Cases of "false positives" sent to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

On May 2, 2016, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced that it had sent four cases involving six victims of "false positives" to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for adjudication because the Colombian government had failed to comply with the recommendations in the Commission's merits report.

The cases concern the extrajudicial executions of six individuals killed in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1997 by State security agents who later presented their victims as members of illegal armed groups killed in combat.  The Commission called on the State to conduct a full and effective investigation of these human rights violations and to establish the criminal, administrative or other responsibilities that may be found.  It also recommended that the ordinary justice system, not the military criminal justice system hear these cases of human rights violations.  The cases will allow the Court to develop its jurisprudence on cases of extrajudicial executions in cases involving "false positives," - the unlawful killings of civilians staged by security forces to look like lawful killings in combat.