 Well, you're all very welcome. My name is Paudric Murphy. I chair the Foreign Policy Group here in the Institute. Just a housekeeping point. I think you will appreciate being told that you should put your phones on mute. As I am doing now, it would avoid embarrassment for you perhaps later. We are very honored and pleased to have today the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Columbia, Minister Callas Holmes to Rio Garcia, and Eamon Gilmore, our own former Foreign Minister, who is also special representative of the European Union for Columbia. The Minister Holmes is going to speak about the Colombian peace with legality policy and regional and global challenges. The Colombian peace process, like other peace processes, including our own, is, I think, a delicate plant, which needs much tending. I think we, that are at the other side of the Atlantic, tend to hear about it when it is in difficulty. And there have been some complications very recently. But they may not necessarily represent the full picture, which is why we appreciate very much the Minister agreeing to come and speak to us. Before he speaks, Eamon Gilmore, who, as I said, is special representative of the European Union to Columbia, we'll see a few more. Thank you. Thank you, Borek, and you're very welcome, Minister and Ambassadors Patricia Cortes, Ambassador of Columbia to Ireland and Ambassador Allison Milton, Ambassador of Ireland to Columbia. It's my great privilege to formally introduce you, Minister, to this gathering today. I know of very few people, if any, who have as distinguished a combined political and governmental and diplomatic record as you have. You have been, I will no doubt leave out some of the office that you've held, but you've been the Minister for Education for your country, Minister for Interior, High Commissioner for Peace, Mayor of Cali. You were a founder member with former President Dorebe of the Central Democratic Party. And indeed, the first time we met was in your capacity as the Foreign Affairs Spokesperson for Central Democratic. But in addition to that, you have also been Ambassador to Austria, to Russia, to the Scandinavian countries, to the Organization of American States. And you served as the Ambassador of Columbia to the European Union from 2006 to 2010. So you know us very well. You've taken over the role just over a year ago as Minister for Foreign Relations. It's had a very challenging time in global affairs. There are many of big issues on our agenda, below the issues of climate, the state of the multilateral order. But it's also a very challenging time for Columbia. Implementation of the peace agreement, the situation in Venezuela, the migration issue, which is arising from that and the humanitarian issues, which also arise. You are here in Ireland. I think at a time, first of all, when the relations between the European Union and Columbia are at a very strong point. And Federico Mogherini was in Bogota just last week. And I met with you and met with President Duque. And you have been, since you've taken off as Ben in Brussels a number of times, met with European leaders there. It's also, I think, at a time when the relationship between Ireland and Columbia is at its best ever. Just recently, last year, Columbia opened its resident embassy here in Dublin under the leadership of Ambassador Patricia Cortez. And Ireland opened its resident embassy in Bogota under Ambassador Allison Milton, both of whom are here today. And of course, both of them building on the great work which was done in Columbia by our honorary council, Carlos Gomez, one I know is a very close friend of yours and who has served this country very well in Columbia. And of course, the work that was done here over many years by the embassy in London. And I want to acknowledge Jose Piazza, who is here today, representing the trade, the pro-Columbia, but also represented the embassy here for many times. I know you wanted to come here a number of times. You told me so. I'm really delighted that you are here. It's my honor to ask you to address us today. Thank you very much, Patrick. Thank you, Emon. Thank you. How do you pronounce your name? Patrick? Patrick. Patrick? Yes. Patrick. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for being with us today. I want to ask you a question first. What do you prefer? You prefer that I make a statement first, or may I open or do you want me to open the floor to questions that I can answer? I think you do. I'm ready for whatever you wish. I think it should be ideal if you could make a statement, and then there will be an exchange of questions and comments. As time is short, as I have been talking, I'll touch upon in a nutshell several issues. First, the stage of the implementation of the agreement that was signed by the previous president with FARC, and second, some regional issues, of course, making emphasis in Venezuela and the migration crisis that we are facing. As far as has to do with the accord, the policy is implementation of the agreement with modifications and adjustment for the future through consensus and institutional means. That's the policy. Why is that the policy? Because that's a policy that was decided by the Colombian people in several locations. During the plebiscite, during the internal process of central democratic party, during the popular consultation process, that took place in order to select the candidate of a large political force, which was won by today's president, Duque, during the first round of the presidential election, and during the second round of the presidential election. What does that policy mean? First of all, implementation of the agreement. Second, adjustment in some particular