- 42 - notes with satisfaction that Colombia intends shortly to ratify the 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará). C. Factors and difficulties impeding the implementation of the Covenant 179. The Committee notes with concern the persistence of a climate of wide-scale violence in Colombia, especially in the Uraba region. This factor seriously destabilizes the country and impedes the Government’s efforts to ensure to all the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. The Committee notes that such violence is in part brought about by serious inequalities in society, such as enormous disparities in the distribution of national wealth, including land ownership. 180. The Committee notes that the frequent recourse to the establishment of a state of emergency has adverse repercussions on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in Colombia. D. Principal subjects of concern 181. The Committee is seriously concerned about the persistence of a high level of poverty affecting the majority of the country’s inhabitants. In particular, the Committee notes with concern that Colombia’s infant mortality rate is one of the highest in South America. While recognizing the Government’s efforts to redress the situation, the Committee emphasizes that it is anomalous that such levels of poverty should persist in a country with a steadily expanding economy. The Committee expresses its concern at the disappointing results achieved by most programmes to combat poverty and improve living conditions, especially since funds allocated in the budget for social expenditures have not been fully used for that purpose. 182. The Committee emphasizes the considerable importance of the problem of displaced persons, estimated at approximately 600,000. Hundreds of thousands of peasants have been uprooted and forced to migrate to the cities, where they swell the numbers of slum dwellers and are in effect unable to satisfy their most basic requirements. The primary reason for these displacements is the high level of violence in certain regions of the country. 183. The Committee stresses its concern at the existence of a high number of abandoned children, or street children, deprived of all their rights (family environment, education, health, housing, etc.). The Committee is concerned by the fact that the "Community Mothers Programme" designed to help the children is insufficiently funded, bearing in mind the important social work accomplished by these women, without appropriate training and work conditions. 184. The Committee is concerned that the Government’s action is not sufficiently energetic to eradicate the odious practice of so-called "social cleansing", by which some criminal groups threaten and kill persons whom they consider disposable, including children.