Colombia Overview
Colombia Resources
Colombia Partners
Colombia History
View KAIROS Canada in a larger map
KAIROS works with human rights groups, churches, women’s organizations and other social movements in Colombia. With our partners, we are actively engaged in advocacy campaigns to oppose militarization, end impunity, defend human rights and promote peace with social justice.
Colombia has suffered almost five decades of internal armed conflict, a conflict rooted in huge and growing inequities and fueled by massive amounts of military aid from the United States. The Colombian government has responded to the conflict with a counter-insurgency strategy that targets the civilian population. The result is one of the worst human rights situations in the world.
Yet ask the average North American what they associate with Colombia and they will likely answer: cocaine, violent drug cartels, and left-wing rebels. This distorted image --created by highly selective media coverage-- has obscured both the reality of Colombia’s dirty war and those responsible for it. As a result, massive human rights violations have failed to draw the level of international outrage and concerted action that abuses of similar proportions in other parts of the world have drawn.