issues, but through consensus and institutional means. What is the station in which we are now? Implementation is going on. This was conceived as a 15-year process. And I'm sure that it will take longer. You know you have the experience in Ireland of how long it normally takes. But we are doing a huge effort. And we have the verification of the United Nations mission permanently in Colombia. As you know, there is a United Nations verification mission every three months. That verification mission makes a report that is presented to the Security Council of the United Nations. So as far as the international follow-up of what we are doing in Colombia, there is not a highest authority. That the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Security Council of the United Nations. Which recently we had a visit of the Security Council. They went to Colombia because we invited them to go. In that sense, we are a very open country. We told the members of the Security Council, go down to Colombia, meet with whomever you wish to meet, have an idea of what is going on, see the possibilities, the difficulties, the advances, the complications that we have, the complexity of the implementation of the agreement. And with that view on the ground, tell the international community, whatever you think is most advisable to tell. After that, there was a new report presented by the Secretary General to the Security Council of the United Nations. And the Security Council approved by unanimity that report as has been the case with all the reports that have been presented by that verification mission. It is implementation complex, the complexity is huge. This is a completely type of agreement to those that were agreed upon in the past, because we have always been a country open to political solutions. And this agreement is different because, first of all, it was negotiated after the entry into force of the Roman statute, which has to do a lot with the justice component of the agreement. And secondly, because it broke the custom that we used to have in Colombia, which were handling the implementation stage of the agreement through legal frameworks. This is a much more complex one. This is a 310 pages agreement that touches upon each and every sector of Colombian life. So it makes the implementation much more complicated to do. But that is the line of the government as far as implementation of the agreement is concerned. So advances, yes, difficulties, yes, complexity, yes. A lot of work to be done, yes. There is nothing to hide about what is going on in Colombia as far as this is concerned. Secondly, regional issues. As you can imagine, Venezuela is the issue that occupies most of our time in this particular juncture. What are we doing in the case of Venezuela? We are doing in the case of Venezuela what we always have done as members of the Organization of American States and signatories of the Inter-American Democratic Chart. As you very well know, we have in our region an legal framework that allow us and oblige us to act collectively in different cases. In the case of democracy, the Inter-American Democratic Charter oblige us to act collectively, that is to say with the other countries, in order to save democracy wherever democracy is challenged or try to restore democracy wherever it is a breakdown of democracy. So in this case, we are acting out of our legal and political duties as members of the Inter-American community. Secondly, we are acting in defense of our national interest. You know, the situation in Venezuela is very complicated to us and that is why we are facing a huge migration crisis. What is the situation in this sense? We have received already 1.4 million Venezuelans. Just for you to have an idea, the first time we spoke about this publicly in Colombia, we had 900,000 Venezuelans in Colombia and we explained to the Colombian public opinion that we were working with three hypothetical scenarios. If the situation in Venezuela remained the same and the situation has not changed, on the contrary, it is getting worse and worse. We said those months back, if the situation keeps on being like it is, we will be having promptly close to 1,200,000 Venezuelans. Now we have more. The second hypothetical scenario with which we were working those months back were if the situation keeps on being like it is and doesn't change at all, the following scenario would be 1,200,000. So we are heading to the scenario. And we said if the situation becomes graver and graver in Venezuela, the number might be of three million Venezuelans in Colombia. What is the situation today? There are 4.4 million Venezuelans who have left their country. Some research shows that the number might go up to close to 8 million in 2020. If that is the case, we are receiving close to 33% of that number of migrants. So that would mean close to three million Venezuelans in Colombia, a little bit less. Let me speak with round figure just for you to know how complicated this is. What is the policy? The policy is receiving our Venezuelan brothers with fraternity, with a humanitarian sense, with solidarity sense, and as well with historical gratitude sense because in the past, there were many Colombians that went to Venezuela looking for better living conditions at the time of the oil boom in Venezuela. Many of them have already returned to Colombia. We are doing all we can. We are putting resources from the national level, regional level, local level, but the magnitude of the crisis goes over our capacity to face it. So that is why since the very beginning of the administration, we knocked the door of the region and told our colleagues, this is not a Colombian issue, this is a regional issue, and we got