Colombia: Trade Unionists Under Attack in Colombia: Defending the rights of education, health and public service workers

Arselio Peñas Guatico and Jhon Jairo Osorio Pisario were members of the Wounáan Indigenous community in Chocó Department. They were teachers and members of the Union of Teachers of Chocó Department. Following separate abductions, their bodies were found in March 2006. Trade unionists in Colombia are at grave risk of human rights abuses. Successive Colombian governments have implemented a series of policies to improve the protection of trade unionists. The long-term security of trade unionists depends on decisive action by the Colombian authorities to end the impunity which protects the vast majority of those responsible for the human rights abuses against them.