equality are predicated not only regarding differentiations based explicitly on a suspect or potentially
prohibited criteria, but also derive from norms or acts that may generate an adverse and disproportional impact
on a marginalized and discriminated group. Such precision is important because such impact is the result of
the implementation of norms considered neutral at first, which could lead the judge to think that the intensity
that corresponds to the judgment of equality should be light. That is why the Court should highlight that when
it is presented an equality charge based on adverse and disproportional effects caused on a marginalized or
discriminated group, given that it is an apparently neutral norm, the defendant authority is responsible for
demonstrating that either there is no such adverse and disproportional impact or that despite the facts
presented, in all aspects the measure complies with an imperative finality that cannot be achieved by other
means that could be less onerous in terms of effects upon a certain group of the population.
Additionally, due to the intervention mandate, the administration shall

demonstrate to have adopted appropriate measures to mitigate the impact and
promote the conditions faced by the group affected by its determination.
In fact, the equality clause also imposes an intervention mandate considering

that, as recognized by the constituent, it is not enough to demand negative
conducts in order to correct the enormous inequalities existing in our society.
It is imperative that the State intervenes and use positive acts in order to assure
real and effective equality conditions. In that sense, the second and third
sections of article 13 highlight:
“The State shall promote the conditions for the equality to be real and
effective and shall adopt measures in favor of discriminated or marginalized
groups”, “The State shall protect especially the people who, due to their
economic, physical or mental condition, are in circumstances of debility and
shall manifest and sanction the abuse carried out against them. The above
mentioned concept was expressed by the Court in Sentence C-952 from 20008:
“The substantial equality includes, therefore, not only the State’s commitment9, but
also the commitment of individuals to remove the obstacles that, in the social and
economic human spheres, configure effective inequalities which oppose to the
effective enjoyment of rights. The causes for situations of such nature are related,
among others, to the shortage10, to the human being’s unfulfilled needs11, to
historical phenomena of segregation and marginalization or to injustices from the
past which one intends to rectify12. The substantial equality reveals a remedial,
compensator, emancipator, corrector and defensive character for people and groups
placed in conditions of inferiority through the impulse of positive acts from the
public authorities and the community in general (…)
The comprehension that certain individuals and groups are not equal in the reality,
although equal before the law, exerts notable influence on the same norm that, at
times, abandons the traditional characteristics of generality, abstraction,
universality and permanence, becoming specific, in other words, oriented towards
concrete sectors of the population, or temporal, as it exhausts its effects within a
certain period of time; all with the objective of elevating the social or economic
conditions of the people towards whom they are particularly oriented.
In synthesis: the substantial equality, established in the Statutes of some States, is

observed only as an objective or finality of the political system, which binds both
the public authorities and the citizens in the transformation of the existing model of
society into another ideal, more appropriate to the fulfillment of the human
aspiration in their multiple facets.”
In the same way, sentence T-724 from 200314 expressed:

Article 13-2 of the Political Constitution indicates as an obligation of the State 15 to
promote conditions for equality to be real and effective, adopting measures in favor
of discriminated or marginalized groups.
8
FJ. Carlos Gaviria Díaz.
9
Cfr. Sentence C-021 from 1993. FJ. Ciro Angarita Barón. This sentence highlights the active
role of the State of upholding the right to equality in the following terms: “The philosophy of the
Rule of Law shall be applied in its entire splendor, referring to the measures that must be taken
by the State in favor of the weak and needy in order to make equality real and effective”.
10
Cfr. Sentence SU-995 from1999. FJ. Carlos Gaviria Díaz. In such event, when unifying the
Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence in terms of salaries, the Court highlighted that the shortage
– of resources in that case – was not reason enough for the authorities not to comply with the
commitments established, as such argument violated only a group of workers’ right to salary,
curiously the ones who received the lower income. In the Court’s words: “[L] the alleged
insolvency or economic crisis of the State is not a justification for not paying or delaying the
payment of its obligations, in the exact same way as it is unacceptable the attempt of any debtor
to justify his incompliance with such arguments.”
11
Ibídem.
12
Cfr. Sentence C-371 from 2000. FJ. Carlos Gaviria Díaz. This sentence deals with great part of
the jurisprudential line adopted by the Constitutional Court regarding the right to equality;
although the analysis is centered in the study of the positive acts as constitutional mechanisms
for the protection of traditionally discriminated groups – women - , it makes a clear reference to
the necessity of creating ways to achieve substantial equality among different social groups.
13
Cfr. Sentence C-410 de 1994. FJ. Carlos Gaviria Díaz.
Therefore, the different authorities of the State are obliged, when in the presence of
groups in conditions of marginality and discrimination, to adopt all necessary
measures to achieve greater substantial equality, including in its decisions
treatments in accordance with such situations. Ignoring such mandate, not
contemplating affirmative measures in favor of groups that may be affected by the
measures adopted, is the same as violating the right to equality, which imposes,
precisely, its adoption.
4. The public policies as an expression of the Rule of Law:
4.1.The Constitutional Court, in sentence T-722 from 2003 made important

remarks concerning the achievement of the Rule of Law and the two
dimensions of equality described, in a case that has similar constitutional
conflicts to the ones presented in this case; in other words, it analyzed the
matter of the negative consequences for marginalized or discriminated groups
of the execution of public programs, measures or policies.16 Particularly in
such sentence, the Court studied the case of Bogotá’s street vendors, who in
the framework of the policy of recovery of the public space were evicted from
the place where they used to carry out their activity, without being offered
alternative opportunities to keep working and obtaining the minimum
livelihood for themselves and their families. Regarding to that matter, the
Court considered that all policies, programs or measures designed and
executed by the authorities in the Rule of Law, shall gather minimum
requisites of rationality which allow the effective compensation of the
negative consequences of their execution, especially if the people affected by
the same are in conditions of special vulnerability. Given that the Court’s
words are pertinent for the analysis of the present matter, such jurisprudence
shall be transcribed in this jurisprudence.
14
FJ. Jaime Araujo Rentería.
15
The term State shall be understood in its broader meaning, including the different levels that integrate it:
national and territorial (departmental, district or municipal)
16
Punctually, the sentence analyzed the case of Bogotá’s street vendors, who in the framework of the
policy of recovery of the public space were evicted from the place where they used to carry out their
activity and their work equipments were confiscated, without being offered real opportunities to keep
working in order to provide for their families.
In fact, in the referred sentence the Court used the characterization of the Rule
of Law from the 1991Constitution and its substantial implications regarding to
the relation between citizens and State. Among its conclusions, it reiterated
the Court’s jurisprudence, in the sense that there are two differentiated duties
for the state, the first one comprising the adoption of measures in order to
achieve real equality between the citizens, and the second consisting of
prohibiting the adoption of measures that represent backward steps for the
same groups:
“From the above mentioned derive two classes of differentiable duties for the
State: (i) firstly, it shall adopt and implement positive policies, programs or
measures oriented towards achieving real equality of conditions and
opportunities between the citizens, complying with its international and
constitutional obligations of struggling against poverty and in favor of the
progressive fulfillment of basic economic, social and cultural rights of the
population – applying what the constitutional jurisprudence has called “clause
of eradication of the present injustices” – and (ii) secondly, it shall abstain from
establishing, promoting or executing policies, programs or measures that are
ostensibly regressive in terms of economic rights and which aggravate the
situation of exclusion or marginalization of certain sectors of the society,
especially those in precarious economic conditions; and even more if, as
consequence of such policies, programs or measures, the material situation of
those living in extreme circumstances of livelihood is made even worse.(…)”
In case there are imperative constitutional objectives that force the adoption of
policies that may cause backward steps in the welfare of certain vulnerable
groups due to their poverty condition, it is expressly necessary to adopt
complementary mechanisms in order to mitigate such negative effects:
“In that context the Court highlights that the state policies, programs or
measures whose execution is converted in a source of poverty for the most
affected ones, and that do not predict complementary mechanisms to
proportionally and effectively compensate such negative effects, result
unjustifiable regarding to the international obligations of the country in terms of
promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as in relation to the
constitutional principle of the Rule of Law and its several manifestations
throughout the Constitution. In the same sense, the design and execution of such
policies, programs or measures constitute, prima facie, a violation of the state’s
duty of eradicating the present injustices and improving the life conditions of
the population, given their intrinsically regressive character, which does not find
any support in the framework of the constitutional order established in
Colombia since 1991.”
That is why it is fundamental for the public policies formulated in the Rule
of Law to be appropriate for the context in which they shall be
implemented and to derive from a reasonable and careful evaluation of the
reality:
“Due to the above mentioned arguments, the public policies, programs or

measures designed and executed by the authorities in the Rule of Law must
derive from a reasonable and careful evaluation of the reality upon which such
authorities shall intervene and be formulated in a way that fulfill the factual
results related to such evaluation, not an ideal and outdated status quo, in order
to assure that the effective enjoyment of people’s fundamental rights shall not
be inappropriately affected. In other words, in the moment of their formulation
or execution, if technically possible, all dimensions of the reality that shall be
affected by such policy, program or measure should have been studied,
including the situation of the people who will have their rights severely limited,
who shall be consequently placed in a position that will not force them to endure
a disproportional public load; mainly if those affected by the pertinent policies,
programs or measures are in special situation of vulnerability and weakness due
to their conditions of poverty or economic precariousness: regarding to such
people or groups, simultaneously to the execution of the policy, the necessary
measures to minimize the damage received shall be carried out, in such way that
the esencial core of its rights to a minimum vital and to a livelihood in decent
conditions are respected.”
In conclusion, for the Constitutional Court: “(…) the authorities have the
constitutional duty and legal authority to carry out policies, programs and
measures oriented towards recovering and preserving the public space.
However, such policies, programs and measures (i) must be carried out
following the due process and giving a decent treatment to the people
affected, (ii) must respect the legitimate trust of the people affected, (iii)
must be preceded by a careful evaluation of the reality that they shall
affect, with the necessary follow up and updates in order to maintain
correspondence to such reality in terms of their reach and characteristics,
with the objective of upholding the effective enjoyment of fundamental
constitutional rights, and (iv) they must not be carried out in a way that
disproportionately violates the right to a minimum vital of the poorest and
most vulnerable sectors of the population, neither in such a way that they
do not prevent those lacking economic opportunities in the formal sector
from obtaining their livelihood through the only licit means available for
them.”
4.2. Concerning the same point, it is also pertinent to remind the doctrine
of this Corporation according to which it is unconstitutional for the
authorities to postpone indefinitely – or until the State obtains the
necessary resources and the appropriate administrative capacity – the
compliance and execution of public policies related to the gradual progress
of a right. Although the obligation of intervention in favor of marginalized
groups ordered in article 13 of the Constitution has an accentuated
beneficial dimension,17 such fact, as highlighted by the Court, does not
excuse the authorities from adopting measures that gradually uphold the
effective enjoyment of such right.
The Constitutional Court has reiterated the fact that in Colombia there is
the Rule of Law “(…) specific sense, character and objectives are imposed
on the whole state organization, consequently resulting binding for the
authorities, which must orient their acts towards the achievement of the
particular tasks of such system: the promotion of decent life conditions for
all people, and the solution of the real inequalities present in the society,
with the objective of establishing a fair order.”18
The progressiveness justifies the impossibility of judicially demanding, in

individual and concrete cases, the immediate compliance with all
obligations derived from the protection of a constitutional right. However,
the above mentioned does not represent a permission for the state to avoid
adopting the appropriate and necessary measures oriented towards the
compliance with such obligations in a progressive manner. For the
jurisprudence “although the assistance protected by a right has a
programmatic character, it does not mean that it is not demandable or that
it may be eternally incomplied”19
In that sense, the Court has expressed that not all positive facets of a right –
which implicate obligations of doing something – shall be always subjected to
gradual and progressive protection.20‘When the omission in the fulfillment of
the minimum correlative obligations places the holder of the right in
imminence of suffering an unjustified damage’, the same may claim
immediate judicial protection of such right. The criterion proposed by the
jurisprudence to determine when an individual or group is in such situation is
the urgency, which was exposed in sentence T-595 from 2002 in the following
terms:
“(…) the urgency of the situation in which a person is in, activates the judicial
enforceability of the right whose compliance is necessary to avoid an
irremediable damage. The criterion of urgency makes objective and judicially
recognizable the necessity to execute immediately the assistance that,
otherwise, remains in the decision criteria of the obliged entity (…).21”
17
The constitutional jurisprudence considers, therefore, that the condition of ‘beneficial’ is predicated
regarding the category of ‘facet of a right’, rather than ‘right’ T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José
Cepeda Espinosa). In that case a disabled individual’s right to freedom of mobility was protected, in
one of its beneficial facets. In sentence T-427 from 1992 (FJ Eduardo Cifuentes Muñoz) considered the
following: “The beneficial rights of constitutional rank have close connection to the social, economic
and cultural rights from chapter 2, title II of the Constitution, however they do not identify with the
same. Also the rights to freedom – fundamental civil and political rights – may contain a beneficial
element. In general terms, the beneficial nature of a right is determined by its capacity to demand from
the public authorities, and occasionally from individuals, an activity of doing or giving derived from
the same constitutional text.” See also sentences T-792 from 2005 (FJ Clara Inés Vargas Hernández),
T-133 from 2006 (FJ Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto), T-884 from 2006 (FJ Humberto Antonio Sierra
Porto), T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa); T-276 from 2003 (FJ Jaime Córdoba
Triviño), T-520 from 2003 (FJ Rodrigo Escobar Gil), T-680 from 2003 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda
Espinosa), T-025 from 2004 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa), T-087 from 2005 (FJ Manuel José
Cepeda Espinosa), T-792 from 2005 (FJ Clara Inés Vargas Hernández), T-133 from 2006 (FJ
Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto).
18
See T-595 from 2002 and T-760 from 2008 FJ: Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa.
19
Regarding sentence t-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa), it expressed: “(...) If the
enforceability of the assistance protected by the positive dimension of the fundamental right depends
on the passage of time, it is not acceptable that in the year 2002, for instance, a State entity gave the
same response as in 1992, when it was demanded from the same, the fulfillment of a right of this
nature, which is of its competence to fulfill. As years go by, if the pertinent authorities do not take
effective measures to assure the progress in the fulfillment of the assistances protected by the
constitutional rights, they gradually commit an incompliance whose seriousness grows with the
passage of time. Such position was reiterated, among others, in sentences T-739 from 2004 (FJ Jaime
Córdoba Triviño) – in this case the reach of the progressiveness principle was determined in relation to
the continuity of the conditions of access to health services -, and sentence T-884 from 2006 (FJ
Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto) – this case determined the reach of the principles of access to
education for disabled people.
The court has also recognized that the defense of several beneficial facets of a
constitutional right requires varied and complex acts by the State. It has also
recognized that it is of the authorities’ competence, which have been
constitutionally established for such task, to decide what are the necessary
actions and measures to uphold the petitioner’s rights.22 Guaranteeing the
effective enjoyment of freedom or social fundamental rights is a constitutional
mandate derived from the exercise of the public power and determines one of
its main functions in the Rule of Law.23
For
20
the constitutional jurisprudence, when the effective enjoyment of a
In sentence
fundamental T-595 from 2002, FJ: Manuel
constitutional rightJosé Cepeda Espinosa
depends on the expressed the following:
progressive development,
“Being unable
to instantly uphold the beneficial content of the right is understandable due to the exposed reasons;
“the
however least
not having [the that
thata program responsible
reasonably andauthority] should
appropriately leads do such
to upholding to rights
protectis the
programmatic assistance
constitutionally inadmissible. derived
The progressive naturefrom the positive
of the assistance dimension
cannot be invoked of [a
to justify the
continuous or absolute lack of action by the State. Due precisely to the fact that such guarantees implicate
fundamental right] in the
the design and implementation Rule policy,
of a public of Law and even
not having in astarted
participative
to elaborate a democracy is,
plan is a violation
precisely, having
of the Political a program
Constitution, or a from
which demands plantheled
Statetonotuphold the effective
only to discuss and design enjoyment
a policy of of
24 [for the disabled] but also implement it.” “(…) that is the logical consequence derived
social
the rights. Consequently, the constitutional obligations derived from a
integration
from the constitutional jurisprudence in terms of programmatic assistances, which establishes that its total
fundamental right
fulfillment shall be are The
gradual. ignored whenhasthe
jurisprudence entitythat
indicated responsible
the reach of thefor guaranteeing
enforceability the
must grow
enjoyment
with the passageof ofa time,
rightwith
does not even have
the improvement a public
of the capacity program or
of administrative policy that
management, with allows
the
availability of resources and, especially relevant for the present case, with the democratic decisions
itadopted
to progressively move laws
and registered in Republican towards the thecompliance
through which with
Congress sets goals its correlative
and indicates the
obligations.
magnitude of the commitments oriented towards the achievement of the effective enjoyment of the
assistances”
21
In sentence T-1279 from 2001 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa).
22
In sentence T-595 from 2002 the Court indicated the following: “Deciding the best way to remove the
excessive load from that group of people implicates, necessarily, the design of a public policy through
which the appropriate measures are taken in order to fulfill the constitutional mandate of protecting
especially the disabled and guaranteeing their social integration. It is, therefore, of the Public
Administration’s competence to direct the necessary human and material resources so that, within the
framework of democratic participation, the programs are conceived and the resources are mobilized in
order to finance the implementation of the measures that shall be adopted in order to meet such social
demand. (…). || Therefore, it is not competence of the judge in charge of the appeal for legal protection
(…) to decide the way through which such excessive load imposed on this social group shall be removed in
order to gain access to the service of massive transport (…).”
23
Sentence T-772 from 2003 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa); in this case the Court decided, based in
its jurisprudence that “(…) the authorities have the constitutional duty and the legal authority to
implement policies, programs or measures oriented towards recovering the public space, however such
policies, programs and measures (i) (i) must be carried out following the due process and giving a decent
treatment to the people affected, (ii) must respect the legitimate trust of the people affected, (iii) must be
preceded by a careful evaluation of the reality that they shall affect, with the necessary follow up and
updates in order to maintain correspondence to such reality in terms of their reach and characteristics,
with the objective of upholding the effective enjoyment of fundamental constitutional rights, and (iv) they
must not be carried out in a way that disproportionately violates the right to a minimum vital of the
poorest and most vulnerable sectors of the population, neither in a way that they prevent those lacking
economic opportunities in the formal sector from obtaining their livelihood through the only licit means
available for them.”
Concretely, the constitutional jurisprudence has determined three basic

conditions, considering the Political Constitution, which must be observed by
all public policies intended to uphold a constitutional right: (i) that the policy
in fact exists; (ii) that the finality of the public policy must prioritize the
effective enjoyment of such right; and (iii) that the processes of decision,
elaboration, implementation and evaluation of the public policy allow the
democratic participation.
Regarding to the first condition, the Court has indicated that “it cannot
comprise only ideas or conjectures concerning what should be done, but a
structured action program that allows the competent authority to adopt the
appropriate and necessary measures.” That is why a constitutional obligation
of beneficial and programmatic nature, derived from a fundamental right, is
violated “when the authority does not even have a plan to progressively fulfill
it.25
In relation to the second condition, the Court has reiterated that “it cannot be
a symbolic public policy which is not followed by real and concrete
actions.26”
In that sense, the Constitution is violated when there is a plan or program,

