Documenting Human Rights violations
OBSURDH is operated by civil society organisations in the southern department of Huila, and seeks to promote and defend human rights through monitoring and advocacy.
The NHRF has supported the establishment of OBSURDH from the outset in 2006, and with three grants they have been able to consolidate their position as a major human rights organisation in southern Colombia.
Documenting human rights violations on a local level, OBSURDH is an important contributor to the national database on human rights violations. During the implementation of the last project, OBSURDH representatives went on 14 missions to remote areas in order to collect, systematize and forward information and evidence documenting 160 cases of human rights abuses. Such information gathered by local organisations is vital for organisations doing advocacy work for improved human rights policies and against impunity at the national level. For this purpose, OBSURDH have also increased their efforts to establish links between local and regional organisations, strengthening four nodes (coordination centres) in different parts of Huila. With coordinated efforts, OBSURDH and a number of other local and regional organisations have engaged regional authorities and initiated a process to implement a regional action plan for human rights.
"With three grants, OBSURDH have been able to consolidate their position as a major human rights organisation in southern Colombia."
Simultaneously, OBSURDH continue their efforts to spread awareness about human rights through dissemination of their magazine Voices and Silences and public events. In September 2010, OBSURDH and a number of other organisations, gathered 140 persons, including victims, indigenous persons and human rights activists from the southern Colombia for a two-day seminar to discuss strategies and future efforts to promote human rights. The seminar led to the formulation of a constitution for the Departmental Network of Human Rights, composed by OBSURDH and five other major human rights organisations in the region. The seminar, which also offered the opportunity for victims of abuses to speak to lawyers and register their stories, ended with a joint declaration denouncing the continued culture of impunity and harassment of human rights defenders despite the change in rhetoric from Colombia's new government.