General diagnostic of human rights, gender equality and education in Colombia

This diagnosis presents a general framework of Colombia (with emphasis on the departments of
Chocó, Cauca, and Córdoba, territories selected for the development of the Educapaz strategies).

The objective of this document is to show an analysis of several elements to take into account for
the formulation of future Program strategies. In this sense, it will be presented a context of the
situation of poverty and inequality in the country associated with the armed conflict and the
existing gaps between the urban and rural worlds, especially, how these gaps affects the access to
a quality education. Second, the diagnostic emphasizes how the aforementioned factors
negatively impact the objective of achieving gender equality in Colombia and which are the main
types of violence and obstacles faced by girls and women in the country to achieve the full
enjoyment of their rights.

 Colombia: a country of contrasts and gaps

Colombia is a country of regions and geographical and cultural diversity with 102 officially
recognized ethnic minorities. The Colombian economy has grown strongly since the turn of the
century but poverty and inequality remain relatively high. In 2018 the poverty rate increase (27%)
concerning to the past year 2017 (26.9%). According to data from the DANE 190.000 people
passed to poverty, while just 26.000 people were able to increase their income above the poverty
line (Colombia Reports, 20191).

The 2018 World Inequality Report indicated that inequality in the Latin American region,
historically, has been higher than Europe and Asia and this is a remaining trend. Colombia is one of
the most unequal countries in Latin America with Brazil 2. In Colombia, income inequality dropped
from 0.56 in 2002 to 0.52 in 2016. The trend of inequality decrease started from 2010 onwards,
but inequality remains high and this has differential impacts in different regions. For example, the
department of Chocó (located in the Pacific region) was the only department which had not
reduced multidimensional poverty between 2009 and 2015; agricultural departments have the
highest poverty levels due the concentration of land ownership. On the other hand, inequality
mainly affects Colombia´s ethnic minorities which are located and concentrated in the poorest
regions3. Individuals from Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities have lower levels of well-
being throughout their life in several dimensions (nutrition, health and education) and they also
have suffered disproportionately with the violence (United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, 2020, OECD, 20184).

The gaps between the rural regions and the urban centers are remarkable. The percent of people
living under multidimensional poverty is three times higher in rural zones than the urban regions.
The number of homes without access to drinking water is 16 times bigger in rural zones, and the
1
Colombia Reports (2019) Poverty and inequality. Recovered from: https://colombiareports.com/colombia-
poverty-inequality-statistics/
2
World Inequality Lab (2018) World Inequality Report 2018. Recovered from:
https://wir2018.wid.world/files/download/wir2018-full-report-english.pdf
3
The five departments with the highest levels of multidimensional poverty were Chocó, Guania, La Guajira,
Vaupés and Vichada. These departments concentrate the mayor part of indigenous peoples and Afro-
Colombian communities (OHCHR, 2020)
4
OECD (2018) Reviews of School Resources: Colombia 2018.
analphabetism is 4 times higher in rural municipalities (United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights, 2020; OECD, 2018).

The education field is one in which the gaps between the rural contexts and the urban are more
standing. The differences in coverage average, permanence and educational quality that currently
exist in rural areas are linked to factors such as deficiencies in infrastructure, lack of human
resources and troubles with the administration of the headquarters, among others. According to
the survey of the Interactive Educational Infrastructure Consultation System (SICIED) carried out in
7,168 rural schools in 2014, the facilities of the institutions in several cases are too old and shows
different kind of deficiencies: 80% of the rural schools that participated in the survey do not have a
gas network, 70% does not have sewerage, 40% of the schools do not have aqueduct, 27% of the
schools are affected by floods; 13% does not have electricity service (Mesa de Política Educativa
para la Paz, Mesa Nacional de Educadores Rurales, 2018).

According to the National Agricultural Census, every 100 adults that live in dispersed rural areas,
95 do not have higher education, and the explanation of why these Colombians do not become
professionals is overwhelming: only 16% of the young people who lives in rural areas affected by
the armed conflict graduate from high school (Mesa de Política Educativa para la Paz, Mesa
Nacional de Educadores Rurales, 2018).