however (i) “it exists only on the paper and its execution has not been
initiated” or (ii) “it is implemented, but is evidently inane, either because it
does not mitigate the real problems and necessities of the holders of the
referred right, or because its execution has been postponed indefinitely or for
an unreasonable period of time.27
24
Constitutional Court, sentence T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa); the Court indicated
the following: “Although Transmilenio S.A. cannot immediately and instantaneously guarantee Daniel
Arturo Bermúdez Urrego’s access to the transport System without being forced to bear excessive loads, the
minimum it must do to protect the programmatic assistance derived from the positive dimension of the
freedom of mobility in the Rule of Law and in a participative democracy is, precisely, having a program or
a plan oriented towards upholding the effective enjoyment of his rights, as well as of the other disabled
individuals.”
25
Constitutional Court, sentence T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa); the Court expressed:
“Firstly, as previously said, there must be a public policy, generally represented by a plan. It is the
minimum that must be done by those who have the obligation of upholding the invoked assistance.
Therefore, the positive dimension of a fundamental right is unknown in its programmatic implications
when there is not even a plan that gradually and sustainably upholds and protects it.”
26
Constitutional Court, Sentence T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa); the Court
expressed:”Secondly, the plan must be oriented towards upholding the effective enjoyment of the right; the
second article of the Constitution clearly establishes such guideline. The defense of rights should not be
formal. The State’s mission is not simply the issuance of norms and legal texts that recognize only on the
paper who are the holders of certain rights. The minimum State rationality demands that such norms are
followed by real actions, which should be oriented towards facilitating the full enjoyment and exercise of
the rights recognized in the Constitution.”
27
Constitutional Court, Sentence T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa).
Concerning the third condition, the jurisprudence has considered

constitutionally unacceptable that there is a plan (i) ‘that does not allow
participation in its different stages’, or (ii) ‘that the spaces for participation
are innocuous and only allow unimportant participation.’ 28 The minimum
degree of participation that should be assured to people in each concrete case
depends on the specific situation, in attention to the type of decisions to be
made.29
The Court has also highlighted that when a judge in charge of the appeal for
legal protection identifies the violation of a beneficial facet of a fundamental
right, he/she should protect it through the adoption of orders oriented towards
guaranteeing its effective enjoyment, however the same shall respect the
public process of debate, decision and execution of policies, typical from a
democracy. Therefore, it is not his/her duty to indicate to the competent
authorities, specifically, what are the measures to be adopted in order to
uphold the effective enjoyment of the right, but to adopt the decisions and
orders that assure that such measures are adopted, promoting the citizen
participation.30
Based on those considerations, the Court shall analyze if the measures and
conducts of the defendant authorities concerning the determinations adopted
in terms of management and use of solid waste in Cali are in conformity with
the Constitution.
28
Constitutional Court, Sentence T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa). The Court
specifically indicated the following: “Thirdly, the plan must be sensitive to citizen participation whenever
ordered by the Constitution or the law. Such mandate is derived from several constitutional norms, among
which are the second article, which indicates that it is an essential objective of the State’ (…) to facilitate
the participation of all in the decisions that affect the economic, political, administrative and cultural life
of the nation; (…)’, which is in accordance with the definition of the Colombian Democracy as
participative (First Article, P.C.).”
29
For instance, in Sentence T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa) regarding the protection
of the freedom of mobility in the context of public transport, the Court indicated, based on the express
pronouncement of the legislator, that the minimum scope that should be provided to citizen participation
in this area should contemplate “at least the execution and the systemic evaluation of the elected plan.”
The court decided to protect the right to citizen participation of the petitioner, in his condition of member
of organizations for the defense of disabled people. Consequently it decided, among others, to order
Transmilenio S.A. to inform the petitioner every three months, in his condition of member of the board of
directors of ASCOPAR (Colombian Association for the Development of Disabled People), about the
progress in the plan ordered to uphold disabled people’s access to the transport system, so that as the
representative of the Association he could participate in the stages of design, execution and evaluation.
30
in Sentence T-595 from 2002 the Court decided to order the defendant entity to design, within the
maximum of two years, a plan oriented to uphold the petitioner’s access to Bogotá’s basic public transport
System, without having to bear limitations imposed by excessive loads. Concerning the constitutional
order in force and applicable to the case, the Court considered that “the scope of protection of a disabled
person’s freedom of mobility contemplates the possibility of accessing a city’s basic public transport
system in conditions of equality, in other words, without being forced to bear limitation imposed by
excessive loads”.
5. The Navarro waste pickers as a marginalized and discriminated group

that requires special constitutional protection.
Before analyzing the conducts of the defendant entities, the Court must
specify the petitioners’ nature, given that one of the instance judges
considered that the appeal for legal protection was not applicable because they
were part of an open group, before which it was not possible to concretize an
assistance. As demonstrated bellow, contrarily to such appreciation in relation
to the petitioners, their condition of marginalized and discriminated group has
been demonstrated and in such case it is incorrect to indicate that it is an open
group or impossible to determine who its members are.
In fact, although the Constitution does not specify punctually what a

marginalized or discriminated group is, both the doctrine and the
jurisprudence have made important clarifications in order to facilitate the
identification of such groups. For instance, two of the most influential
lawmakers in terms of equality and non-discrimination, Owen Fiss and Iris
Marion Young, offer relevant criteria for a clearer comprehension.
The first one establishes that when referring to a “disadvantaged group”, three
characteristics must be considered: i) It is related to a “social group”, which
“goes beyond a series of individuals who, as an extreme example, are
unfortunately in the same corner at the same time”. In other words, a social
group is an entity with an identity of its own, in a way that it is possible to
refer to the group without the necessity of referring to each one of its members
in particular. In that sense, the connotation of social group is distinguished by
“the condition of interdependence” given that “the identity and welfare of the
group and the identity and welfare of its members are interrelated.” The
members of the group have self-identity – explain who they are referring to
their condition of members of the group; and their status results determined by
the group status. ii) It is a group that has been in a situation of prolonged
subordination and iii) the political power of the group is severely limited,
either because of socioeconomic conditions, an imposed position of inferiority
or due to “prejudice” from others.
Iris Maria Young31 refers to “oppressed groups”, as social groups to whom

the following conditions apply in its totality or in relation to the majority of its
members: “The benefits derived from their work or energy go to other people,
who do not compensate them reciprocally for such work or energy
(exploitation); ii) are excluded from participating in the main social activities,
which in our society means basically a position of work (marginalization); iii)
live and work subject to other people’s authority (lack of power); iv) are
stereotyped as a group and, often, their experience and situation result
invisible for the rest of the society, provided that they have little opportunity
and audience to express their experience and perspective concerning the
social events (cultural imperialism); v) the group members are victims of

violence, harassment at random and are at mercy of the fear and hatred
towards it.”
This Corporation has also indicated relevant guidelines to determine if it refers

to a marginalized or discriminated group, which have similarities to the
previously described. In that sense, it is important to reiterate the exposed by
the Court in sentence C-741 from 200332:
“Although the Constitution does not define what should be understood by

“marginalized or discriminated group” (Article 13, section 2, Political
Constitution), this Corporation’s jurisprudence has protected the rights of
people belonging to marginalized or discriminated groups, and from those
sentences it is possible to identify criteria to distinguish such groups. For
instance, it has protected the rights of disabled people, people affect by illnesses
that cause discrimination such as leprosy, HIV/ AIDS34, marginalized sectors
due to their condition of extreme poverty35, the elderly and other groups in
conditions of evident weakness36”
31
Young, Iris. 1996. Political life and group difference: a review of the universal citizenship.
In: Castells Carmen (compiler) Feminist perspectives in political theories. Paidos, Buenos
Aires.
32
FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa.
33
See, for instance, sentences T-595 from 2002, FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, in which
the Court protected the right to access a means of public transport of a person who used a
wheelchair to move around, due to the fact that the buses from Transmilenio, which are the
ones that pass near the petitioner’s residence were not accessible to people who, like him,
move around in wheelchairs. T-255 from 2001, FJ José Gregório Hernández Galindo, in
which the Court protected the right to education of an underage who had not been accepted in
school. The institution affirmed it was not prepared to provide special education to a
hyperactive child.
34
See, for instance, sentence T-411 from 2000, FJ: Eduardo Cifuentes Muñoz, in which the
Court protected the right of several patients with leprosy and employee from Agua de Dios
Sanatorium, because it had unilaterally suspended the payment of sickness benefits to leprosy
patients, pleading they had a stable remuneration, although several civil servants from the city
of Agua de Dios in similar situation kept receiving such benefit. T-177 from 1999, FJ: Carlos
Gaviriria Diaz, in which the Court protected the rights of a person with AIDS who was denied
the appropriate treatment due to his pending inscription as a beneficiary from SISBEN and the
issuance of the respective card. It was charged to the patient and his family the payment of his
medical treatment, although he depends on his 81 year-old mother who washes clothes for a
living and does not earn enough to afford such treatment. The patient passed away during the
appeal without having received the treatment required.
35
See, for instance, sentence T-149 from 2002, FJ Álvaro Tafur Galvis, in which the Court
protected the rights to life and social security of an adult close to third age suffering from a
serious illness that prevented him from working to obtain a livelihood for himself and his
family, to whom is denied the possibility of accessing assistance for the elderly in extreme
poverty by not receiving the necessary information to access such provision.
According to this Corporation’s jurisprudence, and only for purposes of

exemplification, a marginalized group may consist of (i) people who are in
circumstances of evident weakness due to their economic, physical or mental
condition37, (ii) people who, due to the disadvantaged position in which they
are, have the exercise and effective enjoyment of their fundamental rights
limited38, (iii) the handicapped in the physical, sensorial or psychic aspects who
are subject to isolation, stigmatization, mistreat, incomprehension or
discrimination, leading to their marginalization39, (iv) population in situation of
extreme poverty, or in conditions of evident material injustice and violation of
human dignity40, or (v) a group of the population, not able to participate in the
public debate and that, therefore, has no voice of its own in the adoption of
political decisions that affect it41. Therefore, the concept of marginalized group
is broader than discriminated group. It includes not only people placed in a
situation of disadvantage due to state decisions, public policies or social
prejudice, but also those who, considering the real conditions in which they
live, regardless the cause, are in situation of social exclusion, have not been
incorporated in the economic activity through the ordinary means or are in
material impossibility of accessing the benefits of an organized society.
In such perspective, it is valid to ask: Is it possible to consider the “waste

pickers” and, in this case, “the Navarro waste pickers”, as a
marginalized and discriminated group, which should be especially
protected under article 13 of the Constitution? The answer to such
question can only be affirmative.
The petitioners in this Appeal of legal protection identify themselves as

“Navarro waste pickers”. If one should ask an unprepared ordinary
person what she understands by “waste pickers”, it would not be
incorrect to imagine she would answer that are those people who carry
out an activity related to the waste. It would not be necessary to specify
the names of those who carry out such activity in order to have a clear
idea of who are included in such term: the women, men, children, elderly
who find in the waste their source of livelihood.
36
See, for instance, sentence SU-225 from 1998, FJ Eduardo Cifuentes Muñoz, in which the Court
protected the rights of a group of fathers and underage children, belonging to the informal sector of
Puente de Aranda, whose rights had been violated by the refusal from the Health Department and
the District Health Secretariat to provide their children, free of charge, the vaccination against the
virus that causes meningitis Meningococcica and meningitis by Haemophilus Influenzae.
37
Constitutional Court, sentence T-401 from 1992, FJ Eduardo Cifuentes Muñoz, in which the
Court protected the rights of convicts not imputable of prosecution subject to an unjust and long
deprivation of liberty, although the reason for such security measure had ceased.
38
Constitutional Court, Sentence T-595 from 2002 (FJ Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa).
39
Constitutional Court, Sentence T-255 from 2001, FJ José Gregorio Hernández Galindo, in which
the Court protected the right to education of an underage who had not been accepted in school. The
institution affirmed it was not prepared to provide special education to a hyperactive child.
40
Constitutional Court, Sentence T-177 from 1998, FJ Carlos Gaviria Diaz, cited before.
41
Constitutional Court, Sentence SU-225 from 1998, FJ Eduardo Cifuentes Muñoz, cited before.
And if one should ask people from Cali who the Navarro waste pickers are,
they would doubtlessly answer that are the people who make a living out of
the waste from Navarro waste dump. Because it is doubtless that the waste
pickers are a social group, with self identity, about which, according to Fiss,
one can talk without having to refer to each one of its members. Furthermore,
it is doubtless that, considering the long existence of Navarro waste dump and
the presence, throughout the decades, of people who dug the waste to find
their source of income, a group with self identity has been configurated,
whose members understand that their life conditions depend on the conditions
they can create in collectiveness.
The waste pickers’ configuration as a social group has existed for a long time.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, thousands of people have
dedicated themselves to the informal collection of the urban solid waste
discarded by others, to their classification in order to keep what is useful and
to sell what is valuable for recycling and reuse in the market. As explained by
Martín Medina, this appearance and growth of informal waste pickers in Latin
America follows multiple causes: i) the growth of solid waste as consequence
of the processes of urbanization, industrialization and the change in the
consumption habits of the population in favor of manufactured products; ii)
the growing demand for cheap raw materials to manufacture those
consumption products, such as paper, metal, glass and plastic; iii) the growth
in the rates of migration to the cities, and iv) the incapacity of the regional
economy to generate enough formal employment. In that scenario, the
recovery of discarded material for recycling has been and still is one of the
informal occupations through which unemployed individuals and whole
families find survival. That is the case of the Navarro waste pickers, who,
since the opening of the waste dump in 1967, have found in it a way to ‘dig
up’ life. Such has been the identification of the waste pickers as a social
group, that there are even international studies from the seventies beginning to
analyze the life conditions of the “Navarro Waste Pickers”42.
Therefore, there is no need to make further analysis in order to conclude that

the petitioners are part of social group traditionally marginalized and
discriminated. A great part of the Colombian waste pickers – both the ones
who work in waste dumps and the so called street waste pickers – live in
conditions of extreme poverty,43 affected by high levels of discrimination and
exclusion44.
42
Birkbeck, C. 1979. “Garbage, Industry, and the ‘VULTURES’ OF CALI Colombia. En: Bromley R.
and Ferry C. (eds). Casual Work and Poverty in Third World Cities. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
43
The Civisol Foundation has provided the Court with videos illustrating the life conditions of several
Navarro waste pickers.
44
Several studies have verified that the informality in the economic activities generates social exclusion.
In that sense the following may be consulted: Carpio Jorge, Klein Emilio and Irene Novacovsky
Informality and Social Exclusion. The informal economy: Mario Tejeriro. April 30th, 2004. Consulted at
http://www.cep.org.ar
That population has used informal waste picking due to the impossibility of
finding other means of subsistence. As one of the interveners in the present
case indicates, it should come as no surprise that if people “only find
opportunities among the waste of others, it is because they do not have other
options of work and subsistence at their disposal”.
It is not difficult to understand that the informal waste pickers survive in a

physically and socially hostile environment.45 They must face the multiple
social stigmas, generated by the simple association of an activity with
elements discarded by the society. As highlighted by Medina, the fact that the
waste pickers live and survive among the rests that for others are useless and
depreciated, generates a problem in terms of the construction of social
imaginaries. The society rejects the waste and extends such rejection to those
who work with it. That is why a series of stereotypes ultimately place the
waste pickers in the lowest level of society and generate a perspective that
they are unpleasant, smell bad, commit crimes, jam the traffic and get the city
dirty.46 The prejudice against the waste pickers are so deep that got to point of
bringing forward campaigns of “social cleaning” to ‘discard’ them.47
An aspect that must be considered regarding to the waste pickers’

marginalized situation is related to the invisibility that their work has in terms
of social usefulness. The activity carried out by the waste pickers for years has
brought unarguable benefits to the society by mitigating, in great part, the
environmental effects caused by the careless growth of industrialization and
urban settlement. However, far from being valued, every day they are made
more invisible and excluded from the possibility of participating in the market
they know. And one thing is correct: although they are people who have not
had many opportunities, who in general lack education and occupational
formation, results of a large experience in an informal activity, they know
recycling pretty well.
The above mentioned unquestionably demonstrates that the petitioners are part
of a marginalized and discriminated group, whose situation, as indicated by
the jurisprudence, must not be perpetuated or worsened by the authorities. On
the contrary, positive conducts must be adopted by the same in order to
promote their social status and improve their life conditions. The fact that
there is no census specifying who the individual members of a marginalized or
discriminated group are does not lead to the inexistence of the same. Such
appreciation could lead to the absurd of indicating that the State should not
adopt, for instance, measures in favor of women or the ethnical minorities due
to the impossibility of determining exactly who are the women or members of
ethnical minorities supposed to be protected; or estimating that it is impossible
to benefit the displaced population due to the high levels of under-reporting.
45
Martin Medina. Solid Waste Recycling in Latin America. Consulted at
http://aplicaciones.colef.mx:8080/fronteranorte/articulos/FN21/1-f21
46
Ibidem
47
The acts of violence against waste pickers in Colombia are broadly reviewed by scholars in terms of
social phenomena of the informal recycling. It is important to remember the infamous discovery of 40
waste pickers’ dead bodies in the University Libre de Barranquilla. Those waste pickers were murdered
with the objective of having their organs sold for transplants and the rest of their bodies used for
dissection by medical students.
The presence of a marginalized or discriminated group cannot be analyzed

from the procedures that the administration might have had to take a census of
it; it is evaluated through objective facts such as the above indicated.
Furthermore, as highlighted by this Corporation, it must not be forgotten that
one of the ways to express exclusion is through the invisibility in the official
and extra-official data.
Therefore, although admitted for purposes of discussion the thesis from one of
the judges in charge of the appeal of legal protection in this case, we are not
referring to an open group, whose members cannot be identified. In fact, as
derived from the same intervention from Cali’s Mayor’s Office, the municipal
administration took a census of the waste pickers in 2006 through Sisben,
though it needs updating and widening, allows inferring, that it is possible to
identify the members of such population. Also, although far from the ideal
status of organization, there are entities that unionize Cali’s waste pickers,
such as UFRAME, which would facilitate the efforts to locate the population
that would benefit from the judge’s decisions.
6. The normative framework related to the public cleanliness service, the

management and use of solid waste and its impact on the informal waste
pickers.
6.1. As previously mentioned in this ruling, one of the first charges is to