to work together in order to harmonize migration measures that allow us to face in the most appropriate way this handling that is a common crisis. That is a common crisis. And we went as well to the United Nations system to ask for the appointment of a high envoy, joint envoy of the International Migration Organization and Office of the High Commission for Refugees in order for him to help us to coordinate international measures in the region. Actually, they did that and they appointed Eduardo Stein, former vice president of Guatemala and former foreign minister of Guatemala he's been doing a very, very, very dedicated, dedicated job. We value very much the cooperation of the international community, but we need more. There is no other way, we need more. You know, the crisis increases every second in Colombia. It is affecting, of course, health system, education system, social security system. And there is no other way, no other way than receiving more international cooperation. We have received with generosity international cooperation from several countries and some group of countries, but we need more. We cannot handle that huge, immense crisis alone. We cannot. Just for you to have an idea. A few months back, there was a joint call launched by the International Organization for Migration and the Office of the High Commission for Refugees of the United Nations. They were trying to get 740 million US dollars up to now. They have only collected 30% in the rate of that resources flowing into is very slow and slow and slow and slow. Just to make a per capita comparison of what refugees getting. Let me tell you that the Venezuelan refugees getting 68 dollars more or less while the Syrian refugees receiving 560 dollars. So, and the rate of increase of the number of migrants is the first one. In numbers, Syria refugee crisis is the first one. Venezuela is the second one, but in rate of increase of the number of migrants at this stage leading their country, Venezuela is the first one. And of course, it all has to do with Colombia. So in this point, an immense challenge, solidarity, humanitarian sense, historical gratitude and more international cooperation because we cannot face this issue alone. I stop here just to open the floor to questions. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, minister. I think you have highlighted two particular points which I think will be very useful for those of us who follow at some distance the situation in Colombia. The first is your emphasis on the fact that the peace process in Colombia is at an implementation stage. And you underlined that this was a 15-year process and inevitably it is a process that is full of to use your own words, complications and complexities of all sorts. You talk about a 310 page agreement which touches on all aspects of life in Colombia. Of course, we in this country are well able to appreciate complications and complexities in a peace process because it was very useful for you to underline the extent to which this applies in the case of Colombia. At the second point you made was that of refugees. I personally was not aware of the huge extent in terms of percentage of Venezuelan refugees in Colombia. 1.4 million, that's to say one third of all refugees in Colombia with, you say, a potential to rise to twice that figure. We here in this side of the world are very conscious of the refugee flows out of Syria. I think from what you tell us the impact of Venezuelan refugees in Colombia is quite as large as that of Syrian refugees in Jordan or the Lebanon. You eloquently described to us how this inflow exceeds your capacity and you plead for help. So thank you for underlining these aspects of the problems you are facing. I now throw the floor open to questions or comments. I would ask you if you are asking a question or making a comment that you state who you are and what your affiliation is. So the floor is open. University College Dublin. When you speak about the adjustments in the peace process, what form do you picture these adjustments taking and will they be affecting the jurisdiction of the DAP? I could take some questions and then I will reply to all of them. Thank you. I'm the Norwegian ambassador here in Dublin and thank you for our most interesting presentation. As you know, Norway has a long-term commitment to support Colombia. How and thank you for reminding us about the number of refugees in Colombia from Venezuela because I think the discussion is so much about Europe and about Syria and how it affects us here. I was wondering if you could say something about the peace process in connection with Venezuela, the situation in Venezuela and this huge impact of refugees and of a difficult situation. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Gronja Kilcullen from Christian Aid Ireland and thank you for your statement. I'd just like to know what the Colombian government's sort of recognition of the role of human rights defenders is in the implementation of the peace process because I think we're all very aware of the very grave situation that social leaders, community leaders, human rights defenders, activists are facing in Colombia and how devastating the death toll has been for them so I would like to know that and maybe some ideas of Colombia's efforts for their protection. Maybe we can take these three questions. I can take some more. You can take some more. Hi, I'm David Joyce from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Maybe just to supplement Gronja's question there in relation to our counterparts in Colombia, Colombia has consistently been the most dangerous country in the world to do trade union work and the ITUC, the International Trade Union