So, Colombian State need to do great efforts to respond to the historical debt that has with the
rural areas.

Colombian armed conflict, the Peace Agreement and the current situation of human rights

Colombia has suffered a complex internal conflict that had last more than half a century. This
conflict has resulted in large numbers of victims of forced disappearances, displacement,
abductions, forced recruitment, anti-personnel mines, and sexual violence, among other
victimizing facts. The official victim's registry (Registro Único de Víctimas) counted a total of 8.6
million victims (counted until January of 2018) (OECD, 2018).

The armed conflict also has had a negative effect in other dimensions such as development, social
cohesion and the environment. Also, the education of children has being seriously impacted for
different reasons. First, public spending has being more focused on military than education, in
consequence, the school system shows different obstacles.

Equally, the forced displacement and recruitment of children and young people by armed groups,
as well as, threats against teachers and likely damages towards physical infrastructure from
schools are negative effects that the Colombian armed conflict has had over the education. In sum,
the conflict has affected the access to education, leading to school dropout for disadvantaged
children. But, the issues related to education in Colombia are not only due to the armed conflict. It
is important to point out that in Colombia persists historical inequalities that boosted the armed
insurgencies, especially in rural areas (Mesa de Política Educativa para la Paz, Mesa Nacional de
Educadores Rurales, 2018; OECD, 2018).

In recent years, weaker foreign trade and the fall in the commodity prices slowed down the
Colombian economy, even though the country has faced these challenges better than other
countries in the region. Another remarkable fact was the sing of the Peace Accords in 2016 with
the largest guerrilla group in the country the FARC-EP. The peace agreement signed by the former
president Juan Manuel Santos and the guerrilla group FARC, was seen as a new chapter in the
history of the country, the beginning of the long path towards peace. Nevertheless, ensuring the
implementation of the agreement, as well as the effective allocation of the required resources for
it, and the transformation of symbolical structures that justified the lasting violence in the country
are still great challenges.

In this framework is completely necessary to indicate two important findings about post-conflict
societies. First, according to the Kroc Institute 5 (that has studied and compared different peace
processes in the world), those countries in which the peace accord was broadly implemented
presented lower levels of violence as a whole in the long term, and less probability of the
emergence of new insurgent armed groups.

Second, those countries that implemented dispositions related to education contended in the
peace accords, improved their scholar systems as a whole. Education in post-conflict societies
could play different roles that's why it is a necessary feature for building more peaceful and equal
societies (Kroc Institute, 2020; Díez & Quinn, 2015).

Now, violence associated to the conflict has varied over the time and across the places in
Colombia. While some regions have experienced continuous conflict, other regions presented an
interrupted conflict, and others have experienced the absent of violence associated to the armed
conflict (like the urban centers) (OECD, 2018).

Colombian State has a bigger debt with the rural world in which institutions and civil authorities
have been absent and the main representation of the State has been the Military forces. For this
reason, the Peace Agreement signed with the largest guerrilla group in Colombia -the FARC-EP-
included an integral rural reform and the focalization of the most affected regions by the violence
of the armed conflict. In the first point of the agreement related to the rural reform, there is a
disposition about rural education. This includes the development and implementation of the
Special Rural Education Plan (Plan Especial de Educación Rural, PEER) which is linked with the
Development Programs with a Territorial Approach (PDET is the acronyms in Spanish). Also, as part
of the reincorporation of the former combatants from the FARC group, there are education
programs and special strategies to guarantee the rights of the former children combatants 6.

