Liliana Ávila, Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, (CIJP).

Liliana Ávila works in the legal branch of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, (CIJP), an organisation that accompanies communities that are victims of crimes against humanity. As a specialist in Constitutional Law, Liliana Ávila is in charge of many cases.

The most emblematic is the case in which the retired Army general, Rito Alejo del Rio is charged with the 1997 murder of Marino Lopez, a farmer from the Cacaria River basin. The accusation is that paramilitaries decapitated Lopez while the army, led by Alejo del Rio, was carrying out an enormous land and air operation that included bombings, known as Operation Genesis, which led to the displacement of more than 10,000 people.[1] Ávila also represents the three victims of extrajudicial execution in Inza.[2] In addition, she represents the victims in the case of murder in November 2010 of Oscar Maussa, a leader for land restitution in Uraba.[3]

“Our work focuses on the structural aspects of impunity. Consequently, none of CIJP’s members, especially the lawyers who are the most visable, ever feels 100% safe,” says Ávila. The lawyer, along with other members of the commission, has received two direct threats since 2008.[4] “It is a way of directly discrediting CIJP and attacking its right to defend human rights and dignity. We are committed to the law and to life, yet they continue to call us murderers.”

Since 2003, all the members of CIJP have been protected under precautionary measures of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Liliana Ávila underscores the face that, “the only way to have true protection is to break the cycle of impunity and dismantle the criminal structure that has robbed land and kicked peasants off their lands with brute force. If we don’t accomplish this, the threats against CIJP’s work and our work defending human rights are always going to be a risk factor.”

Despite the psychological impact of having to work in such a hostile environment, this lawyer finds the drive to continue in the dignity of the people whom CIJP accompanies. “I always say that in this line of work, one sees humanity at its worst and best, at its most vile, but also at its most supportive and fraternal.”