Confederation published its Global Rights Index in June this year which stated that 34 trade unions lost their lives in Colombia during 2018, an increase from 15 the previous year. So I suppose I'd just like to hear your thoughts on that and what's happening in relation to protections, et cetera, for people. I'm a Phil Ryan member of the Institute. Part of Colombia has the Amazon forest as we call it and we've had all of that tragedy in Brazil mainly and just wondering has there been any effect from that in Colombia and how the native people in Colombia who have a hard time anyway how are they being affected by what's happening in the Amazon at the moment. Okay, adjustments, first of all the idea of the adjustments is not to touch up on the body of the agreement and they are conceived only for the implementation stage. Okay, not backwards, not retroactive, but for the future. Some of them that narcotrafficking and kidnapping cannot be considered never a game as crimes connected to political crimes. Making those who commit those crimes subject to amnesties for pardon, for the future. Secondly, if a member of Congress belonging to the new party is found guilty of grave crimes by the special jurisdiction for peace, not by ordinary justice, by the special jurisdiction for peace that that person has to retire from Congress but in such a case, the political party FARC will have the capacity to say who's going to replace that person. Third, if a member of former FARC is found with goods or resources that were not declared as a due opportunity that person will receive severe penalties. Okay, fourth, any time any crime committed, any type of crime committed by one former combatant after the signing of the agreement will fall under the jurisdiction of the special jurisdiction for peace, not under the jurisdiction of the special jurisdiction for peace but under the jurisdiction of the ordinary justice system of the country. For that sexual crimes committed against childs doesn't fall in any case into the jurisdiction of the special jurisdiction for peace. Those are the adjustments for the future. As far as the special jurisdiction for peace has to do, no adjustment to weaken the special jurisdiction for peace on the contrary. All the adjustments that may be conceived from now on are to strengthen the special jurisdiction for peace. It's a new system, always, always, not in this case but always in any case, there are always vacuums, there are always clarities that has to be made so but the important point is that no, there is not the purpose, not the policy of president to weaken the special jurisdiction for peace but to strengthen it and to give it more clarity. To the ambassador of Norway. Migrants, yes, yes, I came to ask you a favor. Allow us to make this better known because we are living a tragedy actually and not many people know about it. There is no international consciousness about the magnitude of the challenge that we as a country are going through and the magnitude of the challenge that our region is facing. All eyes are put on the CDS case and other cases and of course, I'm not saying that that is a bad thing but we need more eyes, more eyes, more interest, more help, more company in the case of the region because the numbers are growing and growing and growing of people living in Venezuela. And the agreement in Venezuela, they are linked in some way, they are linked. In what sense? In the sense that the Maduro regime is open up to terrorist organizations. That has a lot of proofs along the years. These guys that announced the creation of a new group which is a criminal group because they are fugitives actually. They have been changed by narcotrafficking connections. They are in Venezuela, they have the support of Venezuela, they have the protection of Venezuela. So in that sense, the Venezuela way of acting affects our possibilities for peace. Human right defenders, yes, that's a source of great concern. And there are a lot of measures that have been put in place by the government. The opportune plan of action, there is a reinforcement of the different systems that exist in Colombia in order to provide security to them. There is of course a great effort in order to strengthen the early warning system with the support of Defensoria del Pueblo. And of course with the mission to support the peace process of the Organization of American States. There are new security arrangements in the 24 territorial spaces where former FARC combatants are some of them because none of them decided to be in these spaces which are secure, which are full of facilities. As of 31st of July 2019, the National Protection Unit had 231 schemes of protection for persons in the process of reincorporation of FARC. The number of homicides have been going down, of course, that is not satisfactory. The only satisfactory figure is that no one is being killed in Colombia. And the president himself has given orders to the different institutions that are responsible for providing security to social leaders and to former FARC combatants to make a revision of the functions and procedures and means that they have in order to be more effective in the fulfilling of the task, the institutional task that they have. And as a result of that, there are new 23 specific measures for the protection of not only social leaders but former combatants of FARC. We are going through a very complicated time because of this. In some regions of the country where the FARC left, new criminal gangs went in. So the point here is the criminal sources of resources. So there is a kind of combat between some criminal organizations in some regions of the country that leads, of course, to the killing of people living