Edgar Antúnez, a migrant community leader, and Paula Cerón, the Coordinator of ICESI University's Public Affairs Legal Clinic, provide a comprehensive overview of the Migration Judicial Log platform.
Bitácora Migración distinguishes itself with its educational, user-friendly, and easily comprehensible content. Aligned with the core objective of democratizing legal knowledge, the virtual platform aims to reach a wider audience beyond the legal profession. The content both fosters a better understanding of judicial precedents, and sheds light on the steps that are necessary to protect and uphold the rights of migrant and refugee populations in Colombia. To achieve this, the platform compiles an array of accessible tools that systematically organize the most relevant justice content, including a curated collection of documents of interest.
The Log facilitates users’ comprehension of the judicial decisions and case law on the most pressing human rights challenges within the context of migration in Colombia and the Latin America and Caribbean region. To achieve this, a combination of teaching methods and tools are made available, including twenty infographics, fifteen podcasts, and five videos, all created with accessible and plain language for all audiences. Through the interactive platform, the Migration Judicial Log can be navigated easily using three available approaches based on the specific needs of each targeted audience:
- Legal approach
- Differential approach
- Community-based approach
Firstly, the Legal Approach aims to streamline the work of lawyers, legal clinics, and practitioners when dealing with cases where the rights of migrants and refugees are suspected to be at risk or violated. Users can easily navigate through key topics, including Civil and Political Rights; Economic, Social and Cultural rights; International Protection Mechanisms; Migration Regularization; Human Rights Violations related to Transnational Crimes; and other fundamental rights. The case law factsheets available in each section adhere to a predominantly technical-legal approach and contain judicial rulings issued by local, national, and international judicial decision-making bodies. By systematizing the judicial decisions related to the subject matter, the Log enhances users’ comprehension of specific legal issues.
“Out there are cases where we have saved lives through jurisprudence.”
Edgar Antúnez
Migrant Community Leader
The Differential Approach on the platform serves as a practical tool to defend the well-being and integrity of migrants and refugees through the lenses of gender and social inclusion. This approach highlights that individuals and communities face human rights violations based on factors such as gender, age, sexual orientation, gender diversity, disability, race, ethnicity, religion, and other identity traits. Accordingly, this section focuses on adapting responses and solutions to address the distinct and individualized needs of specific populations, considering four key groups: Gender, Disability, Children and Youth, and Race and ethnicity. As a result, it is designed to complement the efforts of various actors in the human rights arena, including women-led civil society organizations, LGBTQI+ collectives, race equality associations, disability rights organizations, among many others.
Finally, the Community-based approach is designed as an enlightening and empowering resource for members of the migrant and refugee community, offering invaluable insights into their rights and the guarantees bestowed upon them. This approach is fundamentally based on the recognition that communities inherently understand their own needs to advocate for their rights. Therefore, this section allows users to navigate key topics, including the day-to-day challenges faced by the migrant and refugee population, such as Health, Labor Rights, Education, Religious freedom, Temporary Protection Permits, Refuge and Asylum, Rights to non-discrimination, Rights of Children and youth, Due process, Migrant smuggling, and Human trafficking.
“The content on the virtual platform is both educational and entertaining, providing the migrant population with the opportunity to acquire legal knowledge in a user-friendly and accessible manner.”
Xiomara Ibarra
ICESI University Team
Through its conceptual framework for conveying judicial information to the array of practical tools, the Migration Judicial Log strives to create an interactive resource that empowers individuals and communities to effectively address human rights violations in the context of migration. This innovative tool demonstrates ABA ROLI's commitment to ensuring that everyone, regardless of immigration status, can exercise their inalienable right to access justice and information, through the rule of law. As this tool continues to be used and widely disseminated throughout Colombia, it has the potential to democratize legal knowledge and foster meaningful change for migrants and refugees who, each day, are subjected to marginalization, exclusion, and rights violations.