Colombia
Meet Our Member
Centre of Psychosocial Assistance (CAPS)
Colombia has been experiencing a sociopolitical conflict for over half a century which has fractured many of the country’s diverse communities.
The Centre for Psychosocial Assistance (CAPS) supports survivors in reclaiming their individual and collective life projects so they can continue to advocate for memory, truth and justice, strengthening not only the individual but also their social and activist network.
CAPS began its work in 2002. It is a civil society organization specialising in psychosocial support, providing care, self‑care, accompaniment, and training to victims of sociopolitical violence, as well as to individuals engaged in human rights work and social leadership.
Over the years, it has achieved significant milestones: delivering psychosocial care, self‑care, and training to communities and social organisations; supporting victims in judicial processes and in spaces dedicated to memory and reparation; conducting psychosocial assessments for national and international courts; and contributing to social and political advocacy efforts at both local and global levels.
Watch the film about CAPS in Colombia and the important work they do in rehabilitating survivors of torture and their advocacy work.
“Beatings and degrading treatment by the police on detained demonstrators are being used as a form of physical and psychological torture. It is used for the explicit purpose of instilling psychological terror in the population as a way of exercising authoritarian control.”
In Focus:
Police Violence in Colombia
A series of mass protests that began in Colombia in 2021 against the social and economic policies of President Iván Duque were met with lethal and life‑altering violence by police. National and international human rights organisations documented a pattern of killings, permanent injuries, and severe ill‑treatment inflicted on protesters, many of whom were young people.
Human Rights Watch in a report confirmed 34 deaths linked to the crackdown, including at least 20 protesters likely killed directly by police. Local organisations such as CAPS and the Defend Freedom Campaign confirmed that at least 78 protest‑related deaths and nearly 4,000 cases of physical violence had been documented, including around 100 cases of sexual violence, among them multiple rapes.
Police misuse of so‑called “less lethal” weapons caused catastrophic injuries, including loss of eyes, skull fractures, and other permanent disabilities. Despite government assurances that most police respect human rights and that abuses will be punished, the scale and consistency of the violence point to systemic failures and a pattern of conduct that may amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
To the right: An image of Laura Guerrero who stands in front of a mural to her son Nicolás Guerrero, a graffiti artist known as Flex, who was shot and killed during a police crackdown on social protests in Cali, Colombia in 2021.
Laura Guerrero by a mural depicting her son who was killed by police. Credit: IRCT
Forensics:
Expert Opinion Substantiates Evidence of Police Brutality
IRCT’s Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) reviewed photographic evidence from the protests and issued an expert opinion concluding that live ammunition had been used and had caused deaths.
The group also found that police were misusing so‑called “less lethal” weapons including tear gas launchers and kinetic impact projectiles in ways that caused severe injuries and fatalities. These findings supported Human Rights Watch’s reporting and were cited in more than 800 media outlets, including major international news agencies.
The forensic analysis underscored that the pattern of violence could amount to torture or other forms of ill‑treatment under international law.
Documentation:
Tools for Accountability
To support accountability efforts, IRCT provided Human Rights Watch and other civil society groups with a standardised reporting form to help gather evidence of torture, along with a guide on documenting torture during protests and detention.
These tools were widely shared, including thousands of reposts on social media, and were used by local organisations such as the Defend Freedom Campaign and CAPS to strengthen their documentation of killings, injuries, and ill‑treatment.
CAPS and IRCT also co‑developed advocacy initiatives with survivors of torture from the protests, enabling survivors themselves to engage directly with government officials, an approach expected to be particularly impactful in Colombia’s current political climate.
Results:
Colombia Strengthens Anti-Torture Safeguards
In the most recent and significant development, Colombia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) in November 2025, enabling the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) to conduct independent visits to places of detention. This milestone is the result of years of sustained work by CAPS, supported by IRCT, including a national advocacy grant focused on implementing the latest recommendations of the UN Committee Against Torture and pushing for reforms in public‑order policing, use of force and less‑lethal weapons, access to justice, reparations, and the effective functioning of torture‑prevention mechanisms.