question the decision to close Navarro waste dump without offering economic
alternatives to the waste pickers who used to operate there. The authorities
indicate – among other arguments that shall be analyzed further bellow – that
no violation of the petitioners’ fundamental rights can be pleaded, considering
that such decision was made in attention to imperative environmental
considerations and according to different general and abstract norms that
regulate the management of solid waste.
In order to examine the charge, the Court shall begin explaining the normative
framework that rules the public cleanliness service, because not only the
petitioners’ recycling work is part of such service, but the order to close
Navarro waste dump was based on the dispositions concerning to its
provision. Afterwards, it shall determine, if in despite of its general nature
ruling at first, its application causes a disproportional impact on the informal
waste pickers. Finally, it shall analyze if in this case the conducts of the
defendant entities were in accordance with the Constitution.
6.2. For several years in Colombia, as in other parts of the world, there has
been a central preoccupation concerning to the management of solid waste.
Since 1974, when the first laws concerning to the matter were made in
Colombia, it has been necessary to establish a technical regulation that could
contribute with the minimization of the solid waste generation and the
environmental impact that could be derived from its bad management. Such
set of norms was included in the National Code for Renewable Natural
Resources and Environmental Protection, and afterwards, in the so called
National Sanitary Code.48
When the 1991 Political Constitution came into force, it established the
general framework for the rendering of the public cleanliness service which,
among other activities, comprises the management of solid waste. According
to the Constitution, it is of the lawmaker’s competence to issue the laws that
shall rule the rendering of public services (Political Constitution, Art. 150-23),
determining, among other aspects, the extension and coverage of the public
service, the people in charge of its rendering, the conditions to assure the
quality and efficiency of the service and the way through which the State
carries out the inspection, control and vigilance over its rendering.49 Based on
such attributions, the lawmaker issued Law 142 from 1994, through which the
general regimen for the domiciliary public services is set. Among several
other dispositions, it was expressly established that the management and use
of solid waste is part of the domiciliary cleanliness public service,50 and that it
is of the municipality’s competence to assure that the domiciliary public
services are rendered efficiently to all inhabitants.51
48
By means of Decree 2811 from 1974, it was dictated the National Code for Renewable Natural
Resources and Environmental Protection, and in Title III form part IV some guidelines for the
management of waste are established. According to article 34 – In the management of waste, the
following rules shall be observed:
a.- The best methods shall be used, according to the advances in science and technology, for the
collection, treatment, processing or final disposal of waste in general.
b.- The scientific and technical investigation shall be fomented to:
1.- Develop the most suitable methods for the defense of the environment, mankind, and other living
beings;
2.- Reintegrate in the natural and economic processes the solid, liquid and gas waste coming from
industries, household activities or human settlements in general;
3.- Replace the production or importation of products of difficult elimination or reincorporation in the
productive process;
4.- Perfect and develop new methods for the treatment, collection, storage and final disposal of solid,
liquid or gas waste susceptible to reuse.
c.- Appropriate means for the elimination and control of bad smell shall be indicated.
Afterwards, through Law 9 from 1979 it was made an attempt to seek sanitary measures to protect the
environment, and a section was dedicated to the matter of the solid waste management. In article 23 of
such law the separation and classification of waste in public spaces was prohibited. Equally, measures to
oblige the cleanliness companies to collect the waste properly were imposed, with the objective of
preventing environmental damage. For instance, in article 33 were established some specific
characteristics for the vehicles used for transporting waste, such as: “the vehicles destined to the
transport of waste shall obey the technical specifications regulated by the Health Department.
Preferably, they shall be closed, water proof and enable loading near the street level. Only waste that,
due to its characteristics, cannot be blown by the wind may be carried in open vehicles.
49
See, among others, sentences C-284 from 1997, FJ: Antonio Barrera Carbonell, C-263 from 1996, FJ:
Antonio Barrera Carbonell; y C-517 from 1992, FJ: Ciro Angarita Barón.
6.3. For purposes of developing the dispositions from Law 142 from 1994 in
terms of management and use of solid waste, several national and local norms
have been issued. In the national sphere, among other dispositions, it should
be highlighted decree 1713 from 2002, by means of which Law 142 from
1994, Law 632 from 2000 and Law 689 from 2001 are regulated concerning
the rendering of the public cleanliness service, and Decree-Law 2811 from
1974 and Law 99 from 1993 regarding to the Integral Management of Solid
Waste. Such decree establishes several dispositions oriented towards the
regulation of the integral management of solid waste, in terms of “its
components, levels, classes, modalities, quality and regimen of the people
rendering the service as well as of its users”.52 With special relevance, it is
established in such set of norms that for purposes of complying with the
obligation to assure the rendering of the public cleanliness service through
efficient procedures, which do not jeopardize human health or affect the
environment, the territorial entities shall adopt a planning instrument called
“Plan for the Integral Management of Solid Waste – PGIRS”, through which
the territorial entities must establish sustainable strategies, programs and
projects in short, medium and long term.53
6.4. Additionally, in national terms other dispositions have been issued in

order to develop Law 142 from 1994 regarding to the management of solid
waste, among others: i) decree MAVDT 1140 from 2003, which partially
modified decree 1713 from 2002 in relation to the storage units; ii) decree
MAVDT 1505 from 2003, which introduced modifications related to the Plans
for the Integral Management of Solid Waste – PGIRS -;
50
Textually, article 14 from Law 142 from 1994 (modified by article 1 from law 689 from 2001)
expressed: “Domiciliary Public Cleanliness Service: is the service of municipal collection of waste,
mainly of the solid type. The complementary activities of transport, treatment, use and final disposal
shall also be included in such Law.”
51
Article 5 indicates: “Cities’ competence regarding the rendering of public services. It is of the cities’
competence, in relation to the public services, to execute in the terms of the law the following
regulations:
5.1. Assuring that the services of aqueduct, sewer systems, cleanliness, electricity and basic public
telephony are rendered to their inhabitants by official public or private contractors, or by the central
administration of the respective city in the cases predicted by the following article.
5.2. Upholding, in the terms of this Law, the participation of the users in the formalities and inspection
of the entities rendering the public services.
5.3. Granting assistance to users with lower incomes, charging on the city’s budget, according to Law
60/93 and the present Law.
5.4. Stratifying the residential properties according to the methodologies established by the National
Government.
5.5. Establishing in the city an alpha numeric nomenclature that allows the individualization of each
building to which the public services shall be rendered.
5.6. Supporting with investments and other instruments described in this Law the public contractors
promoted by the departments and the Nation to carry out the activities of their competence.
5.7. The others assigned by the law.
52
Article 2.
53
Article 8 (modified by art.2 from National Decree 1505 from 2003).
iii) Resolution MAVDT 1045 from 2003 which, among other dispositions,
adopted the methodology for elaboration and execution of the PGIRS and
established deadlines for the closure and environmental restoration of open air
waste dumps; iv) Resolution MAVDT 1390 from 2005 that established
“guidelines and rules for the closure and restoration or technical
transformation into landfills (…)”; v) decree MAVDT 838 from 2005 that
defines mechanisms for the planning, construction and operation of solid
waste final disposal systems using the technology of landfill; and vi) Law
1259 from 2008 “Through which is established in the national territory the
application of environmental summons to the offenders of the norms of
cleanliness and collection of debris; and other dispositions are dictated.”
6.5. In the local sphere, it is important to highlight that in 2004, through

decree 0475, issued by Cali’s Mayor’s Office, the PGIRS was adopted in the
city of Cali, 2004-2019, based on the obligations and guidelines expressed in
the national set of norms. Although further ahead in this sentence we shall
refer to several of its dispositions, and in fact its compliance in relation to the
petitioners in this action shall be analyzed, it is enough at this point to indicate
that, generally speaking, Cali’s PGIRS, as expressed since its beginning is
oriented towards making Santiago de Cali a city which “minimizes the
generation of solid waste in its origin, maximizes its use, reduces and treats
appropriately the usable waste and technologically disposes it.” In order to
achieve it, five strategic lines are followed: i) citizen culture; ii) cleaner
production; iii) appreciation of organic and inorganic solid waste; iv) quality
in the rendering of the cleanliness service; v) appropriate final disposal. As
indicated above, considering the national norms, the service of waste
collection shall be rendered in conformity with the guidelines in the PGIRS.
6.6. Some important considerations regarding to the matter in this case derive
from the analysis of the referred set of norms. Firstly, the regulation of the
public cleanliness service includes both the collection and the use of the
waste. Secondly, the public cleanliness service is based on national general
norms and on local regulations, it is of the local authorities’ competence to
watch over the appropriate rendering of that service anyway. Thirdly, the
above mentioned norms, both nationally and locally, have a common goal:
assuring that the solid waste integral management is not only efficient, but
also does not jeopardize the human health or affect the environment. Finally,
as explained bellow, although the majority of such dispositions have a general
character, some of them expressly refer to the waste pickers – in some
occasions to prohibit a certain activity and in others with the objective of
promoting their participation in the management and use of solid waste -, and
several of them, despite not specifically mentioning the waste pickers, cause
direct impact on them, more than on any other sector of the population.
In fact, with no intention to be exhaustive, it is enough to indicate some of the

dispositions included in the reviewed set of norms. For instance, it is evident
that the dispositions ordering the closure and environmental restoration of the
places formerly used as “waste dumps”,54 regardless the evident

environmental considerations, are measures that affect the informal waste
pickers, especially those whose livelihood is derived from the waste dumps. If
the waste dump is closed, such people are left without their ordinary work
place. In the same way, the norms that prohibit the separation and
classification of the waste in public spaces55, or “to open and partially extract,
with no authorization, the contents of waste bags and containers, once placed
for collection (…)”56; despite its neutral terms, they are definitely referring to
the informal waste pickers, once it is not necessary any deeper analysis to
conclude that it is such group, especially the so called street waste pickers,
who opens the waste bags in order to separate and classify the waste in public
spaces. In the same sense, the dispositions that demand the waste transport to
be done in closed and water proof vehicles,57 or which prohibit the waste
transport in “inappropriate” vehicles,58 doubtlessly cause an impact on the
informal waste pickers more than on any other person, due to the fact that it is
well known that according to their poverty conditions, the vehicles at their
disposal are moved by animal traction. In the same sense, a disposition such as
the one included in decree 1505 from 2003, which holds accountable for the
negative impacts caused on human health and on the environment anyone who
gives waste to people or entities not authorized for such finality, affect mainly
the waste pickers because they discourage individuals to give them their
waste, since that their activity is carried out in an informal way.
However, as indicated above, the set of norms that regulate the management
and use of solid waste not only establish dispositions in neutral language,
which cause disproportional impact on the waste pickers, but also establish
rules that mention the same specifically. Such is the case of article 86 from
decree 1713 from 2002 (modified by art.9 from decree 1505 from 2003)
which expresses: “The presence of waste pickers in the working front of the
landfills is prohibited”.
6.7. Although the above mentioned dispositions cause an adverse impact on

the informal waste pickers, in this item it is necessary to observe that
regarding to the national and local sets of norms regulating the management
and use of solid waste, there are also dispositions oriented towards promoting
the rights of the informal waste pickers. Among other dispositions, for
instance,
there is article 67, section 5 from decree1713 from 2002 (added by article 7
from decree 1505 from 2003) which establishes as an objective of the
recovery and use of solid waste “Assuring the participation of the waste
pickers and of the supportive sector in the activities of recovery and use, with
the objective of productively consolidating such activities and improving their
life conditions” or article 81 from the same decree (modified by article 8 from
decree 1505 from 2003) which establishes: “the Cities and Districts and the
renderers of the cleanliness service shall promote the participation of the
waste pickers who have been developing activities related to the use in
harmony with the rendering of the cleanliness service”.
54
See article 130 from Decree 1713 from 2002, article 21 from Decree 838 from 2005 and resolution
In1390thefromlocal
2005. sphere, Cali’s PGIRS establishes several norms designed to
55
promote
56
Article theLaw
23. waste
9 frompickers’
1979. participation. Among others, in the strategic line of
Article 5, section 6, from Law 1259 from 2008.
“appreciation
57
Article 33, Law 9offrom organic and inorganic solid waste”, section 4 of the solid
the1979.
waste
58
Articlerecovery
5, section 15,subprogram indicated:
from Law 1259 from 2008. “Promoting the participation of the
organized waste pickers in the recovery of solid waste”. In the same sense,
section 5 of the use and commercialization subprogram mentioned: “Enabling
the participation of waste pickers, wheel barrowers and the supportive sector
in the activities of recovery and use, with the objective of productively
consolidating such activities and improving their life conditions”. Equally, in
section 8 of the same subprogram it was highlighted: “Encouraging the
participation of vulnerable groups in the development of productive initiatives
oriented towards the use of solid waste”.
6.8. Such normative summary is essential to analyze the conducts of the

defendant authorities in this action, because it demonstrates that although their
conducts might be based on general dispositions in terms of management and
use of solid waste, several of them disproportionally affect a marginalized
group conformed by the informal waste pickers. Therefore, as previously
indicated in this sentence, considering such impact, it must be demonstrated
that despite the disproportional affectation, the measures or policies adopted
respect conditions of reasonability and proportionality, and are followed by
other actions designed to compensate the adverse effects on the marginalized
group. Furthermore, in such normative summary it is clearly expressed that
the authorities have the obligation of promoting the participation of the waste
pickers in the activities of recovery and use of solid waste.
Based on the above exposed, the Court shall next analyze the punctual
conducts of the defendant authorities, questioned in this lawsuit.
7. The closure of Navarro waste dump: a decision that jeopardizes the

petitioners’ minimum vital, reason why it should have been followed by
complementary measures to mitigate the negative effects of such decision.
7.1. It has been previously mentioned that the fact which led to the several
appeals of legal protection object of the present decision was the closure of
Navarro waste dump, where the petitioners used to access the waste to find
usable materials, which they sold to the secondary market.
Regarding to such fact, for the Court there is no doubt that the decision to
close Navarro waste dump obeyed to an imperative constitutional finality,
which is assuring the environmental and public sanitation conditions. As
previously indicated, it has been common sense for a long time that open air
waste dumps cause environmental problems, among which are the
atmospheric contamination an soil erosion, as well as harmful effects on the
health of the population due, among others, to the proliferation of illnesses
transmitting plagues. In the case of Navarro waste dump, its infeasibility has
been recognized long ago, when it was warned that the waste dump filtered
leached materials that contaminated the Cauca River. For that reason, 10 years
ago, the Valle del Cauca Autonomous Regional Corporation – one of the
defendant entities in this lawsuit – issued Resolution SCA 336 from
September 15th, 1999, “through which it is imposed a management, recovery
and environmental restoration plan for the closure of Navarro waste dump
and the construction of a transitory landfill in the City of Santiago de Cali”. It
must be highlighted that the closure of Navarro was not only an appropriate
measure, but a necessary one considering that there was nothing else that
could be done to allow its operation in environmentally optimum conditions.
In the same way that it is a fact the proved threat to the people from Cali and
the environment represented by the Navarro waste dump, it is also an
unquestionable fact that the decision to close the waste dump has caused a
social impact of great proportions for the people whose minimum vital
depended on the waste dump. As previously indicated, the petitioners and
other waste pickers had the sale of recyclable material obtained in Navarro as
their only source of income. Therefore the closure jeopardized their basic
needs, such as food, housing and clothing. In other words, it is a decision that,
although obeyed considerations of general interest, generated an adverse and
disproportional impact on a marginalized and discriminated group, reason why
it should have been followed by complementary measures to mitigate its
effects. As referred before, when a measure, program or policy from the
administration affect groups in situation of special vulnerability, among others
due to their conditions of poverty or economic precariousness, parallel to the
execution of such measure, program or policy, it must be implemented “the
necessary measures to minimize the received damage, in such a way that the
fundamental right to a minimum vital and subsistence in conditions of equality
is respected”.59
Furthermore, also as previously expressed in this Corporation’s jurisprudence,

considering the Constitution, the intervention of the authorities must not be
limited to compensating the damage caused, but also it must be followed by
measures designed to promote the life conditions of the marginalized or
discriminated group. In that sense, it is important to remember the indicated
by the Court in sentence T-724 from 2003. When examining a appeal of legal
protection filed by a group of waste pickers, it insisted that the affirmative
measures must be effective and facilitate, whenever possible, that such people
maintain the activity they used to develop or, in the terms of the above
mentioned sentence, “measures tending to maintain and strengthen the
activity they had been developing.”
Regarding to those considerations, the Court asks: Have the defendant entities
acted in conformity with the constitution, adopting effective measures to
compensate the adverse social effects caused by the closure of Navarro and to
strengthen the activity developed over the years by the waste pickers who used
to operate there? The answer, as demonstrated below, is evidently negative.
Although the closure of Navarro was unavoidable and obeyed to an imperative

finality regarding to the general interest, the defendant authorities i) were
neglectful in terms of not designing an appropriate response to the social
consequences generated by the closure of Navarro; ii) evaded their duty to
provide special protection to a marginalized group especially affected by such
decision; iii) did not comply with the commitments established with such
population, ignoring the trust legitimately deposited by the waste pickers on
them. Until the present date, as proved by the evidences provided to the Court,
the waste pickers, after the closure of Navarro, are in extreme poverty.
The first aspect that must be indicated is that for the past ten years, when the
decision to close Navarro was made, it was clear that there was a latent social
problem regarding to the waste pickers. That is why, in Resolution SCA 336
from September 15th, 1999, the Valle del Cauca Autonomous Regional
Corporation stipulated that the management, recovery and environmental
restoration plan for the closure of the waste dump should contemplate a social
management plan. Textually, the Resolution ordered: “As a measure to
mitigate the social impact that shall be caused by the closure of the current
Navarro waste dump, the city of Cali and EMSIRVA ESP shall implement a
social management and employment generation plan for all the families that
have been obtaining their livelihood as waste pickers in that site.”
Although for some time the matter of the social impact caused by the closure
of Navarro was not discussed by the local authorities, in 2004, as reviewed in
the seventh subhead of the present sentence, the Solid Waste Integral
Management Plan, PGIRS, was adopted. Such plan not only allowed the
participation of the waste pickers in its design and formulation, but also
extensively considered their future situation. Regarding to such topic, it is
important to insist in some of its dispositions.
For instance, in Strategic Line 3, appreciation of the organic and inorganic

solid waste, it was indicated: “in the City of Santiago de Cali, the solid waste
is reincorporated in the productive cycle, with the participation of the
different generators, the waste pickers’ organizations, the supportive sector,
the academy, the public contractors of cleanliness services and other
associations and entities contributing in the management of solid waste”. In
the same Strategic Line, in the recovery, use and commercialization program
it indicates: “4. Promoting the participation of the organized waste pickers in
the recovery of the solid waste.” And in the use and commercialization
subprogram: “5. Enable the participation of the waste pickers, wheel
barrowers and the supportive sector in the activities of recovery and use, with
the objective of productively consolidating such activities and improving their
life conditions.” And also,“8. Encouraging the participation of vulnerable
groups in the development of productive initiatives oriented towards the use of
solid waste.”
In Strategic Line 4, quality in the rendering of the cleanliness service, it was

included a specific subprogram called Strengthening and organization of
waste pickers and wheel barrowers, which includes the following actions:
1. Elaborating the census and socioeconomic diagnosis of the waste pickers and
wheel barrowers.
2. Preparing the associations of waste pickers and wheel barrowers for the
solidary economy.
3. Promoting the formal organization of waste pickers and wheel barrowers in
order to enable their participation in the recovery, use and commercialization of
solid waste, their relation with the city and the people rendering the service.
Finally, in Strategic Line 5, appropriate final disposal, it was included the

obligation to “3. Facilitate conditions for the Navarro waste dump waste
pickers to readapt to work.” And“4. Mobilize financial resources for the
closure of Navarro waste dump, including the social program.”
It is clear for the Court that the dispositions established in Resolution SCA
336 from September 15th, 1999, and especially in the PGIRS, despite certain
differences,60 were going on the right path. Contrarily to what some of the
defendant authorities sustain nowadays, in Cali it used to be common sense
that the decisions regarding to the solid waste management should be
considered, not only in terms of efficiency and appropriate environmental
management, but also of impact and social improvement. However, although
PGIRS established some appropriate action lines recognizing the necessity
and importance of formally integrating the waste pickers in the productive
processes of separation and use of solid waste, as indicated further bellow,
until the present date it has not been followed by concrete actions for its
implementation. In other words, the PGIRS, until the present date, regarding
to the purposes of integration and improvement of the informal waste pickers’
conditions, has represented nothing but a flag salute.
In relation to the above mentioned, it is an appropriate moment for a first

reflection concerning the responses from the defendant entities in this case. As
exposed in the background subhead, some of the defendant entities expressed
that they do not have to develop activities in order to mitigate the social
impact derived from the closure of Navarro because they are environmental
entities, whose competence does not include offering solutions to the social
problems caused by the closure of the waste dump. Such statement comes as a
surprise for several reasons: firstly, because it exposes a very limited vision
regarding to the environment, as if mankind was not part of it and the
environmental authorities did not have to take into account the relations
created between men and nature; secondly, because it seems contradictory the
fact that CVC issued a resolution demanding from EMSIRVA ESP the design
of a social management plan in order to compensate the closure of the waste
dump and nowadays such entities deny any responsibility of “social
management”; thirdly, because it makes no sense that the defendant entities
have participated in the elaboration of an environmental set of norms like the

