Impact of Conflict on Women
Despite women's efforts to mobilize, Colombian women continue to bear the brunt of the economic, political, physical and moral consequences of the war.
Political and Security Impact
Every two days, a woman dies in Colombia from "political" causes - murder by armed groups, disappearances, illness caused by displacement and malnutrition, and every fourteen days, a Colombian woman falls victim to forced disappearance. According to a 2004 report published by Women Waging Peace, seventeen percent of missing and assassinated political and community activists were women by 2002.
Despite FARC's drive to employ more female guerrillas, women provide the domestic labor in the camps and are vulnerable to unscrupulous leaders who enforce strict decorum on their foot soldiers but not on themselves. The FARC impose strict rules on sexual relationships and forbid pregnancy, which often results in forced contraceptive use and abortions. However, Colombian women have never been represented as a sector at formal negotiations with guerrilla groups with the exception of the 2002 negotiations between the FARC and the Pastrana administration, as one woman participated in the Thematic Commission on behalf of FARC and one woman participated in the Notables Commission.
Women's human rights campaigners face extreme threats to their security in Colombia as well. On 16 October 2003 activist Esperanza Amaris Miranda was slain in Barrancabermeja, another in a series of attacks against women's human rights campaigners. In December 2003, the office of an NGO working with UNHCR to assist displaced women in Bogot? was broken into and vandalized. Computers and files were stolen by unidentified armed men from Corporaci?n Casa de la Mujer.
Humanitarian Impact
Despite four years of negotiations since Plan Colombia, armed actors have been unable to reach an agreement on the humanitarian protection of women, children and the elderly. Of the two million Colombians who have fled their homes in the last fifteen years, the majority has been women and children, and by 2001, there were 34,125 displaced female-headed households in Colombia. Insecurity in refuge areas prompts many internally displaced persons to return to their villages despite continuing conflict. Prostitution of girls, family dissolution, unemployment, lack of education and food, and infiltration by armed groups characterize the living situations in many of these refuges. Insecurity also increases the likelihood that teenagers will be targeted for recruitment by armed actors.
Furthermore, according to the Colombian NGO La Ruta Pac?fica, the fumigations of coca fields are having a negative impact on the well being of Colombian women. Not only do fumigations cause health problems in women and their children, women are also finding it difficult to maintain food security for their families where chemicals are indiscriminately harming all vegetation.
Economic Impact
Sixty percent of displaced women have no source of income or access to income generating activities. Many women and girls flee violence and poverty in the rural areas only to realize that their only source of employment is prostitution. Also, political violence in Colombia is having ramifications for girl's education. Teachers in poor areas often receive death threats from armed groups, which lessens the availability of qualified teachers, the majority of whom are women. Girls also face an increased threat of violence on their way to school, which increases the dropout rate amongst girls.
Violence against Women
All rebel and paramilitary groups in Colombia have been reported to rape women and girls and torture civilians. According to the United States Commission for Refugees, between sixty and seventy percent of Colombian women face some kind of violence (sexual, physical, psychological and political) in their lifetimes. Despite this, the United Nations Human Rights Commission Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women noted a failure to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of rape and other forms of gender-based violence. According to the Special Rapporteur, this has contributed to a general environment of impunity that perpetuates sexual and domestic violence.
he Special Rapporteur also found that Colombian women and girls were frequently and systematically attacked by armed groups. Women have been detained as sexual slaves and have been raped as punishment for being relatives of the "other side." It was found that formal complaints against such combatants are rare because escaped victims live in constant fear of reprisals. Forced abortions and force contraceptive use are other forms of gender-based violence perpetrated on women and girls by armed groups.
Finally, insecurity and a climate of impunity have made Colombia one of the biggest sources for trafficked persons in the world. In 2000, the Colombian Department of Security reported that between 35,000 and 50,000 women and girls were trafficked abroad that year.