Yessika Hoyos Morales
In 2009, Yessika Hoyos Morales was granted the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
Yessika Hoyos Morales is a human rights lawyer and President of the Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo” (CAJAR). In the framework of her work in the CAJAR, her commitment to transitional justice is highlighted when she assumed the defence of the victims of serious human rights violations perpetrated by State agents before diverse spaces of litigation, including before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). She also worked as a legal adviser for workers’ organizations, where she addressed cases of serious violations of human rights against union leaders. In 2009, she was granted the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The CAJAR has also received recognition for their human rights work, recently receiving in 2023 the International Hrant Dink Award.
As a member of the CAJAR, she is beneficiary of precautionary measures before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and has a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as the affected part of a series of human rights violations by the Colombian State.
The last couple of years of a peace process has raised hopes for an end to the decades long conflict that has plagued Colombia. However, the negotiations between the government and the FARCs have not had a significant impact on the safety and security of human rights defenders in the country, which remains one of the countries with the highest rates of killing of HRDs in the world. This situation seems to have deteriorated in 2015 with the UN highlighting the alarming number of HRDs killed, with 69 between January and August 2015, while the number was 35 for the same period in 2014.