PGIRS, which obliges to consider the interests and problematic of the waste
pickers, and nowadays they ignore what is expressed in it, fourthly, because
their conducts distort such statement. For the Court, based on the information
from the proceeding, it is clear that the defendant entities not only knew that
the closure of Navarro would generate an adverse and disproportional impact
on the waste pickers, but they were also aware that they had the obligation of
taking measures to mitigate such impact. In fact, months before the closure,
the People’s Defender – Valle del Cauca Regional –reminded the
administration of the Valle about the necessity to adopt solutions in order to
avoid the violation of the petitioners’ rights pursuant to the closure of
Navarro.61 The fact that for a long time the social problematic that could be
generated with the closure of Navarro had been known by the authorities and
although it was evident that after such decision the petitioners would have
their minimum vital jeopardized, only two weeks before the closure of the
waste dump they decided to call a meeting in order to “get to know the
necessities of Navarro waste pickers regarding to the closure of the disposal
site and establish commitments by the City, CVC and EMSIRVA, and to
provide solutions for the problematic generated.”
In other words, although 10 years had passed since the decision to close
Navarro waste dump and the demand of a social management plan to mitigate
its impacts, only two weeks before the actual closure, when the defendant
authorities found themselves involved in a social tension that was threatening
to delay the closure of the waste dump, such authorities decided to meet with
the waste pickers in order to know their necessities and establish commitments
with them. Obviously, the space for an agreement provided by the authorities
left the waste pickers in the position of accepting, without further objections,
what was offered by the administration. Such offers were registered in a
minute from June 13th, 2008, signed by the defendant entities and transcribed
below:
“Once heard the claims from the waste pickers’ representatives regarding to
the closure, the representatives from the Mayor’s Office, the CVC represented
by its director, and the manager of EMSIRVA ESP have established the
following commitments:
Mayor’s Office:
• Mobilization before SENA director’s office regarding to the entities’ co

financial Proposal to execute training programs with waste pickers aiming at
the work relocation of 200 Navarro waste pickers.
DAGMA
Employment offer (depending on transference of resources by CVC) to employ the waste

pickers in the teams for meadow pruning and embellishment of green areas.
• (50 workers). Such proposal was not accepted by CVC’s director.
Education Secretariat:
• Incorporation of children, teenagers and adults from the waste pickers’

population in the free educational programs from the Municipal Education
Secretariat, in the framework of the policy of direct inclusion of the
population excluded from the educational system. The resources shall be
made available by the population.
Social Welfare Secretariat:
• Including with priority the mothers who are heads of households in the
programs from the secretariat executed in Potrero Grande and other
areas of the city.
Health Secretariat:
• Along with East ESE, developing all programs executed by the Health
Secretariat with children, teenagers, adults and the elderly, health
prevention programs, vaccination and others.
• Updating the SISBEN database. Register of documents.
• Characterizing the children’s population.
Housing Secretariat:
• Incorporation of 100 families in the housing programs of the Housing

Secretariat in Potrero Grande and Santa Elena projects.
• We shall analyze the possible incorporation of more families in other
projects of the secretariat.
Municipal Planning Administrative Department:
• It is in progress the execution of the project of accompanying the

association of the waste pickers, including the Solid Waste Integral
Management Program PGIRS.
CVC
• CVC shall provide $815.000.000 (eight hundred and fifteen million

pesos) to projects that generate employment and are executed by the
waste pickers.
EMSIRVA
• Shall employ 150 waste pickers, extending to 200, for the works of
collection and sweeping.”
Next, as expressed in the proceeding, after the signature of such minute and
the closure of Navarro in June 25th, 2008, the petitioners carried out a protest
at Ermita church to complain about the incompliance of the commitments.
Consequently, the defendant authorities called another meeting and as a result
of it, signed the new minute from August 8th, 2008. Such minute expressed the
following:
“a. In attention to the fact that in August 5th of the current year the Navarro
Waste Pickers’ Association peacefully protested at Ermita church regarding
to a set of claims related to the situation of the closure of Navarro ‘waste
dump’, executed in June 25th of the current year.
b. Considering that in June 13th of the current year it was established by

means of a public minute a course of actions in order to compensate the social
impact that could be caused by the closure of Navarro waste dump; and that
the representatives of Navarro Waste Pickers’ Association, supported by
signatures, regard to as fundamental the habilitation of spaces for the
progress and compliance of the commitments established.
The present Compromissary Agreement is signed:
1. The public contractor of cleanliness services EMSIRVA, commits to

deliver to the Navarro waste pickers, installed and technically appropriate
for operation and functioning, the recycling transport conveyors existing
in Navarro by means of a ten-year commodatum contract.
2. In the same sense, for the functioning of the recycling process, Santiago de
Cali’s Mayor’s Office and EMSIRVA commit to permanently deliver an
identified volume of solid waste for supplying the previously mentioned
conveyors, coordinating the operation through an agreement with the
follow up Committee. Cali’s Archdiocese and the Solicitor’s Office shall
form an entrepreneurial management Committee to support the endeavor
of the Navarro Waste Pickers’ Association.
3. Santiago de Cali’s Mayor’s Office commits to deliver the waste separation
plant functioning within 90 days.
4. The institutions present at the table, commit to provide 625 contingency
employments in the areas of debris, sweeping and cleanliness of the city
and green areas, taking into account the specific conditions of the
population of Navarro waste pickers, including the disabled and the
elderly.
EMSIRVA: 220 employments from this date.
Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation, CVC: 30 employments

from this date.
Santiago de Cali’s Mayor’s Office: 375 employments for three months, from
the first week of September. The work contract in this alternative shall define
the advancement of 50 % of the first monthly wage from the improvement of
the contract, which shall not exceed the first week of September.
5. CVC sustains the commitment signed in June 13th of mobilizing the
amount of 815 million pesos for the training and organization of the
Navarro waste pickers in the generation of employment.
6. Dr. Susana Correa, EMSIRVA’s intervener, commits to mobilize
assistance and subsistence resources for the Navarro waste pickers, which
implicates assuring their right to life, as well as their families’.
7. A permanent follow up and speed up commission shall be appointed and
established, in order to assure the compliance with the commitments. Such
commission shall be established in August 15th, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. at
Simón Bolivar Hall, Santiago de Cali’s City Hall and the following
entities shall integrate such follow up team: Santiago de Cali’s Mayor’s
Office, the public contractor of cleanliness services EMSIRVA, CVC, the
Solicitor’s Office, the Valle del Cauca’ Regional Defender’s Office,
Santiago de Cali’s Provincial Attorney General’s Office, the Navarro
Waste Pickers’ Association and its advisors and Cali’s Archdiocese.
8. The protesters commit to leave Ermita church peacefully after the
signature of the present document.
9. The municipality commits not to suit the protesters or take any other
measure.
10. After signed this document, the municipality, the public prosecutor’s office
and the catholic church shall receive the facilities of Ermita church,
evaluating its physical conditions.”
For the Court, several of those commitments only offer a circumstantial and
partial solution to the social crisis faced today by the waste pickers. For
instance, providing contingency employments to a low percentage of the
waste pickers is far from assuring the State’s obligation to give that population
lasting economic alternatives. Their working fate is not even contemplated
after those three months, considering that their competences comprise the
recycling labor in which, as demonstrated further ahead, their participation has
been extremely limited. Also, it must not be forgotten the fact that the waste
pickers, although informally, acted as entrepreneurs. Therefore, an appropriate
alternative, rather than converting them into employees of the big recycling
companies, is providing them some space to keep acting as entrepreneurs,
promoting their organizational capacity and strengthening their capacities and
opportunities to appropriately carry out the activity that they had developed
throughout time. On the other hand, it is possible to indicate that, despite the
limitations of some of the commitments, other pointed towards assuring an
occupation for the waste pickers in the activity known by them. It is the case
of EMSIRVA, which commits to deliver to the Navarro waste pickers,
installed and technically appropriate, some recycling transport conveyors, and
to permanently deliver a volume of solid waste for the supply of such
conveyors.
However, and regardless the discussion if such commitments effectively help

to mitigate the impact caused on the petitioners by the administration’s
decisions in relation to the management and use of solid waste in Cali and if
they contribute with the promotion of that population’s life conditions, it is
certain that in this case the commitments established have not even been fully
complied with. As illustrated in the evidences section of this sentence, the
Court has ordered the defendant entities to indicate which commitments had
been complied with or not from the minutes from June 13th, 2008, and August
8th, 2008. The conclusion is that the majority of them have not been complied.
For instance, it has absolutely not been complied the commitment to provide
the recycling conveyors to the waste pickers in order to allow them to keep
developing the activity of waste separation, using the argument that the
feasibility studies made by EMSIRVA showed that the conveyors do not
belong to EMSIRVA, but to SERVIAMBIENTALES. Consequently, no waste

has been delivered for the waste pickers to separate, neither the solid waste
separation plant nor the mobilization of 815 million for training and
employment generation for the waste pickers.
In spite of the employment offer being seriously limited, regarding to such

matter there has been partial compliance. For instance, EMSIRVA ESP
affirms that employed 112 waste pickers for sweeping, collection and driving
and 25 more for embellishing the green areas (until February 5th, 2009). The
Municipal Planning Administrative Department affirms that EMSIRVA has
provided 110 from the 220 employments offered, while the CVC offered
another 30. The Mayor’s Office indicates that employed 375 workers for three
months, with the possibility of extending it for two more months.
Regarding the education of the underage from the waste pickers’ population,
only the request for 20 admissions has been managed, with no indication, for
instance, of how many underage were identified, what is the meaning of
“management” of admissions (the effective enrolment or only the request) and
what the plan is for the other whose admission has not been managed. In the
health aspect, it is indicated that SISBEN has taken a census of 1247 waste
pickers, however it does not specify if the figure corresponds to the totality of
waste pickers and how many of those are in subsidized regimen.
Such scenario shows that the above mentioned actions could not be referred to
as compliance, although partial, with the commitments established by the
administration. Those entities provided a space for negotiation with the waste
pickers in moments of tension that could have delayed the closure of the waste
dump. The first negotiation moment happened two weeks before the closure of
the waste dump and the second when the Ermita church was peacefully
occupied. However, once disarticulated the waste pickers’ strength of
manifestation, the authorities evaded the compliance of the commitments.
They have also established commitments apparently not willing to comply
with, such as the delivery of the Navarro recycling conveyors, whose embargo
has been known for several years.
In that perspective, there is no other option but the conclusion that the
defendant authorities have effectively violated the petitioners’ right to
equality, as well as their legitimate trust, pursuant to the signature of the
agreement minutes. Although the Court accepts that the closure of the waste
dump obeyed environmental reasons broadly sustained in technical
documents, as indicated in the evidences section and in the several regulations
cited in the action, the authorities had the obligation to not only minimize the
damage caused on the petitioners by the determination, but also to adopt
positive measures to promote such marginalized group. On the contrary, in
spite of having 10 years to design a solid waste recycling policy that could
compensate such social impact, the defendant entities acted in a hurry,
adopting a decision that worsened the poverty and marginality situation of a
population already poor and marginalized, without mitigating, through

positive measures, its effects.
Considering such difficult reality, it calls the attention of the Court the
indifference through which the defendant entities answer the charges
concerning the equality claimed by the petitioners. Evading its responsibility,
EMSIRVA ESP, for instance, indicates that despite having attended the
meetings from June 13th and August 8th, 2008, the commitments established
were simple “hypotheses related to a possible collaboration, if enabled by the
reorganization of the company and the availability of resources in the
development of the company’s current scheme of intervention in conformity
with the Domiciliary Public Services Superintendence.” The Valle del Cauca
Regional Autonomous Corporation went even further and completely ignored
such commitments affirming that the same had not been proved in the
proceeding, although it was its own resolution through which it was ordered
the implementation of such component in the policy: “(…)in the present
document there is no evidence that indicates the commitment of the
Corporation to solve the waste pickers problematic, given that there has never
been a contractual relation with them and also it is not of our environmental
competence to solve the social problematic generated by the rendering of
public services (…)”. And the Environmental Management Administrative
Department, DAGMA, indicated, as expressed in the previously transcribed
minutes, that due to the lack of its own resources it depended on the transfer of
resources from CVC, which was not accepted by that entity’s director,
“therefore DAGMA cannot fulfill its commitments with the waste pickers until
we have reached an agreement with CVC’s Director’s Office.”
The Court has already exposed the weakness of the environmental authorities’
arguments, as an excuse to evade their duty of taking positive measures in
favor of the petitioners. However, it is necessary to highlight that the other
reasons given by the same are also unjustifiable because:
Firstly, regardless if the waste pickers are contractors or not of the defendant
entities, the Constitution obliges all authorities not only to avoid adopting
measures that worsen or perpetuate the conditions of marginality or
subordination of a disadvantaged group, but also to act positively in order to
promote in their favor conditions of material equality, especially when such
group may be affected by their decisions or conducts.62 In that sense, it is
important to remind the defendant authorities that it is not only an obligation
to take measures in favor of the petitioners, but also that such measures must
go beyond the mere formulation of “hypotheses” of work regarding a
“possible collaboration”, as suggested by EMSIRVA ESP in this action.
Secondly, because in such case, the principle of legitimate trust is applicable

as, although informal, the Navarro waste pickers’ activity was not only
allowed for 30 years but also applauded by the administration. As indicated by
one of the defendant entities in its intervention, such population “has
contributed with the management of all materials that could be recovered such
as plastic, paper, glass, metals, among others.”63 In other words, the

administration’s conduct led the waste pickers to create an objective
conviction that their activity was not only not prohibited, but also appreciated.
Regarding that topic in particular, it is important to remember what this
Corporation has expressed in terms of legitimate trust. For instance, in
sentence T-321 from 2007,64 it indicated:
“In conformity with the constitutional jurisprudence, the relations between legal
subjects must be ruled by the principle of good faith, which establishes both the
duty of behaving with loyalty in the legal relations and the right to expect that the
other party will behave in the same way.65. (…) The constitutional jurisprudence
has indicated that the respect for one’s own actions contains the duty of behaving in
a consistent manner in relation to the preceding actions in order not to surprise the
other party with conducts that, for being contrary, disappoint their legitimately
funded expectations.
Regarding the principle of legitimate trust, this Corporation’ jurisprudence has

established that it consists essentially in the fact that the State and the authorities
representing the same must not modify the rules that govern their relation with
individuals without consulting them.66 (…)
The Court must express that the application of the principle of legitimate trust
suggests the existence of serious and funded expectations, whose conformation
must be consistent with the administration’s preceding conducts that generated the
conviction in the previous status quo. However, the intangibility and immutability
of the juridical relations that create expectations on the population cannot be
derived from such principle; on the contrary, the interpretation of it must follow the
comprehension that does not apply to acquired rights, but to juridical situation
susceptible to modifications, considering that the alteration of the same must not
occur abruptly and unsuitably, being an obligation for the administration the
adoption of measures to assure that the change happens in the least traumatic way
for the people affected.67
Such principle of legitimate trust has been applied by this Corporation in different
scenarios like the one related to the street vendors, in which a conflict was caused
involving the right to work and the public space. Although it was solved in favor of
the general interest, due to the principle of legitimate trust the administration was
ordered to adopt a series of measures oriented towards the relocation of that group.
In sentence SU-360 from 1999, the following was expressed:
“Such principle is applied as a mechanism to conciliate the conflict between the
public and private interests, considering that the administration has created
expectations in favor of the population and taken the same by surprise by suddenly
eliminating such conditions. Therefore, the trust placed by the population in the
consistency of the administration’s conduct is worthy of protection and must be
respected.68
62
See, among others, sentence T-724 from2003. FJ. Jaime Araujo Rentería.
63
DAGMA’s intervention.
64
FJ. Rodrigo Escobar Gil.
65
Constitutional Court, sentences C-544 from 1994 y C-496 from 1997, FJ. Jorge Arango Mejía.
66
Constitutional Court, sentence T-689 from 2005, FJ. Rodrigo Escobar Gil.
In the sentence concerning the case of the street vendors, the Corporation got to the
following conclusions that may be applied to the present case: “The principle of
legitimate trust shall have three assumptions. Firstly, the need to preserve the public
interest; secondly, a certain, reasonable and evident desestabilization in the relation
between the administration and the population; finally, the need to adopt measures
for a transitory period in order to adjust the current situation to the new reality”69
Therefore, in the relations between the State authorities and the individuals,
according to the principle of good faith, the coherence in the conducts and the
respect for the established commitments is necessary.
Furthermore, the principles of good faith and legitimate trust have also been
violated regarding the petitioners due to unfulfillment of the expectations
created by the administration by means of different conducts. As previously
demonstrated, 10 years ago in Resolution SGA 336 from September 15th,
1999, it was announced a social plan to compensate the impact caused by the
closure of Navarro; the PGIRS not only allowed the active participation of the
waste pickers group in its design, but also determined some policies highly
favorable to the same. And in July and August 2008, as previously mentioned,
the different defendant entities signed minutes establishing several
“commitments” in different matters such as employment, education and
health69. That is why it comes as such a surprise the fact that those entities
affirm now that they do not have any responsibilities regarding the waste
pickers, when they themselves generated several expectation actions in their
favor.
Concerning that topic, it is also important to aggregate the indicated by the

