President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday disputed the findings of a damning report released by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which showed that almost half the 101 trade unionists murdered worldwide in 2009 were Colombian.
Uribe argued that the statistics presented in the ITUC report were undermined by the fact that Colombia was not included in a United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) report published Saturday, which lists 25 nations to be examined for failure to comply with international workers’ conditions.
“Colombia on Saturday received the most important news on this subject. After more than 20 years of being on the list of countries sanctioned by the ILO, it was completely excluded. The response to this topic was given by the ILO on Saturday,” said the president.
The ITUC report, published Wednesday, found that of 101 trade unionists worldwide who were murdered last year, 48 were Colombian.
The report, however, contradicts findings by the U.N. body – a delegate of which said that “Colombia is improving” its worker rights record.
