Colombia Woman

http://www.icbf.gov.co/ingles/home.asp (English version) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR ADOPTIVE PARENTS: Colombian law only allows for adoptions by a married man and woman. The Colombian adoption laws require that at least one of the adopting parents be over twenty-five years of age and be physically, emotionally, and economically capable of supporting the adopted child.  In practice, newborns are assigned to younger couples, and older children are assigned to older couples. TIME FR ... [Read More]

Colombia

b. Disappearances The law specifically defines forced disappearance as a crime. The CCJ reported 260 cases of forced disappearance during the first 9 months of the year, and accused the security forces of direct responsibility for 48 of these cases. For example, the CCJ alleged that on May 11 troops of the 6th Brigade surrounded the towns of Montoso and Aco, Tolima department, accused various members of the population of being guerrilla collaborators, and causing the disappearance of Jose Maximiliano Gomez. The Association of Families of Detained and Disappeared Persons (ASFADDES), which reported 785 forced disappearances during the first 9 months of the year, claimed there have been more than 6,000 cases of forced disappearance since 1982. The U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances reported that there have been at least 1,114 cases since 1981; 850 of these cases remained unresolved. Paramilit ... [Read More]

Colombia

Guerrillas were responsible for a large percentage of civilian deaths related to the internal conflict. Combat between guerrillas and state security forces caused numerous civilian casualties. For example, on July 7, an elderly woman was injured during a FARC attack against the security forces in Narino Department. CINEP attributed at least 144 civilian deaths to the FARC and ELN as of June 30. ...

Despite an explicit constitutional provision promising additional resources for single mothers and government efforts to train them in parenting skills, women's groups reported that single mothers continued to face serious economic and social problems. According to a 1997 Constitutional Court ruling, a woman's decision to bear a child cannot be considered just cause for firing her if she is pregnant or the mother of a child under 3 months of age. There were no published reports of such firings during the year. ... [Read More]

Colombia

Investigations into reported killings by FARC members within and on the periphery of the demilitarized zone continued. On December 29, congressional peace commission chairman Diego Turbay Cote, his mother councilwoman Ines Cote, and five other persons were killed in Caqueta department (near the FARC demilitarized zone). The killings placed the future of the peace process in doubt as the Prosecutor General, army, and police alleged that the FARC were responsible. There was no reported progress in the Prosecutor General's investigation into the May 1999 killings in Vereda Perlas Altas, Puerto Rico, Caqueta department. According to press reports, the FARC have executed approximately 20 residents in the despeje zone. ... [Read More]

Colombia

For example, on May 8, unidentified assailants wearing camouflage uniforms identified and then murdered four members of a Protestant church in Tierralta, Cordoba Department. The victims included evangelical pastor Miguel Enrique Posada Vertel, church treasurer Ana Berenice Girlado Vasquez, an 80-year-old woman, and a teenage boy. ... [Read More]

Colombia

There are no legal and few practical restrictions on the participation of women and minorities in the political process. In March 2000, a quota law went into effect requiring that a minimum goal of 30 percent of nominated positions be allocated to women. The quota law does not apply to publicly elected positions or managers of parastatal corporations. The Government must report to Congress each year on the percentage of women in high-level governmental positions. The new Uribe administration increased the number of women in significant executive branch posts. There were 8 women in the 18-member cabinet, including the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Relations and the High Commissioner for Plan Colombia. There were also 7 female vice ministers. Women occupied 11 seats in the 102-member Senate and 20 seats in the 161-member House of Representatives. There was 1 woman on the 23-member Supreme Court and another on the 9-member Constitutional Court. Two of the 13 magistrates on the CSJ were ... [Read More]

Colombia

The 2 main guerrilla armies, the FARC and the ELN, as well as the much smaller EPL and other groups, commanded an estimated total of 21,645 full-time guerrillas operating in more than 100 semiautonomous groups throughout the country. These groups undertook armed actions in nearly 1,000 of the country's 1,097 municipalities. Both the FARC and the ELN systematically attacked noncombatants and violated citizens' rights through the use of tactics such as killings, forced disappearances, the mutilation of bodies, attacks on churches, attacks on hospitals, attacks on ambulances, and executions of patients in hospitals (see Sections 1.a., 1.b., and 1.c.). Guerrilla groups also were responsible for multiple abuses of religious and medical personnel. For example, on January 10, the FARC stopped an ambulance carrying a woman in labor to a hospital in Antioquia. Despite the pleas of the attendants, the guerrillas burned the vehicle, and the woman endured a difficult breech delivery in a nearby ho ... [Read More]

3) EPA Response

Kageura et al. (1988) reported on the death of a 26 year old woman who ingested glyphosate in a suicide. They attributed the death to inhalation of vomitus into the lungs causing asphyxiation. Talbot et al. (1991) reviewed 93 cases of glyphosate exposure reported to the emergency room in Taiwan from 1974 through September 30, 1989. Cases involving exposures to other products were excluded. The majority of these cases were suicidal and involved oral exposures. Those cases where the amount ingested was not recorded were also excluded. They noted that some cases had only moderate effects even after ingestion of up to 500 ml and death had resulted from ingestion of concentrate in amounts above 85 ml. Oral ingestions by mistake in seven cases was usually of a small amount and "resulted in only minor mouth discomfort". The authors concluded that "the data suggest that those over 40 years of age, who ingest more than 100 ml, are at the highest risk of a fatal outcome." ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries A through G

Equatorial Guinea is a transit and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, involuntary domestic servitude, and other forced labor. Women and children are trafficked to Equatorial Guinea from West and Central Africa, principally Cameroon, Nigeria, and Benin. Women are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation in Malabo, where demand is high due to the booming oil sector. Cameroonian and Beninese children are trafficked to Malabo for exploitation as street and market hawkers; Nigerian boys are trafficked to Rio Muni (the mainland) for exploitation as agricultural workers. The Government of Equatorial Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Over the past year the government has made a number of efforts that attest ... [Read More]

Western Hemisphere

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