But, even though there is an important opportunity for building peace, there still remaining
challenges like the presence of other illegal armed groups, guerrillas and non-demobilized
paramilitary7. In some parts of the country the violence has been intensified. Besides, Colombia
needs to make further strides to reduce poverty that still higher. Based on a relative poverty line
defined as 50% of the median household disposable income, 22% of Colombians were poor in
5
Iniciativa Barómetro, Matriz de Acuerdos de Paz, Instituto Kroc de Estudios Internacionales de Paz (2020)
Tres años después de la implementación de la firma del Acuerdo Final de Colombia: hacia la transformación
territorial. Informe 4, Universidad de Notre Dame y Bogotá.
6
This information is contended in the final document of the Peace Accords of 2016.
7
According with the OHCHR, these groups such as the EPL (in Cauca and Norte de Santander departments),
and groups made up of former members of the FARC-EP (in Caquetá, Meta Guaviare) cannot be considered
as armed groups under the definitions of the International Humanitarian Law (OHCHR, 2020)
2015. In this scenario, children are especially vulnerable, in 2011 slightly less than one in three
grew up in relative poverty. In 2017, 23.8% of people in a household with 3 or more children under
the age of 12 were below Colombia's absolute poverty line (OECD, 2018).

This is a summary of the current situation of human rights in Colombia. After the sign and the
beginning of the implementation of the Peace Accords remain high levels of violence that generate
different human rights abuses. The departments of Cauca, Chocó and Córdoba were affected by
the performance of armed groups like Autodefensas Gaitanistas, Los Caparros, y La Mafia in the
middle of their disputes for the control of the illicit economies. At the same time, the five Strategic
Zones of Comprehensive Intervention (Zonas Estratégicas de Intervención Integral) created in the
National Plan of Development (2018-2022) to address the critical situation of security, still to
present a low presence of civil authorities and the action of the Colombian State in these areas is
predominantly military (OHCHR, 2020).

The murders and threats against social leaders and activists for the defense of the human rights is
another standing fact in Colombia. In recent years, the number of murders and threats against
social leaders in Colombia has increased. The special Relator from the United Nations for Colombia
Michael Forst said that the insecurity environment for social leaders has worsened. The majority
of threats and murders committed against social leaders occurred in zones in which there are
illegal economic activities. The Ombudsman's Office pointed out that the bigger degree of visibility
that social leaders gained in spaces of participation related to the implementation of the Peace
Accords is a risk factor for them 8. According to the organization Indepaz, since March 24 th, when
the national quarantine due to COVID-19 began, 79 social leaders have been killed. The 30.3% of
these homicides have been committed in the department of Cauca. However, the attention of the
media and the government has been focused primarily on the pandemic during the 2020 year 9
(CAPAZ, 2020, OHCHR, 2020, Congress of the Republic of Colombia, 2020).

The murders committed against social leaders worsened the conditions of the marginality of the
communities and reduce the possibility of new leadership. The OHCHR (2020) said that of the 108
murders documented by the organization, 75% occurred in rural areas; 86% in municipalities with
a multidimensional poverty rate higher than the national average; 91% in municipalities in which
homicide rates indicate the existence of endemic violence; and 98% in municipalities characterized
by the presence of illicit economies as well as the presence of armed groups. The communities
that are more affected by this phenomenon are ethnic groups (65% of the total of murders of
social leaders was of ethnic leaders). In 2019 the murders against female social leaders increased
in 50% concerning to the past year.

Another issue that has worsened in recent years is the recruitment of children by armed groups
like the ELN in the departments of Antioquia, Arauca, Caquetá, Chocó, Guaviare, Meta y Norte de
Santander. With the emergency caused by the COVID-19 and the cancelation of the face-to-face
activities in schools, disadvantaged children of the rural areas are more vulnerable to recruitment
(El Espectador, 2020; OHCHR, 2020).

8
(Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz-CAPAZ, 2020).
9
(Congreso de la República de Colombia, 2020)
Eventually, the features named above impacts the possibilities to reach gender equity in Colombia,
as well as, the situation of girls and women that face several obstacles for the full enjoyment of
their rights.

 Gender Equality and women and girl´s rights in Colombia

Even tough that Colombia has several laws and institutions to support the rights of girls and
women and to promote gender equality 10, women and girls still endurance discrimination. These
are the main obstacles and kinds of violence that girls and women face for the full enjoyment of
their rights.

