Document: Dejusticia.
One of the primary challenges we face as a society is the search for more equality. In its article 13, the 1991 Constitution promised real and formal equality: the same rights and opportunities for all of society. This equality has been gradually developed to avoid discrimination of some groups, but a decent minimum has not yet been achieved for many. Horizontal discriminations subsist, those directed towards culturally defined or socially constructed groups, according to ethnicity, nationality, sexuality or religion. In addition, the State has not been able to find a way to avoid vertical or socio-economic discrimination, that which shows the imbalance between income, wealth and abilities. Much less, has it managed to respond to those who suffer from the intersection of horizontal and vertical discrimination, or the inequality derived from the lack of opportunities in remote or forgotten regions of the country.
Thus, there are many examples of inequalities that are not exceptional, but rather a true structural problem of our society. For example, the death of 41 children in La Guajira in 2021 due to causes associated with malnutrition, the lack of response in the restitution of land to thousands of victims of the conflict, the negligence in the face of the public policy of the peasantry or the enormous gap digital technology that disconnects entire populations from the development of their capacities. And in this framework of multiple inequalities, the climate to learn about and report on this is vitiated by attacks on journalism that prevent society from knowing and facing the 6 / problem. In recent years, 2021 was the most violent year against the press, and the more than 684 documented attacks show the lack of guarantees to exercise the profession: a pillar of democratic societies, enshrined in article 20 of the Political Constitution. According to data from FLIP, a third of the municipalities in Colombia do not have the means of communication, and many of them have been the scene of conflicts, poverty and inequality, which makes access to local information difficult and aggravates the way in which understand what is happening in the country. Added to this is the deep disparity in which community media find themselves: lagging behind due to the impossibility of transmitting with content and formats that compete against private or state media and facing bureaucratic burdens that put their sustainability at risk.
At Dejusticia and FLIP we consider that this structural inequality is unfair; it is the cause and consequence of deprivation of human rights. Socioeconomic inequality specifically perpetuates the poverty of these groups and creates asymmetries in access to goods and social rights, such as health, food, education and work; as well as civil and political rights, such as justice, freedom of expression and participation".
The State has not been able to find a way to avoid vertical or socio-economic discrimination, that which shows the imbalance between income, wealth and capacities”/ 7 political cicipation. All these are rights recognized by the 1991 Constitution, whose incomplete guarantee increases the distances in the fight against discrimination. Since inequality is a political decision and not a fatality, this is the moment to ask what our next rulers intend to do so that there is less poverty and greater access to opportunities? What formulas or tools would you develop to help make the field less tilted in favor of a few and against many? How to guarantee that all citizens have access to information about their environment and participate in the public debate? What type of initiatives or stimuli do you propose so that communities and population groups have the capacity and resonance when it comes to broadly addressing the problems that afflict them? Is closing the inequality gap an imperative objective for Colombia in which human rights and the development of inclusive public policies can contribute? Vivian Newman Pont, director of Dejusticia Diana Guzmán, deputy director of Dejusticia Jonathan Bock Ruiz, director of FLIP