The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of seven members of the Unión Patriótica (Patriotic Union) which concerns the murders between 1986 and 1994 of Mr. Pedro Nel Jiménez Obando, Mr. Leonardo Posada Pedraza, Mr. Octavio Vargas Cuéllar, Mr. Pedro Luis Valencia Giraldo, Mr. Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa and Mr. Manuel Cepeda Vargas and the death threats against Mr. Hernán Motta Motta, which forced him into exile in October 1997, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/189/11(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 188th session (April 2011),

Taking into account a communication from the Colombian Ambassador to the United Nations Office at Geneva, dated 4 August 2011, transmitting a report of the Director of International Affairs of the Prosecutor's Office dated 6 July 2011, and of a communication from the Presidential Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Programme, dated 5 July 2011,

Recalling the following information:

• None of the murderers of five of the six congressmen or the perpetrators of the death threats against Mr. Motta, who still lives in exile, have been held to account;

• The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in its binding ruling of 26 May 2010 in the case of Mr. Cepeda, concluded that the Colombian State bore responsibility for his murder and ordered it first to conduct an effective investigation to establish the identity of the instigators and the full scale of collaboration between State agents and paramilitary forces in carrying out the crime, and second to make reparation, including through the organization, in consultation with Mr. Cepeda’s family, of an official ceremony in the Colombian Congress, or other prominent public place, during which the State of Colombia, in the presence of members of both Houses of Parliament and the highest State authorities, would publicly acknowledge its responsibility and offer an apology;

• A general petition, first submitted in 1997, regarding the persecution of the Patriotic Union and offences committed, directly or indirectly, against its members, including, except in Mr. Cepeda’s case, the aforementioned parliamentarians, is still pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights;

• Since 2008, the Attorney General’s Office has given special attention to the case of Mr. Jaramillo and the Prosecutor’s Office has assembled a special team focusing on violations committed against members of the Patriotic Union and reactivated investigations into the assassinations of Mr. Jiménez, Mr. Posada, Mr. Valencia, Mr. Cepeda and Mr. Jaramillo; as part of the efforts with respect to Mr. Jaramillo, the former chief of the Administrative Department of Security, Mr. Alberto Romero, has come under investigation,

Considering also that, according to the latest information provided by the Colombian authorities, investigations with respect to the other murder cases are ongoing; in the case of Mr. Posada, the judge had yet to rule on the situation of the suspect Mr. Baquero Agudelo, who had accepted a plea bargain and whose case had been sent to court for sentencing along with a request from the Prosecutor's Office that the relevant available documents be examined with a view to identifying other presumed culprits; in the case of Mr. Jaramillo’s murder, the Prosecutor's Office stated that on 20 May 2011 Mr. Carlos Arturo Lozano Guillén, Director of the daily "Voz", and Mr. Ricardo Pérez González were heard as part of the investigation and that the legal status of Mr. Romero still had to be determined and further evidence had to be taken,

Considering finally that, on 9 August 2011, the State of Colombia organized an event on the premises of the National Congress focusing exclusively on Senator Cepeda’s murder and its ramifications which was attended by high-ranking State officials and parliamentarians from across the political spectrum,

1. Thanks the authorities for their continued cooperation and for the extensive information they provided;

2. Notes with satisfaction that, in line with the Inter-American Court’s ruling, the Colombian State has paid tribute to Mr. Cepeda’s life in a solemn ceremony in which the Minister of the Interior and Justice publicly condemned its responsibility for his assassination and called for forgiveness; is convinced that this act was crucial in offering symbolic reparation to Mr. Cepeda’s family and sending an important message about impunity to society at large;

3. Trusts that the authorities will continue to implement diligently the other steps ordered by the Inter-American Court, in particular so as to establish full accountability for Mr. Cepeda’s murder; wishes to receive confirmation that trial proceedings against Mr. Narváez have meanwhile started and to know whether his statements have helped to shed further light on the extent of State responsibility for the crime and on the identity of those possibly involved;

4. Trusts that the Prosecutor’s Office will soon decide whether or not to bring charges against Mr. Romero in the case of Mr. Jaramillo’s murder and will continue to pursue with the necessary resolve the other ongoing investigations in order, to the extent possible, to elucidate the other assassinations and the death threats against Mr. Motta; wishes to be kept informed of any further developments in this regard;

5. Reaffirms that this case, which concerns the assassination of members of Congress as part of a large-scale persecution of a political party, is of direct concern to the Parliament of Colombia; trusts that, through its oversight function, the Colombian Congress is doing its utmost to help ensure that ongoing efforts to elucidate the murders of and death threats against parliamentarians of the Patriotic Union are pursued and that the State of Colombia fully implements the outstanding elements of the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Mr. Cepeda;

6. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the competent authorities and to the source;

7. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held during the 126th IPU Assembly (March/April 2012).

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