Court in sentence T-760 from 2008, in the sense that for the public policies
to be in accordance with the Constitution, it is not only necessary to exist
and be allowed the democratic participation in the processes of decision,
elaboration, implementation and evaluation of the same, but also that such
public policies prioritize the effective enjoyment of the right. In other
words, it must not be a symbolic public policy that is not followed by real
and concrete actions.70
67
Constitutional Court, sentence C-130 from 2004, FJ. Clara Inés Vargas.
68
Constitutional Court, sentence SU-360 from 1999, FJ. Alejandro Martínez Caballero.
69
Constitutional Court, sentence SU-360 from 1999, FJ Alejandro Martínez Caballero.
70
It calls the attention the fact that several from the judges have denied the correspondent petitions
using the argument that the defendant entities had not established commitments with the waste pickers,
being the same referred to as “management promises”. Reading the respective minutes is enough to
conclude that the instance judges are wrong. The same contain specific commitments established by
the defendant entities with the waste pickers.
Therefore the Constitution is violated when there is a plan or program but it is

observed that (i) “it is only written and its execution has not been initiated” or
(ii) “it is being implemented but is evidently inane, either because it does not
contemplate the real problems and necessities of the holders of the referred
right, or because its execution has been postponed indefinitely for an
unreasonable period of time”.71 That is precisely the case of the policy
determinations adopted in relation to Cali’s waste pickers.
Finally, the above mentioned also applies to another argument used by the
defendants, that they do not have any responsibilities regarding to the
petitioners as they have acted in compliance with legal, general and abstract
norms. For the Court it is certain, as expressed above, that there are different
norms, as the defendants said, general and abstract, which rule the forms
through which the waste is disposed, as well as the forms through which the
solid waste must be recycled. For instance, it is evident that there are norms
prohibiting the use of open air waste dumps, and the human presence in the
working front of the landfills. However, and despite the existence and
compliance of at least those dispositions are not questioned, the fact that the
compliance with the set of norms has been selective is questioned. Because it
is certain that from the handful of dispositions commented, there are norms
that demand the formal inclusion of the waste pickers in the recycling process,
as well as giving them alternatives, strengthening their organizational
capacities and adopting positive measures in their favor. Concerning that
point, especially EMSIRVA ESP, once intervened by the nation, has evaded
the obligatory compliance with dispositions such as Cali’s PGIRS. In other
words, the fact that the entity in charge of Cali’s cleanliness has been
intervened by the nation and initiated a liquidating process in response, does
not exempt the liquidator agent from complying with Cali’s PGIRS, especially
considering that such set of norms was issued in conformity with the
dispositions issued by the same central level.
8. The violation of the rights to equality, economic freedom and free

enterprise, due to the exclusion of the waste pickers from a profitable
market, without being supported by reasonably proportional conditions.
It has already been mentioned in this sentence that the order to close the waste
dump from Navarro without giving viable subsistence alternatives to the waste
pickers violates the clauses of the Rule of Law and the right to equality, both
from the perspective of the non-discrimination principle and the State’s
obligation to intervene in favor of marginalized and discriminated groups. It
has also been indicated that besides those constitutional rights, the defendant
entities, by not complying, among others, with the commitments established
with the waste pickers, have violated the constitutional principles of good faith
and legitimate trust.
Beyond the above mentioned, the Court observes that the violation of the
petitioners’ rights is not limited to the closure of the waste dump without the
adoption of measures to mitigate its impact. It also includes the fact that,
regarding to the set of conducts taken by the authorities in terms of cleanliness
and recycling, there has been a tendency to exclude from a profitable
economic activity, such as the solid waste recycling, both the waste pickers
from Navarro and the multiple street waste pickers from Cali. Such exclusion
of a marginalized group from an economic activity could only be justified by
demonstrating, strictly in terms of constitutionality, that it follows
considerations of reasonability and proportionality. And those are not
observed in this case.
In order to explain such observation, it is important to remember the

arguments sustained by EMSIRVA ESP in its intervention before the Court,
which demonstrates how far it is from appreciating that the compliance with
the constitutional disposition that all public policies, programs or measures
designed and executed in the Rule of Law must derive from a reasonable and
careful evaluation of the reality and must be formulated without affecting the
effective enjoyment of people’s fundamental rights. EMSIRVA ESP has
declared: “(…) the matter claimed by the petitioner in this constitutional
lawsuit is a problem of social nature and of reinsertion in the work market,
based on an alleged lack of work source, a situation which, according to the
previous paragraph, does not correspond to the reality since the activity of
use or recovery under technical conditions has not been prohibited; those
people may carry out their work as anyone in Colombia, seeking their own
clients (…)”.
EMSIRVA ESP’s argument reminds the Court of the ironic statement by the
French writer Anatole France: “the law, in its majestic equality, prohibits both
the rich and the poor to sleep under bridges, begging on the streets or stealing
bread”. Because it is certain that, considering some of the restrictions
established regarding to the management and use of solid waste and the
requirements established by EMSIRVA ESP for the participation in the waste
market, although written in neutral language and not expressly prohibiting the
waste pickers to carry out the activities of management and use of solid waste,
in the current conditions, those who had developed such economic activities
for years would only be allowed to be part of the recycling market with
consistent support from the authorities.
Regarding to the Navarro waste pickers’ situation, they can neither get the
recyclable material from the waste dump where they used to operate, nor work
in the new landfill, not only because Yocotó is very far from Cali, but also
because decree 1713 from 2002 (modified by art.9 from decree 1505 from
2003) prohibits the human presence in the working front of the landfills.
Additionally, the separation facilities promised to be built in the new Yocotó
landfill have not begun operating and there are no evidences that, when they
do, the waste pickers will be allowed to operate there.
Furthermore, if not in the waste dump, one might conclude that the Navarro
waste pickers could have access to the waste from households left on the
streets; however, such option is not only undesirable, as previously expressed,
but it is also prohibited by the current set of norms. It is not desirable because
it could generate unnecessary confrontations with another group equally
marginalized, the street waste pickers, in a way that, as expressed by one of
the intervenient parties, a difficult social tension could be created and still not
solve the problematic of the informality in the occupation. And it is also
impossible because considering dispositions such as the ones established in
articles 4 and 6 from Law 1259 from 2008, it is prohibited to open waste bags
in public areas and to carry waste in animal traction vehicles, both activities,
considering their marginality conditions, are typical from the waste pickers.
In addition to the above mentioned, all opportunities of working in conditions

of formality are being denied to the waste pickers by the requirements
established by EMSIRVA ESP for the adjudication of the contract “for the
operation and exploration of the services of solid waste collection, sweeping
and cleanliness of streets and public areas, as well as the commercial
management and other activities in Cali’s zone number 1”. Among other
requirements, according to the Competitive Bidding 002 from 2009, the
bidders were obliged to: i) pay a company reorganization premium not inferior
to two billion and five hundred million pesos; ii) demonstrate the ownership of
a patrimony (active total minus passive total) of at least eight billion pesos; iii)
present a bank guarantee of at least two billion and five million pesos; iv) have
experience in collection and sweeping of ordinary waste, in contracts or
projects operated for at least three consecutive years and demonstrate
experience in commercial management of the management components in a
cadastre of 100.000 subscribers or users of domiciliary public services for at
least three consecutive years. Hence, it is evident that the waste pickers,
including the unionized ones, under the current conditions, cannot comply
with any of those requirements.
As previously indicated in this sentence, although it is certain that the public

services regulation is of the lawmakers’ competence, and that the State may
adopt measures to limit the participation, the free enterprise and the free
competition in the search for efficiency in their rendering, for the quality in
the service or for the widening of their coverage, it is also certain that all
restrictions to the exercise of rights must be preceded by conditions of
reasonability and proportionality.73
73
Regarding that topic, it is important to indicate that, contrarily to the expressed by EMSIRVA ESP, the
rendering of a domiciliary public service, such as the cleanliness – including the management and use of
solid waste, according to the Constitution, has not been included completely in the sphere of free market.
On the contrary, as indicated by the Court in sentence C- 615 form 2002, as the public services are
activities that affect the population’s basic needs, “the State’s intervention in the activity of individuals
who assume enterprises dedicated to such ends is particularly intense, and its rendering is subject to
special regulation and control” (bold not used in the original). In fact, as highlighted by the Court, the
state intervention is justified especially, among other circumstances, “to give full employment to human
resources” and “assuring that all people, particularly those with lower income, have effective access to
the basic goods and services”.
As above mentioned, although the analysis of the restrictions to economic

freedom is ordinarily carried out in light standards, when such restrictions
cause an impact on the exercise of the rights of people placed in conditions of
marginality and discrimination, the evaluation standards must be more
rigorous. In other words, the authorities are obliged to demonstrate that such
restrictions (i) obey to imperative finalities, (ii) are necessary given the
inexistence of alternative mechanisms less onerous in terms of sacrifice of
rights, and (iii) are strictly proportional.
Although the Court does not ignore the necessity for the cleanliness services
and solid waste collection to be carried out in conditions of efficiency and
environmental protection, it is certain that the administration, to whom it
corresponds the burden of the evidence, has not demonstrated in this action
why the waste pickers should be excluded from the activities of management
and use of solid waste, or why it is convenient to limit their participation
regarding to the finality of rendering an efficient service with optimum
environmental standards, or why the waste pickers should not be allowed to
keep carrying out an informal economic activity in conformity with the
protection of the environment, considering that they used to do so. Also, as
highlighted by one of the intervenient parties, it comes as a surprise that when
the recycling activity was not regarded to as a profitable economic activity, the
waste pickers were allowed to develop it – and their function was in fact
applauded – however, nowadays when it is clear that recycling is a highly
profitable activity,74 the ones who carried it out for years are excluded from
all possibilities of participation in it.
However, even supposing it was indicated that such exclusion obeys criteria of
efficiency and environmental protection in the rendering of a public service, it
is unjustifiable that the waste pickers’ participation in the management and
use of solid waste, in a context such as the Colombian, jeopardizes the
efficiency and the protection of the environment. On the contrary, what the
Court observes is that in countries where the culture of separating waste in its
source does not exist, such as in Colombia, the waste pickers have a lot to
contribute in that matter.
In fact there are several successful experiences demonstrating that it is

possible to assure that the processes of management and use of solid waste are
efficient and comply with high standards in terms of environmental protection,
and at the same time promote the inclusion of the waste pickers. In other
words, efficiency and environmental protection do not conflict with the waste
pickers’ participation in the process. In other parts of the world it is well
understood that contrarily to the exclusion of a marginalized population, what
should be done is the strengthening of their associative networks, the
formalization of their activity and the qualification of their participation.
74
According to professor César Rodríguez, in Colombia, 1990, the money generated by the set of activities
comprised in the recycling circuit, in other words, collection, transformation and transport, reached 22
million dollars (Social Foundation, 1990.45). Rodríguez Garavito César. In search for economic
alternatives in times of globalization: the case of the waste pickers cooperatives in Colombia. In:
Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Mauricio García Villegas (ed). Social Emancipation and violence in
Colombia. Bogotá, Norma 2004.
Such is the case, for instance, of Brazil, where both in the federal and local
spheres norms protecting the waste pickers’ activity as an entrepreneurial one
have been adopted. Among other dispositions, for example, the waste pickers’
activity is recognized as a profession, the State is allowed to hire, without
bidding competitions, the waste pickers’ associations to execute some of the
functions related to the waste separation, and waste generated in federal
buildings is reserved for the waste pickers to have something to work with.75
In the same sense, the investigator Martín Medina76 expresses in terms of

recycling processes in Latin America:
“There are several examples of developing countries in which the technologies

coming from industrialized nations are not in accordance with the conditions and
necessities of the same, among other reasons, due to the composition of the
waste generated in comparison with the industrialized countries (…) an integral
management of waste regards to recycling as a more socially desirable action
than the massive disposal of waste in landfills. And despite of its desirability,
few Latin American cities have policies and programs that promote recycling
and focus efforts and resources on the collection and disposal of waste in
landfills. The activity of informal recycling constitutes an important source of
income for individuals with low educational level and migrants, provides cheap
raw materials for the industry and reduces the amount of waste to be collected,
transported and disposed in waste dumps/landfills. Disgracefully, the
municipal authorities do not observe the social, economic and
environmental benefits of the informal recycling (…) The waste pickers’
cooperatives may be the means to promote basic development and reduce the
negative environmental impact of the production and consumption processes in
such way that contributes with the solution of the problems related to the solid
waste management in a way that is economically viable, socially desirable and
environmentally appropriate. The informal recycling may contribute with the
achievement of a sustainable development. Supporting the informal recycling in
Latin America would be a step in the correct direction” (bold not used in the
original)
In summary, from the above mentioned it is possible to conclude that

although the regulation of the public services is of the State’s competence,
as well as defining the framework for individuals to participate in the
rendering of public services, a marginalized and discriminated population
must not be ignored, especially when the same has a lot to contribute with
the rendering of such services with efficiency and quality. The State must
not completely prohibit the participation of the waste pickers in an
economic activity, considering that such activity represents the rendering of
a public service, without demonstrating that such exclusion obeys
consideration of reasonability and proportionality.
And it has been demonstrated in this action that such considerations do not
exist.77
75
See Dias, Sonia M. & Alves, Fabio C.G. 2008. "Integration of the Informal Recycling Sector in Solid
Waste Management in Brazil. Study prepared for the GTZ´s sector project "Promotion of concepts for
pro-poor and environmentally friendly closed-loop approaches in solid waste management".
76
Medina, Martín. Solid Waste Recycling in Latin America. Consulted at
http://aplicaciones.colef.mx:8080/fronteranorte/articulos/FN21/1-
f21_Reciclaje_desechos_solidos_en_America_Latina.pdf.
9. Summary of the orders to be given

Based on the previous considerations, in the present sentence two kinds of
orders shall be adopted. Firstly, those oriented towards solving the concrete
case of the accumulated appeals of legal protection in the present sentence.
Secondly, the complex orders designed to solve the problems highlighted
concerning the Navarro waste pickers, as well as the waste pickers from the
city of Cali in general.
9.1. Punctual orders to uphold the rights of the petitioners in the

present action.
9.1.1. Due to the considerations exposed throughout the legal grounds of this
sentence, the Court considers that, in fact, Cali’s municipal authorities have
violated the Navarro waste pickers’ fundamental right to a decent life in
connection with the right to work. For that reason, in the concrete cases
accumulated in the present sentence, the Court shall proceed in order to grant
the appeals of legal protection filed by the waste pickers as follows:
1. In proceeding T-2094526, the decision to deny the legal protection

adopted by the Seventeenth Administrative Court from the City of Cali,
which was not appealed by the petitioner, shall be revoked and, in its
place, the fundamental rights of Cecilio Cesar Caicedo Izquierdo and
his family shall be protected.
2. In proceeding T-2094503, the decision adopted by the Penal Decision

Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s Judicial Circuit, which revoked
the decision from Cali’s Nineteenth Penal Court which had granted the
legal protection, shall be revoked and, in its place, the fundamental
rights of Neisy Gómez Vargas and her family shall be protected.
77
In fact, this Court has insisted in the State’s obligation to adopt affirmative measures in the bidding
processes in order to uphold the participation of marginalized and discriminated groups. In such
perspective, in sentence T-724 from 2003, the Court considered that the Capital District had violated
the waste pickers’ right to equality by not including in the set of conditions for the adjudication of
cleanliness contracts, whose objective was the collection of recyclable materials by means of a
selective collection route and disposal of the same in the recycling or stocking centers, any effective
measures to allow the participation of Bogotá’s Waste Pickers’ Association in order to maintain and
strengthen the activity they had been developing throughout the years as a means of subsistence. An
important point in such sentence, and which must be especially emphasized in relation to the present
matter, is that the affirmative measures in bidding processes in which the rights of marginalized or
discriminated people are involved must be effective and facilitate, as much as possible, the continuation
of the activity such people had been developing or, in the terms of the above mentioned sentence,
measures tending to maintain and strengthen the activity they had been developing throughout the
years. Consequently, in such decision the Court considered that the rights of the waste pickers’ group
were not being upheld, neither an effective protection of the recycling activity they had been
developing, by the simple statement in the set of conditions that the selected contractors should
consider that 15% of the workers required for the activity of grass mowing had to be selected from the
waste pickers’ and the displaced populations.

adopted by the Seventh Administrative Court from the Circuit of Cali,
which was not appealed by the petitioner, shall be revoked and, in its
place, the fundamental rights of Mariela Tenorio Carabalí and her
family shall be protected.

adopted by the Civil Decision Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s
Judicial District, which was not appealed by the petitioner, shall be
revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Conrado de Jesús
Cardona and his family shall be protected.

adopted by the Civil Decision Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s
revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Julio Cesar Gómez
Ramos and his family shall be protected.
6. In proceeding T-2094109, the decision adopted by Cali’s Court for

Contentious Administrative Proceedings, which revoked the decision
from Cali’s First Family Court in first instance, denying the legal
protection shall be revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of
Grecia Valencia Viáfara and her family shall be protected.

adopted by the Civil Court of the Superior Court of Santiago de Cali’s
revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of José Armando Arias
and his family shall be protected.

adopted by the Civil Decision Court of the Superior Court of Santiago
de Cali’s Judicial District, which was not appealed by the petitioner,
shall be revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Álvaro
Castillo Quiñónez and his family shall be protected.

revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Fabio Andrés
Velasco Martínez and his family shall be protected.

revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of María Victoria

Carlosama and her family shall be protected.

adopted by the Family Court of the Superior Court of Santiago de Cali’s
revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of José Hernando
Miranda Rodríguez y and his family shall be protected.
12. In proceeding T-2085999, the decision adopted by the Court for

Contentious Administrative Proceeding, which revoked the decision
from Cali’s First Family Court in first instance, denying the legal
protection shall be revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of
Freddy Orlando Tenorio Quiñones y and his family shall be protected.
13.In proceeding T-2100591, the decision to deny the legal protection

revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Alexander Mayorga
14.In proceeding T-2092631, the decision adopted by the Labor Court of

the Superior Court of Santiago de Cali’s Judicial District, which
revoked the decision from the Twelfth Labor Court from Cali’s Circuit
in first instance, denying the legal protection shall be revoked and, in its
place, the fundamental rights of Raquel Tamayo Cáceres and her family
shall be protected.

revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Segundo Camilo
Quiñónez and his family shall be protected.

revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Fernando Ramírez
17.In proceeding T- 2092004the decision adopted by the Penal Court of the

Superior Court of Santiago de Cali’s Judicial District, which revoked
the decision from the Seventh Penal Court from Cali’s Circuit in first
instance, denying the legal protection shall be revoked and, in its place,
the fundamental rights of Luz Mery Rodríguez Valentierra and her

revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Safra Ruth Méndez
Muñoz and her family shall be protected.

revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Ana Beiva Bejarano
y and her family shall be protected.
20.In proceeding T- 2092004the decision adopted by the Penal Court of the

Court for Contentious Administrative Proceedings from the Valle,
which revoked the decision from the Fourth Administrative Judge from
Cali’s Circuit in first instance, denying the legal protection shall be
revoked and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Ninfa Rosalba
Ramírez and her family shall be protected.

adopted by the Second Penal Court of Cali’s Specialized Circuit, which
was not appealed by the petitioner, shall be revoked and, in its place, the
fundamental rights of Lucena Vargas y and her family shall be
protected.

adopted by the Eighth Civil Court of Cali’s Circuit, which was not
appealed by the petitioner, shall be revoked and, in its place, the
fundamental rights of Ayda López Jojoa y and her family shall be
protected.
23. In proceeding T-2079694the decision adopted by the Superior Court

from Cali’s District, which confirmed the decision from the First Penal
Court from Cali’s Circuit, denying the legal protection, shall be revoked
and, in its place, the fundamental rights of Ángela María Alzate and her

adopted by the Eighteenth Penal Court of Cali’s Circuit, which was not
fundamental rights of Diego Ruiz Angulo y and her family shall be
protected.

