Enforcement of the Decision and Outcomes
After the Court determined that a state of unconstitutional affairs did exist with regards to the displaced population, it set up additional procedures to ensure the gradual overcoming of the unconstitutionality. One of the structures that the Court created were those of autos de seguimiento. These autos were intended to give the Court, with the help of civil society and affected displaced persons, the space to address how vulnerable groups experienced differentiated and disproportionate impacts from the internal conflict and displacement. From 2004 until 2020, the Court issued autos addressing women, sexual violence, women human right defenders (HRDs), HRDs more broadly, children, Indigenous Peoples, afro-Colombians, persons with disabilities, and displaced persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, these autos had their own follow-up procedures, by which the Court evaluated the government’s progress on the measures ordered by the Court during the initial autos. The evaluative mechanism for these autos consisted of four dimensions of compliance: high, medium, low, or non-compliance. The majority of the follow-up orders reported low compliance characterized by lack of information on the results derived from the various actions ordered by the court, or planning and design of programs without any actual implementation.
In 2008, a technical information session conducted by the Second Review Chamber (Sala Segunda de Revisión) of Colombia’s Constitutional Court had the purpose of reviewing the progress made by the government on the rights of displaced people in response to the Constitutional Court’s ruling in T-025 de 2004 and consequent cases. The Second Review Chamber’s focused on highlighted the absence of clear indicators and follow up measures and evaluations of improvements made by the Government in protecting the rights of displaced people; an issue raised in the original T-025 de 2004 opinion and addressed in subsequent autos (185 de 2004, 178 de 2005, 218 and 266 of 2006). The Chamber went through the multiple previously approved evaluation methods. In March of 2007 the Second Review Chamber held a public hearing to clarify the series of indicators proposed by the Government in relation to how they were to measure improvements for the rights of displaced people. In the Auto 109 de 2007 decision, the Second Review Chamber adopted 43 indicators – these indicators would measure changes in displaced people’s rights to housing, health, education, nutrition, and rights to identity. On June 22, 2007 in Auto 233 de 2007, the Second Review Chamber called attention to the voids and failings not yet being addressed, even despite the newly adopted indicators.
Nonetheless, a ten-year general review by the Court found that there have been some improvements in reducing institutional roadblocks towards accessing aid, as well as an increased allocation of resources. Where there have been shortcomings in the implementation of necessary policies, the Court has entertained subsequent claims that provide additional protections to especially vulnerable groups within the displaced community.
