Javier Giraldo

Javier Giraldo Moreno (born 1944) is a Colombian Jesuit priest and human rights activist, known for his support of people in rural Colombia who have been adversely impacted by the ongoing Colombian conflict, particularly those living in Urabá Antioquia in the northwestern Antioquia Department. He is the founder of the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz (English language: Interchurch Commission for Justice and Peace).
== Early life ==
Giraldo graduated with a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá in 1969; he went on to obtain a master's degree in theology from the same institution in 1978. He also studied at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris, France in 1982.
Giraldo has cited Colombian priest and liberation theologian Camilo Torres Restrepo as among his inspirations.
== Activism ==
In 1988, Giraldo founded the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz, initially comprising of 45 Catholic congregations. The organisation supports Colombians caught in the crossfire of the country's internal armed conflict, particularly Afro-Colombians, Mestizo Colombians, and Indigenous peoples in Colombia.
Between 1989 and 1991, he served as the Latin America secretary for the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, an international human rights organisation founded by Italian senator Lelio Basso, during its session on impunity and crimes against humanity in Latin America.
Giraldo has also contributed to Colombia Nunca Más (English: Never Again Colombia), a database compiling human rights abuses in Colombia. Between 1996 and 2010, he recorded 201 crimes and murders committed by armed forces, paramilitaries, and guerillas in San José de Apertadó in Antioquia. He published a book on the issue of impunity, Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy, in 1996, in which he estimated that between 1988 and 1995, over 60, 000 Colombians were killed due to internal conflict.
Giraldo has been a vocal advocate for the victims of the San José de Apartadó massacre, in which five adults and three children were killed by members of the Military Forces of Colombia and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a far-right paramilitary and drug trafficking group, despite villagers having declared themselves as neutral in the Colombian conflict. Giraldo named Lieutenant Colonel Néstor Iván Duque as being responsible for the killings and cited it as an example of the armed forces working alongside paramilitary groups; Duque subsequently complained that Giraldo had slandered him, prompting a criminal investigation into Giraldo. Giraldo had previously been accused of slander in 1997 by Harold Bedoya Pizarro, a commander in the Colombian National Army, which Human Rights Watch called an attempt to silence critics of the armed forces.
Giraldo has been critical of attempts made by the Government of Colombia to broker peace with paramilitary groups, guerilla groups and crime syndicates as part of the ongoing Colombia conflict, including the drafting and passing Justice and Peace Law of Colombia|Justice and Peace Law in 2005. Giraldo has cited the link between paramilitary organisations, the National Army of Colombia, and the Colombian government, as evidence that paramilitarism remains present in the country, and feels it will not end while it is so heavily entwined with the army. Giraldo accused Álvaro Uribe, then-President of Colombia, of giving legitimacy to paramilitaries, particularly those linked to the Illegal drug trade in Colombia|illegal drug trade, as well as supporting politicians associated with them.
Giraldo has criticised the Federal government of the United States government for supporting the Colombian conflict, which he has stated was in order to enable American companies to exploit Colombia's reserves by weakening its people, citing the large wealth gap in Colombian society, as well as the abundance of poverty amongst the population.
In 2010, graffiti emerged in several locations in Bogotá making death threats against Giraldo, including muerte a Javier Giraldo (English: "death to Javier Giraldo". This followed the publication of his figures estimating that over 60, 000 Colombians had been killed as a result of paramilitary and governmental activity.
In 2014, Giraldo became a member of the Historical Commission on the Origin of Conflict and its Victims, implemented by the Colombian government to address the legacy of the Colombian conflict; though he has since stated that the conflict is not over and has accused the government of continuing to coexist alongside paramilitary and guerrila groups.
== Recognition ==
In 1997, Giraldo received the John Humphrey Freedom Award in recognition of his human rights activism.
Category:1944 births
Category:Colombian Roman Catholic priests
Category:Human rights activists