adopted by the Eighteenth Penal Court of Cali’s Circuit, which was not
fundamental rights of Leidy Johana Torres y and her family shall be

protected.
9.1.2. With the objective of upholding the fundamental rights of the petitioners
and their families, Cali’s City Hall, through the Education and Health and
Social Welfare Secretariats shall adopt, within two (2) months from the
notification of the present sentence, the necessary measures to uphold the
effective enjoyment of their constitutional rights to health, education, decent
housing and food, verifying in each concrete case the affiliation to the social
security system related to health, the access to education for the underage, and
their inclusion in the municipality’s social programs in terms of food and
housing. Also, Cali’s City Hall in coordination with the Cali’s Public
Contractor of Cleanliness Services, “EMSIRVA ESP”, or its substitute, the
Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation – CVC, and
Environmental Administrative Department – DAGMA shall connect the
petitioners to the following subsistence and work alternatives promised in the
minutes from June 13th and August 8th, 2008 and in the PGIRS: (1) temporary
work solutions to guarantee subsistence, (2) business solutions to guarantee
subsistence and (3) solutions other than to subsistence. Regarding to the
compliance with such orders, Cali’s Mayor must present a detailed report to
the Constitutional Court in August 10th, 2009.
9.2. Complex orders to guarantee the process of inclusion of the

Navarro waste pickers and the so called street waste pickers in the City
of Cali
9.2.1. The orders to be adopted in the present sentence have two finalities.
Firstly, compensating the precarious material conditions in which the waste
pickers have been left due the Cali’s administration’s incompliance. Secondly,
adopting measures to slow down the disproportional impact generated on the
Navarro waste pickers by the juridical norms adopted in terms of the final
disposal of waste and the new configuration of the processes of collection and
final disposal of waste.
9.2.2. For that reason, in the findings and conclusions of this sentence the
decision adopted in the precautionary measure shall be confirmed regarding to
the order for EMSIRVA ESP or its substitute to suspend the bidding
competition 002 from 2009 Contract for the operation and exploration of the
services of solid waste collection, sweeping and cleanliness of streets and
public areas, as well as the commercial management and other activities in
Cali’s zone number 1, for three (3) months counted from the notification of
the present decision, during which the terms of such bidding process must be
reformulated as follows:
In such bidding competition, EMSIRVA ESP, or its substitute, shall enable the
real and effective participation of Cali’s waste pickers in the same. The
competition shall comply with the standards of inclusion determined by the

PGIRS and establish conditions for the recovery and use of waste, which
allow the effective participation of the waste pickers in such activity. The real
and effective participation depends on the definition of standards within the
waste pickers’ reach according to their specific conditions: organizational
capability, lack of investment capital, technical knowledge in terms of public
biddings. It shall at least:
1. Establish within the reference terms conditions for the recovery and use
of waste which enable the waste pickers to effectively participate in such
activity, in conformity with what is indicated in the legal ground of this
sentence. Such participation must not be stimulated only with the
objective of incorporating them as employees, but it must also
contemplate the possibility for them to continue working as waste
entrepreneurs.
2. EMSIRVA ESP, or the cleanliness company that takes over its functions,
and Cali’s Mayor’s Office shall provide serious and permanent
accompaniment during the entire bidding process, in conformity with this
sentence’s legal grounds. In order to guarantee the waste pickers’
inclusion in the productive activity of solid waste collection and use, the
waste pickers shall receive permanent accompaniment not only in the
technical aspects required to comply with the norms of the process, but
also financial and organization support, favoring the forms of associative
or solidary organization.
3. In absolutely no situation the Navarro waste pickers and the so called

street waste pickers shall be excluded from the activity of waste use. In
parallel to the reformulation of the bidding process, measures must be
adopted in order to avoid that other waste pickers are disproportionally
affected by the norms that currently regulate the collection and use of
waste and for the same to be progressively included in the process of
waste use.
4. The future biddings carried out for the collection and use of solid waste in
the City of Cali must privilege and preserve the waste pickers’ quality of
autonomous entrepreneurs.
5. It must be also adopted as marking criteria for the bidding for the
collection and use of solid waste in the city of Cali the inclusion of waste
pickers that the different bidders may present, not only as temporary or
permanent employees, but especially considering how much they favor
associative forms that assure the continuation of the quality of
entrepreneurs that the informal waste pickers have, both from waste
dumps and street waste pickers from the city of Cali.
6. Any bidding process for the collection, use and commercialization of

solid waste carried out in the future must consider the standards
established in this sentence and in the regulation.
7. The Public Defender, Valle del Cauca regional, shall be ordered to watch
over the compliance of the present order, as well as to inform the
Constitutional Court about the progresses, the backward steps or
stagnations in such process.
9.2.3. Once finalized the competitive bidding, EMSIRVA ESP, or its

substitute, shall submit to the Constitutional Court, in September 1st, 2009, a
report in which the following questions are answered:
- What were the concrete measures taken for the inclusion of the waste
pickers in the process of collection and use of solid waste in the city of Cali
in order to comply with the present order?
- What is the number of waste pickers effectively included – individually

and through associations – in the collection and use of waste and the
modalities of inclusion of the same?
- What are the main obstacles for the effective inclusion of the waste pickers
in the process of waste collection and use of solid resources, and the
measures adopted to overcome such obstacles?
9.2.4. Additionally, in order to assure that the waste pickers’ inclusion is

effective, EMSIRVA ESP or its substitute, Cali’s Mayor’s Office and the
Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation shall be obliged to, within
six (6) months from the notification of the present sentence, design, adopt and
set in motion an effective policy for the inclusion of Cali’s waste pickers in
the programs of collection, use and commercialization of waste, which
strengthen their quality of entrepreneurs and the forms of solidary
organization.
9.2.5. In the same sense, with the objective of upholding the fundamental
rights of the Navarro waste pickers included in the census from 2003 and in
the card issue from 2006 and their families, even considering that some of
them have not filed appeals of legal protection for the protection of their
rights, Cali’s Mayor’s Office, through the Education and Health and Social
Welfare Secretariats, shall adopt, within six (6) months from the notification
of the present sentence, the necessary measures to uphold the effective
enjoyment of their constitutional rights to health, education, decent housing
and food, verifying in each concrete case the affiliation to the social security
system related to health, the access to education for the underage, and their
inclusion in the municipality’s social programs in terms of food and housing
Also, Cali’s Mayor’s Office in coordination with the Public Contractor of

Cleanliness Services, “EMSIRVA ESP”, or its substitute, the Valle del Cauca
Regional Autonomous Corporation – CVC, and the Environmental
Administrative Department – DAGMA, shall connect the petitioners to the
following subsistence and work alternatives promised in the minutes from
June 13th and August 8th, 2008 and in the PGIRS: (1) temporary work
solutions to guarantee subsistence, (2) business solutions to guarantee
the Constitutional Court in January 18th, 2010.
9.2.6. While such measures are effectively adopted, in order to avoid the
disproportional impact caused on the waste pickers, it shall be ordered the
inapplicability of article 98 from Law 769 from 2002, article 24 from Decree
838 from 2005 and articles 4 and 6 from Law 1259 from 2008, until the above
mentioned measures have been totally and satisfactorily adopted.
Cali’s Mayor may use the exception of unconstitutionality in the cases in

which the application of a legal norm violates the right to the effective
enjoyment of the citizens’ environmental sanitation or the waste pickers’
fundamental rights or specifically and inevitably results in impediment for the
effective protection of such people. The Court understands that in many
situations the administrative employees have difficulties to apply the
exception of unconstitutionality. However, the situation is different when it
concerns the compliance with a sentence that protects the fundamental rights
of a vulnerable group such as the waste pickers’ and there are legal or
administrative obstacles. In such scenario, the prevalence of the Constitution
and the primacy of the fundamental rights must be applied.
The Constitutional Court has established the following criteria to be

considered when using the inapplicability of norms: (1) the normative content
of the disposition must be evidently contrary to the Constitution, and (2) the
norm must clearly jeopardize fundamental rights. The exception must be
applied when the following conditions are presented, which must be object of
motivation in an administrative act:
i. It must be observed that the application of the administrative or legal

norms threatens or prevents the protection of the constitutional rights.
ii. There must not be an alternative way equally efficient for the removal
of the obstacle in the necessary moment.
iii. It must be clearly deduced from the Constitution the necessity to

uphold a constitutional right, in this case the effective enjoyment of the
environmental sanitation and the waste pickers’ fundamental rights,
whenever the normative obstacle is specifically indicated.
The exception of unconstitutionality must be applied by Cali’s Mayor.
However, the same may previously inform the Municipal Counsel about the
legal or administrative norms whose inapplicability shall be used and the
reasons for such use, in order to verify the existence of any objections.
The exception shall be used exclusively to overcome an obstacle that cannot

be removed in another way, such as reforming the administrative act or
modifying the law within the deadline necessary to adopt the decisions
oriented towards the fulfillment of the waste pickers’ material conditions,
hiring temporary cleanliness services until the bidding competition is carried
out, complying with an specific order issue by the Court or effectively
protecting the waste pickers’ fundamental rights, and it must not be used as a
consequence of an omission nor simply to correct the law.
9.2.7. In order to assure that the process of inclusion of the waste pickers is
participative, the Second Court of Revision shall order Cali’s Mayor and
EMSIRVA’s or its substitute’s legal representative to conform a committee,
within two weeks from the notification of the present sentence, for the
inclusion of the waste pickers in Cali’s formal cleanliness economy, in which
the following shall participate: a DANSOCIAL’s representative, a DAGMA’s
representative, a representative of the entity that coordinates the PGIRS, a
CVC’s representative, the FERERUSCO’s legal representative, the
UFPRAME’s legal representative, the Navarro Waste Pickers’ Association’s
legal representative, the National Waste Pickers’ Association’s legal
representative, the Regional Human Rights Defender and a CIVISOL’s
representative. Such committee shall participate in the design and
implementation of the plan of inclusion of the Cali’s waste pickers in the
formal cleanliness economy, as well as the design of the affirmative actions
necessary to assure the effectiveness of such inclusion. The plan of inclusion
of the waste pickers designed by the committee must be ready and functioning
by November 23rd, 2009. Cali’s Mayor must submit to the Court, in December
1st, 2009, a report with the designed plan and the affirmative acts adopted, as
well as the indicators of results designed to demonstrate the progress in the
process of inclusion and effective enjoyment of the waste pickers’ and their
families’ rights.
9.2.8. In order to assure the rationality in the Cali’s waste pickers’ inclusion
procedure, the Second Court of Revision shall order Cali’s Municipal
Planning Administrative Department to complete the Navarro waste pickers’
census and include in it all people initially present in the census, as well as the
Navarro waste pickers present in the database of the cooperatives, EATs and
other organizations that functioned in Navarro and who are registered in such
databases before March 1st, 2009. Also, the Municipal Planning
Administrative Department shall be ordered to design and take a census of

Cali’s street waste pickers, in such a way that the information collected allows
the progress in the process of inclusion of that population in the formal
cleanliness economy.
9.2.9. In order to intensify the social sensibility and the social commitment,
the Second Court of Revision shall order DAGMA and CVC to create and
promote – with the participation of organizations from the civil society willing
to join efforts – civism and solidarity campaigns oriented towards the
citizenship in Cali, with the objective of encouraging the city’s cleanliness
service users to (a) start separating waste in its source and (b) hand over to the
organized waste pickers the property of their recyclable waste with the
beginning of the operation of the selective routes in the City.
IV. DECISION
Regarding to the previously indicated case, the Second Court of Revision of

the Constitutional Court, administering justice on behalf of the people and by
Constitutional mandate,
RESOLVES
FIRSTLY.-. In relation to each one of the individual cases accumulated in the

present trial, to:
1. REVOKE the decision to deny the legal protection adopted by the

Seventeenth Administrative Court from the City of Cali in proceeding
T-2094526, and in its place protect the fundamental rights of Cecilio
Cesar Caicedo Izquierdo and his family.

Penal Decision Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s Judicial Circuit in
proceeding T- 2094503, and in its place protect the fundamental rights
of Neisy Gómez Vargas and her family.

Seventh Administrative Court from the Circuit of Cali in proceeding T-
2043683, and in its place protect the fundamental rights of Mariela
Tenorio Carabalí and her family.
4. REVOKE the decision to deny the legal protection adopted by the Civil
Decision Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s Judicial District in
of Conrado de Jesús Cardona and his family.
Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s Judicial District in proceeding T-
2100533, and in its place protect the fundamental rights of Julio Cesar
Gómez Ramos and his family.
6. REVOKE the decision to deny the legal protection adopted by Cali’s

Court for Contentious Administrative Proceedings in proceeding T-
2094109, and in its place protect the fundamental rights of Grecia
Valencia Viáfara and her family.
Court of the Superior Court of Santiago de Cali’s Judicial District in
proceeding T-2100590, and in its place protect the fundamental rights
of José Armando Arias and his family.
of Álvaro Castillo Quiñónez and his family.
proceeding T-2100536, and in its place protect the fundamental rights
of Fabio Andrés Velasco Martínez and his family.
Civil Court of the Superior Court of Santiago de Cali’s Judicial District
in proceeding T- 2100659, and in its place protect the fundamental
rights of María Victoria Carlosama and her family.
Family Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s Judicial District in
of José Hernando Miranda Rodríguez and his family.
12. REVOKE the decision to deny the legal protection adopted by Cali’s
Court for Contentious Administrative Proceedings in proceeding T-
2085999, and in its place protect the fundamental rights of Freddy
Orlando Tenorio Quiñones and her family.
rights of Alexander Mayorga and his family.
Labor Court of the Superior Court of Santiago de Cali’s Judicial District

rights of Raquel Tamayo Cáceres and her family.
rights of Segundo Camilo Quiñónez and his family.
rights of Fernando Ramírez and his family.
Penal Court of the Superior Court of Cali’s Judicial District in
of Luz Mery Rodríguez Valentierra and her family.
in proceeding T-2090545, and in its place protect the fundamental rights
of Safra Ruth Méndez Muñoz and her family.
in proceeding T-2088111, and in its place protect the fundamental rights
of Ana Beiva Bejarano and her family.
Penal Court of the Valle’s Court for Contentious Administrative
Proceedings in proceeding T-2079744, and in its place protect the
fundamental rights of Ninfa Rosalba Ramírez and her family.
Second Penal Court of Cali’s Specialized Circuit in proceeding T-
2084644, and in its place protect the fundamental rights of Lucena
Vargas and her family.
Eighth Civil Court of Cali’s Circuit in proceeding T. 2070143, and in its
place protect the fundamental rights of Ayda López Jojoa and her
family.
Superior Court of Cali’s District in proceeding T. 2079694, and in its
place protect the fundamental rights of Ángela María Alzate and her
family.
Eighteenth Penal Court of Cali’s Circuit in proceeding T. 2140927, and
in its place protect the fundamental rights of Diego Ruiz Angulo and his
family.
Eighteenth Penal Court of Cali’s Circuit in proceeding T. 2146448, and
in its place protect the fundamental rights of Leidy Johana Torres and
her family.
SECONDLY.- In relation to each one of the individual cases accumulated in

the present trial and indicated in the previous ordinal, to ORDER Cali’s
Mayor’s Office, through the Secretariats of Education and Health and Social
Welfare, to adopt, within two months from the notification of the present
sentence, the necessary measures to uphold the effective enjoyment of their
constitutional rights to health, education and food, verifying in each concrete
case the affiliation to the social security system related to health, the access to
education for the underage, and their inclusion in the municipality’s social
programs in terms of food, housing, recreation, labor capacity building and
sports. Also, to ORDER Cali’s Mayor’s Office in coordination with
EMSIRVA or its substitute, CVC and DAGMA to connect the petitioners to
the following subsistence and work alternatives promised in the minutes from
the Constitutional Court in August 10th, 2009.
THIRDLY.- to ORDER EMSIRVA ESP, or its substitute, to maintain

suspended the Bidding Competition 002 from 2009 Contract for the operation
and exploration of the services of solid waste collection, sweeping and
cleanliness of streets and public areas, as well as the commercial
management and other activities in Cali’s zone number 1, for three (3)
months counted from the notification of the present decision, during which
the terms of such bidding process must be reformulated as indicated in section
9.2.2 of the present sentence. Once finished the bidding process, EMSIRVA
ESP, or its substitute, must submit to the Court a detailed report in conformity
with the indication from section 9.2.3 of the present sentence.
FOURTH.- to ORDER EMSIRVA ESP, or its future substitute, Cali’s

Mayor’s Office and CVC to design, adopt and set in motion, within six (6)
months from the notification of the present sentence, an effective policy of
inclusion of Cali’s waste pickers in the programs of collection, use and
commercialization of waste, which strengthen their quality of entrepreneurs
and their forms of solidary organization.
FIFTH.- to ORDER Cali’s Mayor’s Office, through the Secretariats of

Education and Health and Social Welfare, to adopt, within six (6) months
from the notification of the present sentence, the necessary measures to uphold
the effective enjoyment of the constitutional rights to health, education, decent
housing and food of the Navarro waste pickers included in the census from
2003 and in the card issue from 2006, verifying in each concrete case the
affiliation to the social security system related to health, the access to
education for the underage, and their inclusion in the municipality’s social
programs in terms of food and housing.
SIXTH.- to ORDER Cali’s Mayor’s Office in coordination with EMSIRVA

or its substitute, CVC and DAGMA to connect the Navarro waste pickers
included in the census from 2003 and in the card issue from 2006 to the
following subsistence and work alternatives promised in the minutes from
the Constitutional Court in January 18th, 2010.
SEVENTH.- to AUTHORIZE Cali’s Mayor to use the exception of

unconstitutionality whenever necessary to uphold the effective enjoyment of
the rights of the Navarro waste pickers and the street waste pickers from the
city of Cali, in conformity with parameters indicated in section 9.2.6 of the
present sentence. Cali’s Mayor shall inform the Constitutional Court in
January 18th, 2010 about the use of such instrument.
EIGHTH.- to ORDER Cali´s Mayor and EMSIRVA’s or its substitute’s legal

representative to conform a committee, within two (2) weeks from the
notification of the present sentence, for the inclusion of the waste pickers in
Cali’s formal cleanliness economy, in which the following shall participate: a
DANSOCIAL’s representative, a DAGMA’s representative, a representative
of the entity that coordinates the PGIRS, a CVC’s representative, the
FERERUSCO’s legal representative, the UFPRAME’s legal representative,
the Navarro Waste Pickers’ Association’s legal representative, the National
Waste Pickers’ Association’s legal representative, the Regional Human Rights
Defender and a CIVISOL’s representative. Such committee shall participate in
the design and implementation of the plan of inclusion of the Cali’s waste
pickers in the formal cleanliness economy, as well as the design of the
affirmative actions necessary to assure the effectiveness of such inclusion. The
plan of inclusion of the waste pickers designed by the committee must be
ready and functioning by November 23rd, 2009. Cali’s Mayor must submit to
the Court, in December 1st, 2009, a report with the designed plan and the
affirmative acts adopted, as well as the indicators of results designed to
demonstrate the progress in the process of inclusion and effective enjoyment
of the waste pickers’ and their families’ rights.
NINTH.- to ORDER Cali’s Municipal Planning Administrative Department

to complete the Navarro waste pickers’ census and include in it all people
initially present in the census, as well as the Navarro waste pickers present in
the database of the cooperatives, EATs and other organizations that functioned
in Navarro and who are registered in such databases before March 1st, 2009.
Also, the Municipal Planning Administrative Department shall be ordered to
design and take a census of Cali’s street waste pickers, in such a way that the
information collected allows the progress in the process of inclusion of that
population in the formal cleanliness economy.
TENTH.- to ORDER DAGMA and CVC to create and promote – with the
participation of organizations from the civil society willing to join efforts –
civism and solidarity campaigns oriented towards the citizenship in Cali, with
the objective of encouraging the city’s cleanliness service users to (a) start
separating waste in its source and (b) hand over to the organized waste pickers
the property of their recyclable waste with the beginning of the operation of
the selective routes in the City.
ELEVENTH.- to REQUEST the People’s Defender, Valle del Cauca

