Joint Statement on Threats Against Human Rights' Defender

Eight labor and human rights organizations, including USLEAP, issued a joint statement on March 5, 2009 calling on the Colombian government to respect the work of trade unionists and human rights defenders in Colombia and to retract new statements that put these workers at risk.  Lina Malagon, an attorney at the prominent human rights organization, Colombian Commission of Jurists, received a very serious death threat letter on March 2, 2009 from a death squad after her report on Colombian violence and impunity against trade unionists was used at a February 12, 2009 U.S. House Labor and Education Committee hearing, Examining Workers' Rights and Violence against Labor Union Leaders in Colombia.