The Office of the Attorney General´s proposal is to establish accurate parameters about what population should be released from prisons: pregnant women, ill people and people who committed crimes that were penalized with prison terms which do not exceed five years.

This morning, the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, presented an analysis to the President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, and the Minister of Justice, Margarita Leonor Cabello Blanco, with various guidelines and proposals about the temporary release of people due the sanitary emergency decreed to control the spread of the coronavirus. 

These proposals were made by the internal committee, which is integrated by the Attorney General, and are contained in Resolution 0451 of 2020. The recommendations made by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as well as the measures adopted by other affected countries by the pandemic, were taken into account.  These are also consistent with the constitutional power that The Office of the Attorney General has to design the country’s Criminal Policy.

The contribution of the Attorney General’s Office is an example of a harmonious collaboration that seeks that the National Government takes into account the best elements when making decisions for the benefit of Colombian citizens and when protecting the fundamental right to health of population deprived of liberty.

The Office of the Attorney General seeks to safeguard the human rights of people deprived of liberty and of those millions of  Colombian citizens who are confined at their homes and concerned about the coronavirus pandemic.

Any release from prisons must be based on humanitarian dynamics where people have the guarantee of their vital minimum wage and, at least, a health service.

The Office of the Attorney General seeks to establish accurate parameters about what population should be released from prisons: pregnant women, ill people, and individuals who committed crimes that were penalized with prison terms that do not exceed the five years. They might be in detention centers or at their homes provided that a minimum wage is guaranteed. This way, citizens’ rights are protected.