27 social leaders killed in 27 days in Colombia

The Colombian Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) said that in the first 27 days of 2020, 27 social leaders and four former combatants and signatories of the 2016 Peace Agreement have been killed.

The figure was released after the assassination of social leader Fernando Quintero Mena, in the northern municipality of Convencion.

As a human rights defender is murdered on average in Colombia every day, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office in the Latin American country urged President Ivan Duque to take structural measures to protect the lives of leaders and ex-combatants protected under the peace process.

According to the U.N, since the peace agreement signing, more than 300 murders of human rights leaders have occurred; while another four ex-FARC members and peace agreement signatories have been murdered in 2020.