Colombia

Located at the northern tip of South America, Colombia is the only country on that continent with a coastline on both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Four decades of internal armed conflict fuelled by the drug trade has taken its toll on the country, causing the deaths of at least 200,000 people and giving rise to the world’s second highest internally displaced population. Many of the most serious children’s rights violations relate to the armed conflict, including the recruitment of children to act as soldiers, extrajudicial executions and the enforced disappearance of children.