Region, in the sphere of his/her competence, to accompany the actions
developed to uphold the inclusion of the Navarro waste pickers and Cali’s
street waste pickers in the productive activity of collection and use of solid
waste, in conformity with the parameters established in the present sentence
and to submit to the Constitutional Court the pertinent follow up reports.
TWELFTH.- to COMMUNICATE the present sentence to the CIVISOL

organization and to INVITE the same to continue supporting the waste
pickers’ organization in the city of Cali and to submit periodic reports to the
Constitutional Court regarding to the progresses in the process of inclusion of
the Navarro waste pickers and Cali’s street waste pickers in the productive
activities of collection and use of solid waste in the city of Cali.
THIRTEENTH.- In order to assure the effectiveness of the appeal of legal

protection, the following courts: Seventeenth Administrative Court of the
Cali’s Circuit (T-2094503); Nineteenth Penal Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-
2043683); Second Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2088107); Tenth Civil
Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2100533); First Family Court of Cali (T-
2094109); Seventh Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2100590); Second
Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2100537); Fourth Civil Court of the Cali’s
Circuit (T-2100536); Eleventh Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2100659);
Superior Court of the Cali’s Judicial District, Family Court (T-2088003);
Cali’s Sixth Family Court (T-2085999); Seventh Civil Court of the Cali’s
Circuit (T-2100591); Twelfth Labor Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2092631);
Seventh Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2092630); Ninth Labor Court of
the Cali’s Circuit (T-2092148); Seventh Penal Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-
2092004); Second Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2090545); Tenth Civil
Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2088111); Fourth Administrative Judge of

Cali’s Circuit (T-2079744); Second Penal Court of the Cali’s Specialized
Circuit (T-2084644); Eighth Civil Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2070143);
First Penal Court of the Cali’s Circuit (T-2079694); Eighteenth Penal Court of
the Cali’s Circuit (T-2140927); Eighteenth Penal Court of the Cali’s Circuit
(T-2146448), shall notify this sentence within five (5) days from receiving the
communication, in conformity with article 36 from Decree 2591 from 1991.
Give notice, communicate, publish in the Constitutional Court’s Gazette and

make it effective.
CLARA ELENA REALES GUTIERREZ

Judge
GABRIEL EDUARDO MENDOZA MARTELO

Judge
LUIS ERNESTO VARGAS SILVA

Judge
MARTHA VICTORIA SACHICA MENDEZ

General Secretary
ANNEX
Number of Petitioner Evidences Conditions of Vulnerability Decision

the
proceeding
T-2094526 Cecilio Cesar 1. Appeal of legal protection. Is head of household and takes First instance Judge from
Caicedo 2. EMSIRVA’s report. care of four underage children: Seventeenth Administrative Court
Izquierdo78. 3. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous -Yeison Andrés Caicedo. of the City of Cali denies,
Corporation (CVC)’s report. -Tatiana Caicedo affirming that (i) there is no proof
4. Environmental Management -Brandon Yiret Caicedo. of the petitioner’s quality of head
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s -Daniel Alfonso Caicedo of household; (ii) the petitioner has
report. His economic sustenance was other special or ordinary
5. Santiago de Cali’s Government obtained exclusively as a waste proceedings; (iii) warns the city of
Secretariat of Coexistence and picker at Navarro Landfill. Santiago de Cali and Cali’s
Security’s report. contractor of public cleanliness
6. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008. services (EMSIRVA) E.S.P to
7. Commitment Minute from August 8th, comply with the dispositions
2008. established in Resolution SGA 336
from September 15th, 1999, issued
by the Valle del Cauca Regional
Autonomous Corporation. Art.3.79
78
In the diligence of expansion, correction and ratification of the appeal of legal protection, the petitioner affirms that had received the amount of $535.000 from
the Municipal Administration “(…) Declare to the office if you have had any work connection to the City of Cali, the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous
Corporation or EMSIRVA E.S.P. and if any of those has established a written commitment to guarantee your work after the closure of the so called “Navarro
waste dump” and if so, if you have any copy of the same or you can promptly provide it in this procedure. REPLY: no, I have not had any work connection with
any of those. People from EMSIRVA had told me that the waste dump would be open again. The first time it was closed we made an arrangement with them and
the former Mayor gave us $535.000 each in order to close for 8 days and when that period was over we arranged it and they opened it again (…)”
79
Resolution S.G.A 336 from 1999, issued by the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation (CVC), “Through which it is imposed a management,
recovery and environmental restoration plan for the closure of Navarro waste dump, as well as the construction of a transitory landfill, city of Santiago de Cali”.
Art.3 “as a measure of mitigation of the social impact that would be caused by the closure of Navarro waste dump, the City of Cali and EMSIRVA were ordered
to implement a Plan of Social Management and Employment Generation for all the families that obtained their subsistence as waste pickers in the site.

the
proceeding
T- 2094503 Neisy Gómez 1. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Is head of household and takes The first Instance Judge: Cali’s
Vargas Corporation (CVC)’s report. care of three underage Nineteenth Penal Court, grants,
2. Resolution S.G.A 336 from 1999. children. Her economic affirming that the Mayor’s Office,
3. Resolution 0711 0521 from November sustenance was obtained CVC and EMSIRVA have violated
2nd, 2007, issued by the Valle del Cauca exclusively as a waste picker at the principle of legitimate trust
Regional Autonomous Corporation (CVC) Navarro Landfill. established with the subscription
“Through which a delegated faculty is of the minute from June 13th,
reassumed and sanction and obligations are 2008.80
imposed on EMSIRVA E.S.P.”
4. Resolution 0100 0711-0079 from The Second Instance Judge. Penal
February 5th, 2008, issued by the Valle del Decision Court. Superior Court of
Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation Cali’s Judicial District, revokes,
(CVC), “Through which a precautionary affirming that (i) the commitments
measure is imposed, an investigation is or mobilizations are a series of
opened and charges are formulated against management promises and do not
EMSIRVA E.S.P. Jurisdiction of the city of generate obligations for the
Santiago de Cali”. parties.81
5. Resolution 0100 0710-0084 from
February 7th, 2008, issued by the Valle del
Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation
(CVC), “Through which Resolution 0100
No. 711-0079 from 2008 is partially
modified and other dispositions are
adopted.”
6. Procedural Order from June 4th, 2008, ,
issued by the Valle del Cauca Regional
Autonomous Corporation (CVC), “Through
which the compliance with the deadline
established in Resolution 0100 0710-0084
80
The closure of Navarro waste dump was a consequence of the affectation of the general interest and its new destination in favor of the collectivity, reason why the entities
wishing to preserve the general interest without affecting the great number of families that for decades obtained their livelihood as waste pickers in the closed zone of Navarro
subscribed a Minute through which they established the commitment of solving the social problematic generated for the waste pickers who not only found survival among the
waste, but also lived in sub human conditions in the waste disposal site. In such meeting the waste pickers were offered opportunities of work, education especially for the
young children (…) however the same were not complied generating lack of legal labor protection and uncertainty for several people who depend on waste picking, and
violation of the principle of legitimate trust, because the waste pickers’ representatives understood with such minute that the administrative entities that participated in the
meeting would comply with the commitments established according to the final paragraph of such document.

the
proceeding
from February 7th, 2008 is declared and the
immediate termination of the final disposal
of solid waste is ordered, as well as the
permanent closure of the former waste
dump, the transitory landfill and the
transitory cell -7; and the final disposal of
solid waste in the lot belonging to
EMSIRVA E.S.P., located in the town of
Navarro, city of Santiago de Cali, is
prohibited.”
7. Procedural Order Communication.

8. Environmental Management
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s
report.
9. EMSIRVA’s report.
10. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008.
11. Government Secretariat of Coexistence
and Security’s report. Sub secretariat of
Police and Justice.
12. Communication from the Environment
Department – Cali’s City Hall.
T-2043683 Mariela 1. Copy of Card 0583 issued by Social Plan

Is head of household and takes First instance Judge from Seventh
Tenorio 2. Copy of Citizenship Card. care of four underage children. Administrative Court of the City of
Carabalí 3. Copy of Card from the Cooperative of Her economic sustenance was Cali denies, affirming that (i) the
Associated Work UFPRAME. Affiliation obtained exclusively as a waste appeal of legal protection is
113. picker at Navarro Landfill. initially the appropriate
4. EMSIRVA’s report. mechanism to analyze if the
81
The violation of constitutional guarantees due to the fact that the waste pickers’ representatives and the defendant entities signed a minute containing a series of
commitments or mobilizations that could be complied or executed in the future is inapplicable, precisely because those were a series of management promises through which
the entities expected to put an end to the conflict generated by the closure of Navarro waste dump, and therefore no rights or obligations derive from it for any of the parties,
which also means that there is no work relation that could be demanded by means of this public constitutional action, especially considering that the petitioner developed the
waste picking activity independently, in other words, on her own account, which means that as a waste picker in Navarro waste dump she had no legal connection to entities or
administrators such as the defendants, as well as no contractual relation (…)

the
proceeding
5. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous protection of the fundamental
Corporation (CVC)’s report. rights is applicable, in which are
6. Resolution S.G.A 336 from 1999, issued registered aspects of the people
by the Valle del Cauca Regional who have derived their sustenance
Autonomous Corporation (CVC), “Through from the landfill called Navarro
which it is imposed a management, waste dump as waste pickers; (ii) it
recovery and environmental restoration plan is of the State’s competence to
for the closure of Navarro waste dump, as plan the form of conservation of
well as the construction of a transitory the environment, which in the case
landfill, city of Santiago de Cali”. of the city of Santiago de Cali
7. Resolution S.G.A 394 from November corresponds to EMSIRVA ESP;
28th, 1999, “Through which the motion to (iii) there are no legal or
set aside filed against Resolution S.G.A 336 contractual dispositions that oblige
from September 15th, 1999, is resolved”. the defendant entities to provide
8. Resolution DG 412 from December 7th, employments for the former waste
1999, “Through which the recourses of pickers; (iv) in relation to the
appeal filed against Resolution S.G.A 336 meeting, it is observed that it does
from September 15th, 1999, are resolved”. not generate any legal or
9. Procedural Order from June 4th, 2008, , contractual obligations to solve the
issued by the Valle del Cauca Regional situation created with the closure
Autonomous Corporation (CVC), “Through of Navarro Waste Dump, given
which the compliance with the deadline that it does not implicate a
established in Resolution 0100 0710-0084 demandable obligation;
from February 7th, 2008 is declared and the (v) regarding the “theory of
immediate termination of the final disposal legitimate trust”, about which it
of solid waste is ordered, as well as the expressed that it is based on the
permanent closure of the former waste principle of good faith, which does
dump, the transitory landfill and the not prevent the Administration,
transitory cell -7; and the final disposal of considering the general interest, to

the
proceeding
solid waste in the lot belonging to modify a certain situation,
EMSIRVA E.S.P., located in the town of however it obliges the same to take
Navarro, city of Santiago de Cali, is into account the interest of the
prohibited.” citizens82;
10. Procedural Order Communication. (vi) It cannot be ignored that the
11. Resolution 0100 0711-0079 from petitioner has derived her
February 5th, 2008, issued by the Valle del livelihood from the work as a
Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation waste pickers, an informal work,
(CVC), “Through which a precautionary as well as the fact that she has a
measure is imposed, an investigation is family to support. However such
opened and charges are formulated against situation does not generate the
EMSIRVA E.S.P. Jurisdiction of the city of legal or contractual obligation to
Santiago de Cali”. give her a job.
No. 711-0079 from 2008 is partially
modified and other dispositions are
adopted.”
82
Always and whenever the same State has granted, with external and sufficiently conclusive facts, an image of apparent legality to the conduct developed by the individual,
leading the same to consolidate a right starting from the trust given by the State and from its good faith (…) It is understood as external facts the granting of a permission in an
express manner, a license, or a program of sensibilization through which concrete hopes of labor relocation have been given to the waste pickers from Santiago de Cali, in
virtue of some legal obligation.

the
proceeding
T- 2088107 Conrado de 1. Appeal of legal protection. Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Jesús Cardona 2. Copy of Card 0715 issued by Social Plan care of four underage children. Decision Court. Superior Court of
3. Copy of Card 288 issued by - Ana Milena Cardona Cali’s Judicial District denies,
SERVIAMBIENTALES S.A. ESP. - Jesús Fabián Cardona. affirming that 85 it was not proved
4. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008. - Jhon Fredi Cardona. the beginning of the petitioner’s
5. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous - Brayan Cardona activities in the waste dump before
Corporation (CVC)’s report. - Stiven Cardona. 1999, which would violate the
6. EMSIRVA’s report. principle of legitimate trust.86
7. Government Secretariat of Coexistence His economic sustenance was
and Security’s report. Sub secretariat of obtained exclusively as a waste
Police and Justice. picker at Navarro Landfill.
8. Santiago de Cali’s Municipal Solicitor’s
Office’s Report83.
Administrative Department’s report.84
83
“The attendance of the Municipal Solicitor’s Office at the meeting between the representatives of the waste pickers and the Municipal Administration, CVC and EMSIRVA, is
reduced to the function of accompaniment, which is of his competence as a representative of the Public Prosecution Office, without actively participating in the decisions taken at
the same. Therefore, despite having signed the correspondent minute, it was done in the condition of assistant with the function of accompaniment (…)”
84
“In the commitment subscribed in last June 13th between the Municipal Administration and the waste pickers, it is mentioned that the Municipal Planning Director’s Office is
accompanying the association of Cali’s waste pickers, a project included in the Solid Waste Management Plan. Effectively, contracts with the Social Communicator and Master in
Business Administration, Ernesto José Piedrahita, and Mr. Espólito Murillo are being executed with the objective of supporting the empowerment of the associations of Cali’s
waste pickers. They have been developing a Support Plan for the sector of the Navarro waste pickers (…)”
85
The decision to close the waste dump was adopted with the objective of protecting the community, and therefore it can be concluded that the site was harmful for the public
sanitation, given that its useful life was over (…).

the
proceeding
T-2100533 Julio Cesar 1. Appeal of legal protection. Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Gómez Ramos 2. Copy of Citizenship Card. care of two underage children. Court. Superior Court of Cali’s
3. Copy of Card issued by EAT FRASPEL. -Karen Yizela Gómez Arroyo. Judicial District denies, affirming
4. Copy of Card 288 issued by -Wuendi Yuliza Gómez Godoy that (i) such agreements do not
SERVIAMBIENTALES S.A. ESP. His economic sustenance was generate acquired constitutional
5. Copy of Card 124 issued by the obtained exclusively as a waste rights that could be protected
Cooperative of Associated Work picker at Navarro Landfill. through legal protection; (ii) the
UFPRAME. defendant entities have developed
6. EMSIRVA’s report. actions tending to solve the
7. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Navarro waste pickers’
Corporation (CVC)’s report. problematic.
report
T-2094109 Grecia 1. Copy of Card issued by EAT Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: First
Valencia RECIRCALI. care of four underage children. Family Court, grants, because
Viafara 2. Copy of Card 24 issued by -Miguel Valencia considers that the entities
SERVIAMBIENTALES S.A. ESP. - Marcelen Valencia. responsible for the closure of the
3. Appeal of legal protection. - Dora Valencia. Navarro landfill have complied
4. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous - Mercedes Valencia with their obligation to mitigate
Corporation (CVC)’s report. Her economic sustenance was the social impact caused on the
5. Resolution S.G.A 336 from 1999, issued obtained exclusively as a waste petitioner in her condition of waste
by the Valle del Cauca Regional picker at Navarro Landfill. picker, without having been able to
Autonomous Corporation (CVC), “Through meet the Basic needs, since there
which it is imposed a management, are no alternatives of solution to
recovery and environmental restoration plan accomplish an activity that can
for the closure of Navarro waste dump, as replace her former one as a means
2. The certain, reasonable and evident desestabilization is evidenced in the relation between the administration and the citizens, considering that the waste pickers’ activity had been allowed for a
long time, as affirmed and not discussed, by the defendant entities since 1967 and the closure of the waste dump was ordered through Resolution 336 from 1999 issued by the Valle del Cauca
Regional Autonomous Corporation, through which it was determined the plan for the closure of the waste dump and the construction of the transitory landfill, in which it was established that the
City and EMSIRVA had to implement a plan of social management and employment generation for the waste pickers.
The date of entrance of the petitioner results essential in order to deny and/or grant the prosperity of the appeal of legal protection, considering that as CVC announced the closure of the waste
dump in 1999 through the local means of communication, making the same a notorious fact, any entrance after such fact indicates lack of good faith by those who, instead of complying with the
orders from the administration, practiced acts of rebellion occupying sites and developing activities known to be prohibited. It is also a notorious fact that the Mayor’s Office through the
Planning Department has designed public policies tending to solve the social impact generated with the closure of the waste dump (…)

the
proceeding
well as the construction of a transitory of subsistence.
landfill, city of Santiago de Cali”. Second Instance, Administrative
6. Resolution S.G.A 394 from November Court for Contentious Proceedings
28th, 1999, “Through which the motion to revokes, affirming that the
set aside filed against Resolution S.G.A 336 situation that used to generate the
from September 15th, 1999, is resolved”. violation of the petitioner’s
7. Resolution DG 412 from December 7th, fundamental rights has been
1999, “Through which the recourses of overcome, considering that the
appeal filed against Resolution S.G.A 336 defendant entities have subscribed
from September 15th, 1999, are resolved”. a commitment that consists of
8. Communiqué from the Environment short term social measures, for the
Department to Santiago de Cali’s Mayor’s labor relocation of the Navarro
Office Waste Pickers.
prohibited.”

