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Summary: Translated by CRIN
Colombia’s Constitutional Court has found serious deficiencies in the State's attention to displaced children and their families. The court decided that, after analysing the situation of children for several months in a process which included public hearings, the response of the government “had been fragmented and disorganised and revealed a glaring lack of coordination.” A girl displaced in Medellín told the Constitutional Court how she spent her days: “Sometimes there is nothing to eat and I keep sleeping so I can’t feel hungry”. Other children who faced the same predicament in Cartagena wrote to the judges with requests: “I want to ask you to help us with food. We need books, notepads, uniforms and food because we are going to die of hunger, food for the malnourished children”. Another said: “If it isn’t too much trouble I would like to ask you for clothes, food and a house. I like food”. Children (more than a million) make up 54 per cent of the country’s displaced population. Judge Manuel José Cepeda presided over the findings with the participation of judges Rodrigo Escobar and Jaime Córdoba. The court’s conclusion is that since a ruling was issued in 2004, which established that the problem of displacement had spun out of control, the State has failed to overcome the serious problems facing this population group. “This unconstitutional state of affairs persists today, and brings with it massive, systematic, deep and persistent violations of the fundamental rights of millions of people”, said the Court. ‘Insufficient attention’ “The response of the authorities to the situation of children and young people who have been displaced has been completely insufficient”, said the Court…”the response has been late and lacking in resources for displaced children.” The Court drew attention to the fact that displaced children were at risk of being victims of crime, forcible recruitment by illegal groups. It said they were also more vulnerable to the effects of landmines, sexual abuse and to the “social control strategies of illegal armed groups operating in large parts of the country.” After making its diagnosis, the Court ordered State ministries and other bodies to draft, within six months, a programme for attending to displaced children, with support from NGOs and the international community.... Projects must also be created to attend to displaced children in Cartagena, Arauca, Sincelejo, Quibdó, Tumaco, Buenaventura, Bucaramanga, Bogotá, Medellín, Policarpa (Nariño), Florencia (Caquetá) and San José del Guaviare, it said. Protection to indigenous peoples The Constitutional Court is preparing other decisions in the next few weeks in which it will order State bodies to protect all displaced persons in different ways, including indigenous persons, Afro-Colombians and displaced persons who have a disability…