International
One year after decriminalizing abortion in Colombia
February 22 |
Organizations, collectives and women celebrated this Tuesday a year since the decriminalization of abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation in Colombia, after the claim of the feminist movement in the country that led the Constitutional Court to endorse this right.
The Campaign for the Right to Legal Abortion, a leading organization for this right, stated that they are celebrating “the first year of Ruling C-055 of 2022, which decriminalized abortion up to 24 weeks. This historic achievement leaves us with new parameters and norms that we must know in order to defend our right. We continue”.
The Share-Net Colombia platform, for its part, valued that “this historic ruling protects the life, dignity, health and rights of women, girls, non-binary people and trans men, who can now access abortion freely, safely, free of charge and without criminal threats”.
In the case of pregnancy exceeding 24 weeks of gestation, the current law allows access to abortion if one of the three grounds contained in Ruling C-355 of 2006 is met.
Causa Justa por el Aborto celebrated “the power of the collective and the movement, which made possible the decriminalization of abortion”, while the slogans raised by women defend that “feminists are changing the world”.
“Our grandmothers gave us the vote, our mothers gave us the divorce and we gave them sentence C-055-22”, said the Colombian women a year after decriminalization.
Likewise, for other activists “migrant women can access abortion, regardless of our immigration status”, thanks to Causa Justa.
Senator María José Pizarro Rodríguez thanked the organizations and the women’s movement that accompanied the process “which guarantees the right to decide on our bodies and life projects”.
In supporting the resolution issued by the Colombian government on January 12 to avoid barriers to access to this right, feminist organizations, one year after the Court’s ruling, also warned of the challenges in guaranteeing this right.
For feminist activist Jennifer Pedraza Sandoval, not all women have the necessary information, while some medical personnel still lie and claim that it is illegal.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
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