Bill Text: CA AJR27 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Colombia-United States free trade agreement.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 32-0)

Status: (Passed) 2010-09-09 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 145, Statutes of 2010. [AJR27 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AJR27-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AJR 27	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 13, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Torrico
    (   Coauthors:   Assembly Members 
 Ammiano,   Beall,   Block,  
Blumenfield,   Chesbro,   Coto,   Davis,
  Eng,   Evans,   Fong,  Fuentes,
  Furutani,   Huffman,   Jones, 
 Lieu,   Ma,   Mendoza,   Monning,
  V. Manuel Perez,   Ruskin,   Salas,
  Saldana,   and Skinner   ) 
    (   Coauthors:   Senators  
Cedillo,   Corbett,   DeSaulnier,   Kehoe,
  Steinberg,   Wright,   and Yee 
 ) 

                        SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

   Relative to the Colombia-United States free trade agreement.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 27, as amended, Torrico. Colombia-United States free trade
agreement.
    This measure would urge the United States Congress to oppose a
free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, Violence against trade unionists persists to this day,
with over 500 unionists murdered during the administration of current
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe; and
   WHEREAS, The murder rate increased by 25 percent from 39 murders
in 2007 to 49 murders in 2008; and
   WHEREAS, Twenty-four trade unionists  have been murdered
so far   were murdered  in 2009; and
   WHEREAS, The continued murders and death threats have a chilling
effect on union activity, as workers continue to have good reason to
fear for their lives when they exercise their fundamental labor
rights, especially the crucial rights to organize, bargain
collectively, and strike; and
   WHEREAS, The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia has
secured convictions in only about 5 percent of the over 2,700 cases
of murder of trade unionists, and only following significant
international pressure to do so; and
   WHEREAS, In the vast majority of cases, the person convicted of
the crime is not the originator of the crime, but rather carried out
the order to kill and, in roughly 40 percent of the sentences, the
person found responsible for the crime was either tried in absentia
or is otherwise not in custody and thus potentially still at large;
and
   WHEREAS, The Office of the Attorney General of Columbia does not
attempt to investigate all outstanding unsolved murder cases, but
rather only the subset of cases that have been previously presented
to the International Labor Organization and new murder cases from
2006 onward; and
   WHEREAS, Impunity for these and other crimes persists and new
crimes will likely continue to be committed with similar impunity
because of a failure to fully investigate and prosecute those
responsible for these crimes, and also widespread human rights
violations; and
   WHEREAS, A flawed paramilitary demobilization process has
contributed to thousands of "demobilized" and never-demobilized
paramilitaries, creating new and dangerous organizations; and
   WHEREAS, Many of these groups, including the Aguilas Negras (Black
Eagles), are associated with powerful local or regional economic and
political interests and continue the violent legacy of the
paramilitaries, including narcotics trafficking and targeted
assassinations; and
   WHEREAS, Defamatory remarks regarding trade unionists and human
rights defenders in Colombia  delegitimizes  
delegitimize  the important and valued work of human rights
defenders,  closes   close  the necessary
and justifiable space for them to exercise their internationally
recognized right to free expression, and  places 
 place  individuals and entire organizations at the grave
risk of physical retaliation from members of illegal armed groups;
and
   WHEREAS, According to a 2008 Human Rights Watch report, numerous
politicians, including members of the Colombian Congress have come
under criminal investigation for collaborating with
paramilitaries--the groups responsible for the majority of crimes
against trade unionists where the author of the crime is known; and
   WHEREAS, According to Human Rights Watch, there is overwhelming
evidence of broad, systematic, and illegal surveillance conducted by
the Administrative Security Department (DAS), the national
intelligence service of Colombia, against hundreds of members of
human rights organizations, political opposition parties and unions,
as well as Supreme Court justices, journalists, and even clergy; and
   WHEREAS, The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial
Executions, Phillip Alston, recently found that killings of innocent
civilians by the armed forces have occurred throughout the country;
and
   WHEREAS, According to the International Labor Organization, the
labor laws of Colombia fall short of minimum international labor
standards; and
   WHEREAS, The United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, a
comprehensive free trade agreement between Colombia and the United
States, was signed on November 22, 2006, and is currently being
reviewed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative;
now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California
strongly urges the United States Congress to oppose a free trade
agreement between the United States and Colombia; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to each Senator and Representative from California in
the Congress of the United States.