Public Meeting
Women Organizing against the War
in Colombia

Jackeline Rojas
Organizacion Feminina Popular


Plus speakers from Colombia Solidarity Campaign and Peace Brigades International

Colombia's civil war claims the lives of some 6,000 people every year. The overwhelming majority of victims are civilians. Women pay a particularly high price, targeted for assassination and disappearance to spread terror throughout communities, or used as "trophies of war" by state and non-state armed actors in the conflict. In 2004, almost 300,000 people were forcibly displaced from their land by state sponsored violence, bringing to 3 million the total number of internally displaced people in Colombia. Once again, it is women and their families who constitute the majority of this number.

The Organizacion Feminina Popular (OFP) is Colombia’s principle women’s rights organization and one of the country’s most combative human rights NGOs. Founded 33 years ago, the OFP was set up in the conflict riven Magdalena del Medio region, and now include a network of over 5,000 women and their families. Through their work, the OFP promote and defend autonomy, non violent resistance and the rights of women and the civilian population. Their constant campaigning against war and social injustice has made the organization a target of paramilitary and state terror.

Wednesday 19 October 2005 at 7pm
Union Tavern, 52 Lloyd Baker Street, London EC1
Nearest tubes: Farringdon or Kings Cross

“Las mujeres no parimos ni forjamos hijos y hijas para la guerra”
(We do not give birth and raise our children for war)

For more information about the OFP (in Spanish) visit their website at:
www.ofp.org.co