Earlier in the year, the Government issued Resolution 01840, establishing binding guidelines for the National Police on the use of less‑lethal weapons grounded in the principles of necessity, legality, proportionality, and constitutionality. Developed through persistent advocacy by national civil society and the UN human rights system, the Resolution represents an important step toward safeguarding civilian rights during security‑force operations, particularly in the context of protests.
Read more about Torture in Protest here.
“Art has saved us, as it has for many. I take from that, there is always something good to be found in the bad.”
Survivors Speak Out:
“Popular movements are one of the greatest tools we have to fight back.”
IRCT has worked closely with local partner CAPS to promote implementation of the May 2023 UNCAT recommendations, with a particular focus on justice and reparations for victims of protest related torture in recent years.
Aiming to inspire as well as educate, IRCT and CAPS co-produced a series of short films profiling activists and demonstrates how survivor engagement, through groups like MOCAO, has been central to the rehabilitation and fight for justice among a diverse group of torture survivors, and provides the bedrock of evidence and expertise now demanding profound reform to policing practices, and the international trade in the equipment police use to inflict torture.
Daniel Jaimes was shot by police during a social protest and lost his eye. Today he is part of Macao and activist group fighting for Justice and reparations.
Andrés David Lago was a 26-year-old street artist when the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) shot him leaving him with permanent eye injuries.
Andrés Juan Guerrero was shot by police five years ago during a protest blinding him on one eye. He is still seeking justice today.
Laura Guerrero’s son, graffiti artist Nicolás, was shot in the head and died during a peaceful protest in in 2021.
Juan Pablo Fonseca, who was shot by police during protests and blinded on one eye says, “I think popular movements are one of the greatest tools we have to fight back.”
The series of seven short films profiling MOCAO members significantly boosted the group’s international visibility and helped secure IRCT a slot on the main stage at the ZEG festival in Tbilisi, Georgia—one of Europe’s leading international media and culture events.
With support from CAPS and IRCT, four MOCAO members performed a theatre piece accompanied by an audio‑visual presentation, followed by a Q&A with an audience that included internationally renowned journalists, filmmakers, and Georgian survivors of recent torture during protests.
“I think popular movements are one of the greatest tools we have to fight back. To come together, to confront the State in a systematic way, applying pressure on the State for reparation and non-repetition of these acts of violence.”
Highlight:
From Hearings to a Declaration
In November 2023, for the first time ever, torture survivors from 13 countries in Latin America met face-to-face with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT), Dr Alice Edwards, to share their experiences of torture and views on improving access to justice and reparation.
Organised between the IRCT, our member Centro de Atencion Psicosocial (CAPS) Colombia, and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) the three-day hearing in Bogota, Colombia focused on helping survivors heal, on informing the work of Dr Alice Edwards, the UN SRT, and on promoting stronger engagement with torture survivors from UN human rights mechanisms.
“It is a great achievement to stand in front of the Rapporteur and be able to present your case,” said Osvaldo Rodriguez, one of 15 torture survivors from across Latin America who met with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, in Bogota, Colombia in November, the first of IRCT’s ground-breaking ‘Hearings for Healing’ aimed at ensuring survivors voices are central to the work of UN human rights mechanisms.
Torture survivors from 13 countries in Latin America met face-to-face with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in Bogota, Colombia, in the first of IRCT’s ground-breaking ‘Hearings for Healing’.
The Bogota Declaration
Following the meetings, the group issued what they called the Bogotá Declaration which is a collective statement issued by survivors from 13 Latin American countries demanding truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non‑repetition for torture committed by State actors.
”We are tired of having our lives and the lives of our families and communities destroyed by torture.”
“We will no longer be silenced, ignored or excluded from the spaces where decisions are made.”
“We demand that Latin American States, regional human rights mechanisms, and civil society organisations working in our region, enable a space for torture survivors, our voices and experiences in all decisions that affect our lives and our enjoyment of human rights.”
Read the Bogota Declaration here
Research:
Torture Journal