 Gender-based violence

Gender-based violence and discrimination acts are several violations of the human rights that
hinder the consecution of gender equality global goal. Gender-based violence and discrimination
are unacceptable kinds of violence that affect the achievement of better levels of development, as
well as the consolidation of global peace. To eliminate this kind of violence is completely necessary
the transformation of the social structures that, historically, have marginated the women's rights
(and the rights of people with a diverse sexual orientation or/and gender identity).

This kind of violence goes through different discourses and social expressions that perpetuate the
subordination of the women and the exclusion of LGBTI people. It permeates the institutions and
the public sphere. In Colombia there still several macho-thoughts that promotes the inequity in
different levels. A survey made it by the DANE (2018) indicates that women use an average of 7
hours and 14 minutes per week for the development of home and care activities (which are not
paid) while men use an average of 3 hours and 25 minutes. The disproportion in the charge of
activities related to the home and care has an incidence in the access that women have to
education, paid work, political participation, and rest (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2019).

In Colombia, in rural and areas affected by armed conflict girls and women are more vulnerable to
different kinds of violence. The Ombudsman´s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo) in Colombia said that
women with less economic autonomy and less educated are more exposed to different kinds of
gender-based violence like sexual, psychological, and physical violence committed by her
sentimental partners. From the total of women attended by the Ombudsman´s Office, 14.7%
stated that their main economic activity is taking care of the home, 64% of women declared that
suffered psychological violence, 50% physical violence, 34% economic violence, and 14% sexual
violence (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2019).

Gender-based violence has different expressions and scenarios. One of the most common places
in which it occurs in the private sphere, with the family. The femicide occurs in the public space,
for example, when a woman is assassinated during the exercise of their work, for being a social
leader, because of their sexual orientation or just for being a woman. In Colombia, the
Ombudsman´s Office said that for 2018 there were 67 femicides and 72 assassination attempts
against women. More than half of femicide cases, the aggressor is a relative, mainly, the

10
The Constitution of 1991 contains laws to protect women and girls against gender-based discrimination,
and to promote gender equality. There is an institution specialized in gender equality issues which is the
High Presidential Office for the Equality of Women
sentimental partner of the victim. So, it is important to improve the mechanisms of attention to
prevent the occurrence or more femicides.

 Sexual violence and other abuses related to the armed conflict

Sexual violence is a noteworthy reality in Colombia. Medicina Legal reported in 2018 that in
86.83% of sexual violence cases the victims were boys, girls, and teenage girls. Now, sexual
violence used in the framework of the armed conflict evidence that girls and women have suffered
in a disproportionate manner. The Constitutional Court of Colombia said that sexual violence is a
systematic practice in Colombia that has been invisible in the context of the armed conflict where
were committed sexual harassment and exploitation of boys, girls, and teenage girls. Also, inside
of the armed groups, sexual violence occurs, but it is not visible enough. Inside the military
insurgencies, there is a remarkable use of the gender roles to justify the abuse. The symbolic
structures and hierarchies are helpful for the perpetuation of sexual crimes.

The National Center for the Historic Memory in Colombia (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica)
has documented and conceptualized the use and development of sexual violence in the
framework of the armed conflict. The sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups against
women has been used to displacing, and divest the victims, as well as, to silence them. Sexual
abuse is a traumatic event, and the victims present several traumas associated with the event, as
well as, physical damages. So, Colombian society needs to abolish any kind of social tolerance
towards this kind of crime.

Even though during the development of the armed conflict different groups of people have been
the target of sexual violence, gender roles and macho-thoughts are the basis of these actions, and
girls, women, transgender women, and LGTBI people are the most vulnerable. Especially,
indigenous and afro-Colombian girls and women that were more exposed to these crimes (Centro
Nacional de Memoria Histórica, 2018).

The database of the CNMH´s Memory and Conflict Observatory (that use the UARIV Single Registry
of Victims as its main source) (Registro Único de Víctimas de la UARIV), reveals that from a total of
15.076 people who have been victims of sexual violence in the context of the armed conflict,
91.5% were women (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2019).

