Colombia

Women remain on the frontlines of political, legal, and social advocacy, while continuing to shoulder heightened risks of displacement, violence, and assassination. Worsening conflict between increasingly fragmented armed groups has not only led to direct violence against women and girls, but has also triggered lockdowns—or confinements—which exacerbate the risk of domestic violence and impede women’s ability to earn income. Women-headed households are particularly vulnerable to mass displacement, as they are forced to flee direct violence and, in some cases, to prevent the forced recruitment of their children into armed groups. Up to 40 percent of FARC’s 20,000 combatants were female; the demobilization and reintegration of these women remains fraught, with many feeling forced into traditional gender roles and unable to provide for their families. Concern for the safety of former combatant women also persists, as at least 12 ex-FARC women signatories to the 2016 peace agreement have been murdered. Women human rights and environmental defenders face harassment, sexual violence, and assassination when speaking out, with indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and LGBTQ+ people especially threatened; Colombia was the deadliest place for environmental rights defenders in 2023. These risks have been compounded in the last year as armed groups increasingly spread into fragile ecosystems. Efforts to recognize, reparate, and punish violence impacting women and girls continue, however. The Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP) opened Macro Case 11 in 2023, which will prosecute sexual and gender-based violations against civilians committed by both the FARC and Colombian security forces, as well as committed within both groups’ respective ranks. Strong Colombian civil society networks continue to monitor, advocate, and respond to insecurity impacting women and girls, with women holding visible leadership positions. 

Gender-sensitive stipulations of the 2016 peace agreement—already under-implemented, with just 13 percent completed as of last available monitoring—are now further jeopardized by the end of US foreign aid, which provided Colombia’s largest source of humanitarian and security financing. Women and girls endure the brunt of resurgent conflict, as the number of people impacted by conflict-related violence in the first half of 2025 rose by 333 percent compared to the same period in 2024. Venezuelan migrants as well as members of minority and marginalized communities are especially vulnerable; LGBTQ+ Colombians, for instance, face heightened danger from strengthening armed groups, as reports of calls for ‘social cleansing’—a hallmark of pre-2016 conflict—are re-emerging. Colombia is preparing now for the 2026 presidential race, raising concerns about renewed political violence and further backlash against the 2016 peace agreement in the coming months due to growing polarization.

Conflict continues to escalate, exposing civilians to violence and forced recruitment; seven children who were reportedly being used as “human shields” by the FARC-EMC armed group were killed by government airstrikes on November 15, 2025. More than 1.5 million people were displaced in the first half of 2025—a 333 percent increase compared to 2024, exposing women and girls in displacement shelters to sexual violence, trafficking and exploitation, overcrowding, and inadequate sanitation.

Although the UN Security Council voted to extend the UN Verification Mission through October 2026, it also discontinued monitoring of restorative justice and the Ethnic Chapter of the 2016 peace agreement. Eliminating oversight of these components risks sidelining related commitments, a grave threat particularly to indigenous and Afro-Descendant women whose disproportionate suffering was addressed in the Ethnic Chapter. 

Three UN special rapporteurs warned of mercury contamination in the Atrato River basin caused by illegal gold mining, specifically citing the disproportionate threat to women and children. Women and girls are often responsible for fetching water, preparing food, and washing dishes and clothes—tasks which could bring them into contact with toxins. More than one-third of the basin’s surrounding population have reportedly been exposed to dangerous amounts of mercury.

Tensions continue to escalate between Colombia and the US, with the US government accusing the ELN armed group of drug trafficking. This follows the suspension of US aid to Colombia after President Petro criticized recent US strikes in the Caribbean. Colombia is a top recipient of US foreign aid, with cuts potentially jeopardizing implementation of the 2016 peace agreement and other programming upon which women and girls rely.

The Total Peace process has excluded women from negotiating tables and failed to create conditions that enable their safe and meaningful participation. This is a setback from the principles for women’s participation established by the 2016 peace agreement and undermines both the overall efficacy of these talks as well as recognition of the harms suffered by women and girls.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) convicted seven former FARC leaders of kidnapping, torture, and sexual violence—the first individual sentences issued by the JEP—and twelve former soldiers of extrajudicial executions linked to the “false positives” scandal in which military killed young men and falsely represented them as combatants. The fight for recognition and accountability for “false positives” has been spearheaded by women, including mothers of murdered men and boys. 

Approximately 120 hectares of land from narco-trafficker Pablo Escobar’s former estate has been given to local female farmers, many of whom experienced violence and forced evictions by drug traffickers and related armed groups.