in those areas. So the decision of the government is to do the utmost efforts in order to combat those illegal groups so that the level of protection increases in those particular areas where there are sources of illegal resources. I'm speaking about narcotrafficking, I'm speaking about illegal mining, and I'm speaking about extortion as well. That happens in some regions of the country. But we are aware of this and the government is doing the utmost effort in order to increase the level of protection. And it has to do as well with the trade union members. This is an effort that has been made many, many years. There is still a lot of work to be done, a lot of work to be done, no doubt about it. But you can count on the will of the government in the power of the government to use the legitimate force of the state in order to prevent those killings to happen in that situation to change. In order to have a better protection environment for them. Amazon, there is a priority. The president has a priority in the Amazonian region. Recently, as you might know, we had a summit of Amazonian countries in Leticia, that were less than a month ago. The summit was attended by Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Colombia. And the presidents or head of states or heads of delegation who attended that summit in Leticia, the Colombian Amazon, agreed upon what is called a Leticia Action Plan. I'm going to provide it to you, just for you to have an idea of the specific measures that were agreed upon by the heads of state that attended that summit in Leticia. The name of the document, which is very complete, in the Tigreal document, is Leticia Pact. So, but this is to tell you that there is a priority in the foreign policy of President Duque, the Amazonian region. I came. Could I maybe just add one word to what David raised about the killing of human rights defenders, which as you know, minister is always top of the agenda when we talk. The European Union is doing a project supporting the prosecutor's office in Colombia to the establishment of a special investigations unit, which we launched during my last visit to Colombia. And that project is, it will be led by a Spanish prosecutor and it is focused on making the link between the guy who pulls the trigger and whoever ordered the killing to take place, to be undertaken in the first place. So that's a particular contribution that the European Union will be making to the fight against the killing of social leaders and bringing those who are ultimately responsible to account into justice. Could I ask a question, perhaps, which arises out of what you have already said, minister? I think when Ivan Mac is announced at the end of all this that he was resuming the armed struggle, if I'm not mistaken, this announcement was made in a particular area of Colombia itself, which perhaps is inaccessible to the central authorities. Is there a problem of territorial inaccessibility in regard to the full integration of all parts of Colombian society in the course of the peace process? Colombia is a large country, very, very large one. 1,260,000 kilometers, full of jungles, full of mountains, not totally integrated, not completely integrated. So the main institutional effort that we have to make is to guarantee the presence of the state, which in some areas is weak because of these particular features, so that the presence of the state guarantees the rights of the people living there. Those areas doesn't have the larger number of population in Colombia, but of course, being weak or nonexistent in some particular region, far away region, the presence of the states, of course, sometimes lead to this type of phenomenon. So as a priority, thinking about public policy, what we have to do is to keep on making use of it in order to guarantee the presence of the states in those regions. Now, as far as these two persons has to do, Venezuela plays a role here. And Venezuela's playing a role since many years back, since the beginning of the government of former president Chavez. They have protected, they have supported this type of organization. Recently, I was in the Permanent Constructed Organization of American States to show evidences of that link and that support. And I had the chance to let the ambassadors listen, speech given by former president Chavez, saying that he thought that Farke and ELN were not terrorist organizations, but political fighters that has an army and announced the political support to them. And recently, president, the dictator Maduro invited these two persons that later on announced the formation of a new narco trafficking organization to go to Venezuela. It was public and I let the ambassadors to the Organization of American States as well listen to this speech, recent speech. Few days before the announcement of alias Marques and Santrich to invite them to Venezuela. So the link is clear since many years back. If there are no more questions, it helps me to thank the minister very much for his comprehensive presentation of the situation in his country, the situation in regard to the peace process. And I think it will have struck everybody that relations with Venezuela figured in many instances in this regard. The presentation was very instructive, but the answer that you gave to the questions and the comments that were made, I think were a testimony to your openness and to your willingness to deal with the issues that were raised. Thank you very much for that. As far as the peace process is concerned, as you've said already, it's complicated. It's a long-term one. And you said there is a lot of work to be done. We wish you every success in the work. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.