Sexual violence has been used as a war

strategy to subordinate and scare the civil
population. Inside of the armed groups,
sexual violence was helpful to reinforce
hierarchies and gender roles. Therefore, in
the post-conflict scenario victims of sexual
violence are highly vulnerable, especially the
former female combatants that were also
victims of forced recruitment when they were
girls. This is because former combatants are
not formally recognized as victims in
accordance with the Law 1448 of 2011, so, usually, they are considered just as former combatants,
and that they don’t have access to reparation mechanisms. Therefore women that were victims of
sexual violence have to accede to their rights through the reincorporation mechanisms and
usually, are forced to live with their aggressor.

 Female social leaders

Social processes for the vindication of the girls and women´s rights have been really important to
denounce the abuses and discrimination forms that girls, women, and transgender women face
every day. The work of social movements, collectives, and social leaders has been key to gain more
visibility for gender equality agenda and crafting policies to create a more equitable society. For
example, a remarkable advocacy action was the participation of women in the negotiations of the
Peace Accords of 2016 in Colombia (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2019; Equal Measures 2030 ).

But, social leaders face several dangers in Colombia. From January of 2016 and December of 2018
were assassinated 431 social leaders, 48 were female social leaders, and 2 transgender women. In
three of the reported cases, there were signals of sexual violence and torture. On average, every
18 days a female social leader is assassinated in Colombia. In 2019 the OHCHR (2020) documented
that of the total of 108 cases of murders against social leaders, 15 were women (Defensoría del
Pueblo, 2019; OHCHR, 2020).

In these cases, as well as, in cases of gender-based violence and femicides, access to justice in
Colombia to combat the impunity is still a great challenge for the Colombian State. The lack of
effective justice mechanisms contributes to the prolongation of violence cycles. The Fiscalía
General de la Nación does not have a presence in the overall country, and in rural areas, the
access to justice is more precarious. The most affected departments for this are Antioquia, Arauca,
Amazonas, Caquetá, Chocó, Guaviare, Huila, Meta, Nariño, Vaupés (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2019).
Labor and access to education

 Labor and education

In Colombia women continue to earn less than men, with a wage gap of 19%. Likewise, 13.1% of
women are unemployed, compared to 8.1% of men, besides women have more informal jobs that
men (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2019; DANE, 2020)
Facts about girl´s education in Colombia

 The average of number of school years girls complete raised from 3 years to 3.7 years
between 1900 and 2000.
 In rural areas only three-quarters of the children in primary education go on to the next
grade compared to almost 90% of the urban areas.
 In Colombia, girls´ education led to the increase of participation in the workforce, growing
from 30 percent to 43 percent between 1990 and 2012.
 Girls have lower repetition and withdrawal rates than boys
 The rates of girls enrollment is not to different from the rates of boys enrollment as is
possible to notice in the following figures made it by the DANE (2019)
  The average of female teachers is higher than the average of male teachers in Colombia,
especially in pre-scholar level.

 This is the numbers for female and male enrollment for the departments of Cauca, Chocó
and Córdoba according to data from the Dane upgrade for 04 of June of 2020.

Enrollment numbers in the Formal Educative Sector of Colombia

Department Distribution Pre-scholar Primary Secondary Middle
by sex School
Cauca Boys 12.684 53.352 43.923 13.930
Girls 12.168 49.230 44.129 15.857
Chocó Boys 5.905 24.766 15.038 4.514
Girls 5.640 24.960 15.122 4.883
Córdoba Boys 20.538 80.594 69.970 20.704
Girls 19.488 73.438 63.296 22.994
In sum, education itself is a powerful tool for empowering girls and young women, in Colombia,
the gaps are more remarkable between rural and urban areas. Educapaz believes that is
completely relevant to generate advocacy actions to reach, not only a more equal access to
education for girls and boys in rural and the poorest urban sectors of the country but also, to
create programs, strategies, and guidelines for the transformation of the gender-based
stereotypes that promotes discrimination and violence. In this sense, the Program acknowledges
those facts that affect gender equality in the country and has set the goal to help girls to gain
access to education in Colombia, especially in rural areas that have been more affected by the
armed conflict.