the
proceeding
11. Resolution 0711 0521 from November
2nd, 2007, issued by the Valle del Cauca
Regional Autonomous Corporation (CVC)
“Through which a delegated faculty is
reassumed and sanction and obligations are
(CVC), “Through which a precautionary
measure is imposed, an investigation is
opened and charges are formulated against
EMSIRVA E.S.P. Jurisdiction of the city of
Santiago de Cali”.
February 5th, 2008
0711-0079 from 2008 is partially modified
and other dispositions are taken.
report
T-2100590 José Armando 1. Copy of citizenship card Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Arias 2. Copy of Card 035 issued by the care of one underage child. Court. Superior Court of Cali’s
Cooperative of Associated Work - Brayan Armando Arias Judicial District denies, affirming

the
proceeding
UFPRAME. Velásquez that (i) such agreements must not
3. Appeal of legal protection His economic sustenance was be complied by means of legal
4. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008. obtained exclusively as a waste protection; (ii) the legal protection
5. EMSIRVA’s report. picker at Navarro Landfill. is not applicable considering that
6. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous the defendant entities have
Corporation (CVC)’s report. developed actions tending to solve
the waste pickers’ problematic.
T- 2100537 Álvaro 1. Appeal of legal protection Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Castillo 2. Copy of Card 0916 issued by Social Plan care of three underage Court. Superior Court of Cali’s
Quiñónez 3. Copy of Card issued by EAR Waste children. Judicial District denies, affirming
Pickers’ Association. -Gina Solanyi Quiñones that (i) such agreements must not
4. Copy of Card 598 issued by the -Robert Fabián Quiñones be complied by means of legal
Cooperative of Associated Work -Emerso Ailton Quiñones. protection; (ii) the legal protection
UFPRAME. His economic sustenance was is not applicable considering that
5. Copy of citizenship card obtained exclusively as a waste the defendant entities have
6. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous picker at Navarro Landfill. developed actions tending to solve
Corporation (CVC)’s report. the waste pickers’ problematic.
report
T-2100536 Fabio Andrés 1. Copy of the password Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Velasco 2. Copy of the Health Social Security care of two underage children. Court. Superior Court of Cali’s
Martínez System “COOSALUD E.S.S.” - Jaupier Torres Judicial District denies, affirming
3. EMSIRVA’s report. - Uguendi Martines that (i) such agreements must not
4. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous His economic sustenance was be complied by means of legal
Corporation (CVC)’s report. obtained exclusively as a waste protection; (ii) the legal protection

the
proceeding
5. Environmental Management picker at Navarro Landfill. is not applicable considering that
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s the defendant entities have
report developed actions tending to solve
6. Municipal Planning Administrative the waste pickers’ problematic.
Department’s Report.
T- 2100659 María Victoria 1. Copy of Card 0450 issued by Social Plan Her economic sustenance was The first instance judge: Civil
Carlosama 2. Copy of Card issued by EAR obtained exclusively as a waste Decision Court. Superior Court of
APCOIRIS. picker at Navarro Landfill. Cali’s Judicial District denies,
3. Copy of citizenship card affirming that it was not proved
4. Copy of the Health Social Security the beginning of the petitioner’s
System “CALISALUD EPS” activities in the waste dump before
5. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008. 1999, which would violate the
6. EMSIRVA’s report. principle of legitimate trust.
6. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous
Corporation (CVC)’s report.
report
8. Territorial Development and Welfare
Secretariat’s Report.
T- 2088003 José Hernando 1. Appeal of legal protection Is head of household and takes The First Instance Judge: Family
Miranda 2. Copy of citizenship card care of two underage children: Court-Superior Court of Cali’s
Rodríguez 3. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008. - Angy Miranda Sanboni. Judicial District denies, affirming
3. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous - Kevin Yesid Miranda that (i) the defendant entities have
Corporation (CVC)’s report. Caravali. the obligation to, among others,
4. EMSIRVA’s report. His economic sustenance was give monthly allowances that
5. Environmental Management obtained exclusively as a waste implicate the creation ad hominem

the
proceeding
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s picker at Navarro Landfill. of unemployment insurances; (ii)
report there is no proof that the petitioner
has developed the activity of waste
picking in Navarro waste dump88.
T-2085999 Freddy 1. Appeal of legal protection Is head of household and takes First Instance Judge:
Orlando 2. Copy of ID card care of two underage children: Administrative Court for
Tenorio 3. Copy of Card 217 issued by the - Marcela Tenorio Contentious Proceedings denies,
Quiñones Cooperative of Associated Work - Cesar Tenorio affirming that the situation that
UFPRAME. His economic sustenance was used to generate the violation of
4. EMSIRVA’s report. obtained exclusively as a waste the petitioner’s fundamental rights
5. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous picker at Navarro Landfill. has been overcome, considering
Corporation (CVC)’s report. that the defendant entities have
6. Resolution 0100 0711-0079 from subscribed a commitment that
February 5th, 2008, issued by the Valle del consists of short term social
Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation measures, for the labor relocation
(CVC), “Through which a precautionary of the Navarro Waste Pickers.
88
(…) and that, in such case, she produced enough income for a decent life which is intended to be protected, in a way that the administrative proceeding of the closure of the
landfill was the cause of the violation of a fundamental right.

the
proceeding
prohibited.”
10. Resolution S.G.A 336 from 1999,
which it is imposed a management,
recovery and environmental restoration plan
for the closure of Navarro waste dump, as
well as the construction of a transitory
landfill, city of Santiago de Cali”.
11. Resolution S.G.A 394 from November
28th, 1999, “Through which the motion to
set aside filed against Resolution S.G.A 336
from September 15th, 1999, is resolved”.
12. Resolution DG 412 from December 7th,
1999, “Through which the recourses of

the
proceeding
appeal filed against Resolution S.G.A 336
from September 15th, 1999, are resolved”.
13. Communiqué from the Environment
Department to Cali’s Mayor’s Office.
14. Commitment Minute from August 8th
2008.
T- 2100591 Alexander 1. Appeal of legal protection Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Mayorga 2. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008. care of two underage children: Decision Court. Superior Court of
3. Copy of ID card - Yuli Nicolle Mayorga Cali’s Judicial District denies,
4. Copy of Card 108 issued by the Ortiz. affirming that it was not proved
Cooperative of Associated Work - Brayan Andres Castro the beginning of the petitioner’s
5. Copy of Card 0618 issued by Social Plan His economic sustenance was activities in the waste dump before
6. EMSIRVA’s report. obtained exclusively as a waste 1999, which would violate the
7. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous picker at Navarro Landfill.. principle of legitimate trust.
9. Resolution S.G.A 336 from 1999, issued
by the Valle del Cauca Regional
which it is imposed a management,
recovery and environmental restoration plan
for the closure of Navarro waste dump, as
well as the construction of a transitory
landfill, city of Santiago de Cali”.
10. Resolution S.G.A 394 from November
28th, 1999, “Through which the motion to
set aside filed against Resolution S.G.A 336
from September 15th, 1999, is resolved”.
11. Resolution DG 412 from December 7th,
1999, “Through which the recourses of

the
proceeding
appeal filed against Resolution S.G.A 336
from September 15th, 1999, are resolved”.
12. Communiqué from the Environment
Department to Cali’s Mayor’s Office.
prohibited.”
15. Resolution 0711 0521 from November
2nd, 2007, issued by the Valle del Cauca
Regional Autonomous Corporation (CVC)
“Through which a delegated faculty is
reassumed and sanction and obligations are

the
proceeding
(CVC), “Through which a precautionary
February 5th, 2008
T- 2092631 Raquel 1. Appeal of legal protection Is head of household and takes First Instance Judge: Twelfth
Tamayo 2. Copy of ID card care of two underage children: Labor Court of Cali’s circuit
Cáceres 3. Copy of Card 0480 issued by Social Plan - Juan Pablo Filigrana grants, affirming that it is clear
4. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous - Raquel Tamayo that the defendant entities
Corporation (CVC)’s report. Filigrana established the commitment to
4. EMSIRVA’s report. Her economic sustenance was structure a plan to compensate the
5. Environmental Management obtained exclusively as a waste social impact that would be caused
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s picker at Navarro Landfill. on the waste pickers and their
report families.
Second Instance Judge: Labor

Court – Superior Court of Cali’s
Judicial District revokes,
affirming that (i) there is no labor
or contractual connection to the
City of Santiago de Cali,

the
proceeding
EMSIRVA ESP and CVC; (ii)
there is no concrete evidence that
the petitioner was a waste picker;
(iii) the petitioner developed the
recycling activity in Navarro waste
dump, a site legally prohibited for
such purpose.
T- 2092630 Segundo 1. Copy of Card 0704 issued by Social Plan Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Camilo 2. Appeal of legal protection care of one underage child: Decision Court. Superior Court of
Quiñónez 3. EMSIRVA’s report. - Camilo Quiñónez, 14 Cali’s Judicial District denies,
4. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous years old affirming that89
Corporation (CVC)’s report. His economic sustenance was
obtained exclusively as a waste
picker at Navarro Landfill.
T- 2092148 Fernando 1. Appeal of legal protection His economic sustenance was The first instance judge: Civil
Ramírez 2. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous obtained exclusively as a waste Court. Superior Court of Cali’s
Corporation (CVC)’s report. picker at Navarro Landfill. Judicial District denies, affirming
3. EMSIRVA’s report. that (i) those who developed the
4. Environmental Management activity of waste picking in the site
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s had enough time and opportunities
report to understand and be duly
5. Copy of Commitment Minute from informed about the legal
August 8th, 2008 prohibition to continue in the site,
which may distort the application
of the principle of legitimate trust
considering that the individuals’
89
(...) the Municipal Administration has elaborated the PGIRS 2004-2009, in whose strategic line 5 is contemplated the “labor readapting” in the program of closure of Navarro
waste dump, in whose legal protection a series of commitments were established, such as the ones registered in the minutes from June 13th and August 8th, when along with the
defendant entities and the Navarro Waste Pickers’ Association the continuity of the waste pickers activity was guaranteed within the deadlines established at the time, as well as
the provision of contingency employments to those who proved their condition through the census taken.

the
proceeding
expectations were not affected; (ii)
the proposals were not formalized
or incorporated in concrete
execution plans that have budget
and tax allocation for their
effective development; (iii) the
Municipal Administration has
adopted transitory measures of
mitigation.
T- 2092004 Luz Mery 1. Appeal of legal protection Is head of household and takes First Instance. Seventh Penal Court
Rodríguez 2. Copy of receipt of Document being care of one underage child: of the Circuit grants, affirming
Valentierra processed. - José Andres Parra Rodríguez that (i) the activity that the
3. Environmental Management Her economic sustenance was petitioner and other people carried
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s obtained exclusively as a waste out in Navarro waste dump
report picker at Navarro Landfill. generated employment for a
4. EMSIRVA’s report. greater number of families that
depended on such activity in order
to obtain their subsistence; it is
necessary to insist on the necessity
to protect the fundamental rights of
those people; (ii) the City of
Santiago de Cali must implement
plans and programs that allow the
harmonic coexistence of
conflicting interests whenever such
situation could aggravate the
abandonment problematic of those
families, especially considering

the
proceeding
that the petitioner is a mother head
of household.
Second Instance Judge. Penal

Court of Cali’s Judicial District
revokes, affirming that (i) the
agreement signed by the defendant
entities did not consist of a burden
of strict compliance;90 (ii) the
petitioner did not have any
connection with environmental or
administrative entities related to
the landfill; (iii) the petitioner
could not demonstrate a permit,
license or any other kind of
consent of the defendant entities,
therefore it was not possible to
apply the principle of legitimate
trust. Her presence is an exclusive
consequence of her own will.
T-2090545 Safra Ruth 1. Appeal of legal protection Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Civil
Méndez 2. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008. care of two underage children: Court. Superior Court of Cali’s
Muñoz 3. Copy of ID card - Leydi Jhoana Méndez Judicial District denies, affirming
4. Copy of Card 0865 issued by Social Plan Muños. that (i) such agreements must not
5. Copy of Card SERVIAMBIENTALES - Gustavo Antonio be complied by means of legal
S.A. ESP. Carmona Méndez protection; (ii) the legal protection
6. Copy of Card issued by EAT NUESTRO Her economic sustenance was is not applicable considering that
PORVENIR. obtained exclusively as a waste the defendant entities have
90
Although it is certain that in June 13th, 2008, the defendant entities signed a Minute in which some commitments were registered, it is also certain that such agreement did
not constitute a burden of strict compliance. It would be developed as the economic resources were being implemented, as well as the necessary proceedings to mitigate the
social impact generated by the closure of Navarro landfill.

the
proceeding
7. Copy of Card issued Social Plan. picker at Navarro Landfill. developed actions tending to solve
8. EMSIRVA’s report. the waste pickers’ problematic.
9. Cali’s Municipal Solicitor’s Office’s
report
10. Municipal Planning Administrative
Department’s report.
report
12. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous
13. Government Secretariat of Coexistence
and Security’s report. Sub secretariat of
Police and Justice.
T-2088111 Ana Beiva 1. Appeal of legal protection Her economic sustenance was The first instance judge: Civil
Bejarano 2. Copy of ID card obtained exclusively as a waste Decision Court. Superior Court of
3. Environmental Management picker at Navarro Landfill. Cali’s Judicial District denies,
Administrative Department (DAGMA)’s affirming that it was not proved
report the beginning of the petitioner’s
4. EMSIRVA’s report. activities in the waste dump before
5. Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous 1999, which would violate the
Corporation (CVC)’s report. principle of legitimate trust.
T-2079744 Ninfa Rosalba 1. Meeting Minute from June 13th, 2008, Is head of household and takes First Instance Judge. Fourth
Ramírez signed by the defendant entities, Mayor’s care of three underage Administrative Judge of Cali’s

the
proceeding
Office, CVC, EMSIRVA y DAGMA. children: Circuit rejects, considering that
2. Copy of Resolution SGA 336 from - Jirali Lizeth Ramírez there are other mechanisms for the
September 15th, 1999. - Brandon Stiben protection of her rights, however
3. Copy of official letter 0001-2-12 from Ramírez. urges the administration to enroll
January 16th 2003, issued by the - Yarli Iván Ramírez the petitioner and her family as
Department of Environment, Housing and Her economic sustenance was beneficiaries in the general social
Territorial Development. obtained exclusively as a waste security system, through
4. Copy of Procedural Order from picker at Navarro Landfill. subsidized regimen.
December 20th, 2006.
5. Copy of Resolution 0100 N. 0711-0521 Second Instance Judge.
from November 2nd, 2007. Contentious Court for
6. EMSIRVA’s report. Administrative Proceedings of the
Valle denies, considering that
there are other mechanisms of
judicial defense.
T-2084644 Lucena 1. Copy of ID card Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Second
Vargas 2. Copy of Card N. 8050286434 care of two underage children: Penal Court of Cali’s Specialized
UFPRAME. - Cristian Alexander Circuit denies, considering that
3. EMSIRVA’s report. Vargas there is no evidence of violation of
- Estiwar Andres Vargas. fundamental rights.
Her economic sustenance was
T. 2070143 Ayda López 1. Copy of receipt of Document being Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: Eighth

the
proceeding
Jojoa processed care of five underage children: Civil Court of Cali’s Circuit
2. EMSIRVA’s report. - Julieth F. Montes denies, considering that there are
López. other judicial defense mechanisms
- Katherine Montes and there is no reason to consider
López. that the petitioner’s fundamental
- Andrés F. Montes rights were violated because the
López. closure was not sudden.
- Miguel A. Montes
López.
- Lina M. Montes López.
Her economic sustenance was
T. 2079694 Ángela María 1. Copy of ID card Is head of household and takes The first instance judge: First
Alzate 2. EMSIRVA’s report. care of two underage children: Penal Court of Cali’s Circuit
- Francisco José Alzate. denies, considering that there are
- Esmeralda Alzate. other judicial defense mechanisms
Her economic sustenance was Second Instance, Superior Court of
obtained exclusively as a waste Cali’s District confirms the
picker at Navarro Landfill. decision.
T. 2140927 Diego Ruiz 1. Copy of ID card Is head of household and takes The first instance judge:
Angulo 2. Copy of card N. 0720 issued by Social care of six underage children: Eighteenth Penal Court of Cali’s
Plan. - Diego Armando Ruiz. Circuit denies, considering that

the
proceeding
3. Minute of the meeting between the waste - Yihan Ruiz. there are other mechanisms for the
pickers’ representatives and the - Nilson Ruiz protection of the petitioner’s
representatives of the municipal - Kerwin Alexander Ruiz fundamental rights and there is no
administration, CVC and EMSIRVA. - Jhon Bairon Ruiz reason to consider it a transitory
4. EMSIRVA’s report. - Kerlin Dayan Ruiz mechanism.
5. Petitioner’s declaration before the court His economic sustenance was
T. 2146448 Leidy Johana 1. EMSIRVA’s report. Is head of household and takes The first instance judge:
Torres care of two underage children: Eighteenth Penal Court of Cali’s
- Sara Yuliza Quiñones. Circuit denies, considering that
- Tifanni Valeria there are other mechanisms for the
Quiñones. 3 years and 4 protection of the petitioner’s
months old. fundamental rights and there is no
Her economic sustenance was reason to consider it a transitory
obtained exclusively as a waste mechanism.

04.4 (English) Judgement T-291-09 of The Constitutional Court of Colombia

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04.4 (English) Judgement T-291-09 of The Constitutional Court of Colombia

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CiViSOL would like to acknowledge WIEGO’s efforts in translating to English this Colombian ruling on the waste pickers’ rights

to entrepreneur in the formal

SENTENCE Nº T-291 from 2009

Reference: Proceedings T-2043683 and

Appeals for legal protection filed by Cecilio

The Second Courtroom of Revision of the Constitutional Court, made up by

In the proceedings of revision of the sentences pronounced by the Seventeenth

1. Appeal of legal protection.

• DAGMA: employment offer, depending on resources transferred by CVC, of 50

• Education Secretariat: free education for the children of this population.

• Social Welfare Secretariat: housing for the mothers head of households

• Housing Department: 100 families to other projects

• Municipal Planning: accompaniment in the association of waste pickers,

Based on the above mentioned facts, the following pretensions arise:

1. It shall be immediately set in motion by the defendant entities or its

2. The right of my children and my whole family to a decent life shall be

4. Special laboral treatment shall be given to those belonging to vulnerable

2. Interventions of the defendant authorities:

2.1. Intervention of the Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services,

The Contractor of Public Cleanliness Services from Cali “EMSIRVA ESP”

It was reported that EMSIRVA is an industrial and commercial company

Among those norms, oriented towards the improvement of the conditions of

In the contract signed by EMSIRVA, measures to protect the waste pickers’

» Integrated management of solid waste, GIRS, (reduction at the source, use

In that regulatory framework, recycling is considered an economic activity

From the above mentioned arguments it may be concluded that EMSIRVA

In relation to the commitments established between the administration and the

the availability of resources enable the development of the company’s current

According to EMSIRVA, it is necessary to make a distinction between the

The company concludes that no fundamental right is being violated

Finally, the company requests: “(…) to be disconnected from the present

2.2. Intervention of the Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous

The Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation – CVC -, in relation

In relation to the commitments established with the waste pickers prior to

Finally, it affirms that it has no responsibility concerning the situation of

that each and every pretension expressed by the petitioner should be

The Corporation annexes the following to its intervention:

- The Resolution 336 SGA (Sub direction of Environmental Management) from

- The Resolution 394 SGA (Sub direction of Environmental Management) from

- Concept signed by Cecilia Rodríguez González Rubio, Ministry of the

- Order from December 20th, 2006, from the Southwestern Regional

- Resolution 052 DG (General Director) from November 2nd, 2007 “through

2.3. Intervention of the Environment Administrative Department,

The Environment Administrative Department – DAGMA- begins its

In relation to the commitments established with the waste pickers in Navarro,

2.4. Intervention of the Territorial Director’s Office of the

1. Evidences requested by the Court.

“First.- Through this Corporation’s General Secretary, we request Cali’s

1. The progresses achieved concerning the compliance with the commitments

Second.-. Through this Corporation’s General Secretary we request Cali’s

2. Reply from EMSIRVA SA.

In compliance with the order, Cali’s Contractor of Public Cleanliness

- The company has studied the possibility of celebrating a commodatum

- We have initiated a pilot program of separation at the source in the area of

- We intend to implement a selective route program in 6 communes from the

- A commodatum contract was celebrated between EMSIRVA ESP and the

- “Through the companies EJERSER CTA and ACERTAR, and as the

Finally, concerning the same point the following balance is made:

3. Reply from the Municipal Planning Administrative Department of

“Commitment number one (1) established by EMSIRVA ESP, registered in the

Additionally, through the Social Welfare Secretariat, 90 women from the

In relation to the other commitments:

The municipal administration of Navarro Health Center has carried out a