Colombia

The ancestral custodians of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, call their territory the heart of the world. This week the city of Santa Marta hosts the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels.

On 1st December 2025, antimilitarist organisations, collectives, activists and artists carried out a nonviolent direct action against the Expodefensa Arms Fair, held in Bogotá, Colombia, from 1st to 3rd December. The action, called as a peaceful sit-in outside the Corferias exhibition centre at 2pm on the opening day of the fair, was harassed, hindered and obstructed from the outset by the presence of Public Forces.

As part of its electoral campaign promises, Gustavo Petro’s government (2022-2026) pledged to follow the recommendations of the Truth Commission on abolishing conscription. In this context, discussions on possible alternatives to military service were relaunched in 2022 and led to the adoption in the same year of the Law of Total Peace which proposed the creation of the Social Service for Peace (SSP) as an alternative to compulsory military service. Until August 2024 the national government succeeded in laying out the regulations and formalising the SSP. And while the proposal for an alternative to military service expands options for participation in peacebuilding in Colombia, it also raises serious concerns.

May 15th is International Conscientious Objection Day: a day to remember those who refuse to take up arms or participate in preparations for war. Between now and May 15th, we’ll be sharing events, actions, and activities from around the world so you can see what’s happening in your city or country. Check this page again soon for new information and updates. 

The Latin American and Caribbean Antimilitarist Network (RAMALC) has shared this call for International Conscientious Objection Day. It's an invitation to stand against militarisation and war, refusing to be part of systems built on violence and exploitation. Don't count on us advocates for conscientious objection, antimilitarism, and solidarity all around the world.

On 28th August 2024, the Colombian government issued a decree establishing an alternative to military service, referred to as Social Service for Peace. This alternative service is part of the current government's broader policy aimed at achieving what is known as “total peace,” following the 2016 peace agreements. Check here some of the general provisions and the issues pointed out as problematic by the Observatory of Militarism in Colombia.

You’re invited to the webinar series “The right to conscientious objection to military service in times of war”. The series will include a number of webinars each focusing on a particular conflict zone with the participation of conscientious objectors and campaigners on conscientious objection to military service. This first webinar will take place on 9th February at 4pm CET with the participation of activists from Ukraine, Colombia and Eritrea.

In July, the Constitutional Court in Colombia received a lawsuit to extend the exception to perform compulsory military service to all ethnic communities in Colombia, an exception that currently applies to indigenous communities only. This claim also asks for these communities to be exonerated of the military compensation fee.

When in some countries conscientious objection has been recognised and in others, conscientious objectors continue to be imprisoned, some governments are considering introducing compulsory military service for women covering it up with gender equality and anti-discrimination discourses. This has been the case for countries like México, Colombia, the United States and more recently in South Korea and Switzerland.

International Conscientious Objection Day (CO Day), 15th May, was celebrated with actions and events by activists from around the world in solidarity with those who have and those who continue to resist war. This year we had a particular focus on Turkey.

The antimilitarist movement in Colombia describes the situation that has been experienced in Colombia since April 28, 2021, the reasons why demonstrations have been held since that date and the militarized response of the government. This is an urgent call for solidarity to challenge he discourses of war and fear that today find an absolutely opposite correlate to the cultural resistance, the bets for change and the possibility of building horizons more in line with the reality of the Colombian people and their proposals to materialize peace from the territories, in diversity and dignified life.

Social movements across Colombia are facing severe repression and violence from the police and military. The demonstrations began on 28th April 2021 as a general strike was called in response to an unpopular tax reform and the mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.