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ColombiaExamining Claims About Union ViolenceMegan Price and Daniel Guzmán of the Benetech Human Rights Program released a paper in May 2010 which examines an academic article entitled, “Is Violence Against Union Members in Colombia Systematic and Targeted?” written by Colombian academics Daniel Mejía and María José Uribe. That paper concluded that “. . . on average, violence against unionists in Colombia is neither systematic nor targeted.” Price and Guzmán's paper, which is entitled, "Comments to the article 'Is Violence Against Union Members in Colombia Systematic and Targeted?'” engages an important academic debate, where the magnitude, patterns and causes of anti-union violence in Colombia are not yet conclusive. This dialog has important implications for human rights in Colombia where thousands of union leaders and members have been killed, disappeared and threatened for decades. The public debate about union violence intensified from 2008 to 2010 as countries negotiating free trade agreements with Colombia, including the U.S., explicitly cited union violence as an obstacle to finalizing agreements. Given the importance of this debate, any study that makes claims about the patterns and magnitude of union violence in Colombia requires the highest level of precision and scientific rigor. In their response, Price and Guzmán present – in technical and methodological detail – the reasons they find the conclusions in Mejía and Uribe’s study to be overstated. Price and Guzmán believe that weaknesses in the data, in the choice of the statistical model, and the interpretation of the model used in Mejía and Uribe’s study, all raise serious questions about the authors' strong causal conclusions. Price and Guzmán point out that unchecked, those conclusions distort the truth about violence against unions and can mislead important social, economic and political decisions in Colombia. The authors believe that more examination is needed to determine patterns and magnitude of union homicides in Colombia -and that Mejía and Uribe’s study does not resolve the question, “is violence against union members in Colombia systematic and targeted?” The Executive Summary of "Comments to the article 'Is Violence Against Union Members in Colombia Systematic and Targeted?'” can be downloaded here:
For more information about HRDAG reports estimating the magnitude and the patterns of deaths and disappearances in Casanare, Colombia click here. To read more about the July 2009 HRDAG pilot study that uses cemetery data to understand the patterns of unidentified deaths in Rionegro, Antioquia, Colombia click here. HRDAG's March 2007 paper assessing claims of declining
lethal violence in Colombia can be accessed here.
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Originally based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), HRDAG has provided technical assistance in the following countries: Africa Asia Europe Middle East Central America and Caribbean South America |
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Inc. (The Benetech® Initiative) The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) applies information technology solutions and statistical techniques to help human rights advocates build evidence-based arguments. |
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