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Colombia

Colombia: Congress declares 2007 "Year of the Rights of the Displaced"

The Colombian Congress has adopted a law declaring 2007 the "Year of the Rights of the Displaced" in solidarity with the country's more than three million IDPs. While the new law is a positive step to highlight the plight of the IDPs in Colombia, previous IDP legislation - considered to be among the most comprehensive in the world - has not been adequately implemented, according to the UN's Special Representative on Human Rights for IDPs, Walter Kälin, and the country's Constitutional Court. The forced displacement of civilians has been an integral part of the warring parties' military, political and economic objectives over decades of conflict pitting left-wing guerrillas against government forces and paramilitary groups. IDPs are awaiting reparation for the loss of million of hectares of land to members of paramilitary groups who have benefited from a controversial demobilisation process.

The IDP News Alert is a bi-weekly summary of selected global news on internally displaced people, compiled by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council.