GENERATION UNDER FIRE
Human Rights Watch/Americas
(formerly America's Watch)
Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project
New York · Washington · London · Brussels
Copyright © November 1994 by Human Rights Watch.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-79742
ISBN: 1-56432-144-4
We the young
are not allowed to express ourselves
they find us on street corners
and want only to shoot us down...
- Social Danger, a rap group from Ciudad Bolívar ("Cuando los caminos se cierran," El Tiempo, December 31, 1993.)
The rights of children prevail over the rights of all others.
- Article 44, Constitution of Colombia (Constitución Política de Colombia, Santafé de Bogotá: Ediciones Emfasar, 1992, p. 22.)
ACRONYMS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SUMMARY
I. BOGOTÁ
"SOCIAL CLEANSING" OF CHILDREN
CIUDAD BOLÍVAR
IMPUNITY
II. MEDELLÍN
GANGS
MILITIAS
THE VILLATINA MASSACRE
EFFORTS TO RESOLVE CONFLICT
III. CODE FOR MINORS
IV. THE NECESSARY REFORMS
APPENDICES
GLOSSARY
CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD