MALOCA INTERNATIONALE UN Forum on Minority Issues Geneva, 29th November 2019 Part 5: Empowerment for Women and Girls Madam President, In Colombia there exist 67 official languages, in addition to Spanish, in the regions where they are spoken, according to article 10 of the national Constitution. The UN has assisted in the implementation of the right to speak these languages and its connection with the empowerment of women and girls, with its funding programme from the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section, where the traditional leader of the Nasa people, Cristina Bautista, received training in 2017. Cristina Bautista was killed in October, and with her a leader with vast traditional knowledge who represented her people as much in Geneva as in New York has been lost. What is the point of empowering women if they are killed like Cristina Bautista, or empowering girls if the army murders Angélica Gaitán, a 12-year-old girl of whom only remained a foot that could be used to identify her? On 15th November, the Colombian people went to the UN headquarters in New York and Geneva so that they may take notice of this humanitarian crisis. On 5th April, they went to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. An historic national strike has been taking place since 21st November. We request that the UN’s funding programme for minorities and indigenous peoples make a statement on the killing of Cristina Bautista, and that the International Criminal Court continue to monitor the ongoing violation of the Rome Statute in Colombia, as it has been actively doing, with the purpose of supporting local justice mechanisms and intervening if the Colombian justice system fails to condemn the crimes against humanity committed by the State led by Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Iván Duque, whose conduct appears to be showing signs of a quasi-dictatorship, of the kind experienced in Colombia following the national strike of 1977. Thank you.