Colombia Radio Campaign

On Wednesday, 26 September, Front Line Defenders and the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) will launch a 6-episode Public Service Announcement (PSA) radio campaign focusing on 6 Colombian human rights defenders.

The campaign will be broadcast nationally on several of the largest radio stations in Colombia, reaching wide audiences, and will be featured at www.radiohrd.org.

Front Line Defenders, an Irish international human rights organization works to protect and promote human rights defenders worldwide, by providing rapid, practical support. MOVICE is an alliance of Colombian social organizations and family members of victims of crimes against humanity, working to restore rights to truth, justice, comprehensive reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition of the crimes, as well as maintaining the memory of the men and women murdered for building a Colombia in peace and with social justice.

The two organizations are working together for the production and promotion of the campaign, to impact both local and international audiences. Information profiling the 6 human rights defenders and updates on their cases will be featured on the campaign website www.radiohrd.org. Each of the 6 PSAs will be broadcast for 2 weeks, with the campaign concluding in December. The public will be asked to support the HRDs by signing onto online petitions aimed at Colombian officials.

The PSAs will begin with the case of Juan David Diaz, MOVICE member in the department of Sucre and son of the former Mayor of El Roble, murdered in 2003; Juan David is currently facing politically motivated charges in reprisal for his search for justice for his father's murder. Other cases will include Luz Elena Galeano from Medellin's Comuna 13 district (Antioquia), whose husband was forcibly disappeared and who is herself a victim of forced displacement; Marta Giraldo, MOVICE leader in the Valle del Cauca department and daughter of a victim of extrajudicial execution; Ruby Castaño, member of the Meta Independent Agricultural Workers' Union, currently threatened and a victim of the genocide against the Patriotic Union (UP) political party; Teófilo Acuña, human rights defender and member of the Southern Bolivar Agricultural-Mining Federation (Fedeagromisbol); and finally, Henry Díaz, forcibly disappeared on April 18, 2012 in the department of Putumayo.

This campaign aims to raise awareness among the general public, both nationally and internationally, about the importance for society as a whole of the defense of human rights, as well as the consequences that these human rights defenders must face because of their work.

For more information:

Front Line Defenders

Adam Shapiro

adam@frontlinedefenders.org

+ 1-202-294-8813

+ 353-85-236-0262

MOVICE

Julián Carreño

prensa@movimientodevictimas.org

+ 57 1 283 3018

+ 57 316 778 6029