5xx Not Found | Datasketch
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5xx Not Found

More than 500 social leaders have been murdered in Colombia since January 2016.

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February 13, 2019.

The “5XX Not Found” t-shirt seeks to make visible and denounce the systematic assassinations of human rights defenders on Colombia. Silencing those who defend the territory, protect the environment, promote the rights of the LGBTI community, denounce the illegal mining and drug trafficking, among other causes.

There is still doubt about the number of social leaders who have been murdered in Colombia since January 2016, the data is imprecise and despite the fact that the general attorney’s office finally recognizes, after 3 years, the systematic nature of these murders, there is no official figure that speaks about the leaders which lives were fetched away.

In Datasketch we have been counting these systematic murders since 2017, based on media information and cross-referencing databases of other organizations (see methodology) we have found that more than 500 social leaders were murdered since January 2016. (Date of court 2019-02-01).

The State does not act and impunity continues, recognizing that there is systematicity does not solve the problem. How long will these crimes continue? Who answers for those murdered social leaders?

El Estado no actúa y la impunidad continúa, reconocer que existe sistematicidad no soluciona el problema. ¿Hasta cuando seguirán ocurriendo estos crímenes? ¿Quién responde por esos 5XX líderes sociales asesinados?

About the data:

At least 10 organizations have taken count of the murders to social leaders, among them are press, civil society organizations, international organizations and public entities; as they are: Somos Defensores, Indepaz, Ojo a la paz, CINEP, Unidad de Víctimas, Defensoría del Pueblo, Cumbre Agraria, Alto Comisionado para las Naciones Unidas de los Derechos Humanos, Front Line Defenders, Pacifista and Datasketch.

All this counts give different results, which may due to different reasons: capacity, scope, by the way of categorizing the social leaders, because the homicide could have occured in isolated places, because some cases can be considered as enforced disappearance, because the entities in charge don’t make a report or because the media don’t inform about the event.

You can see the all the data and our journalism work here.