Resisting Neoliberalism in Colombia: The Role of Human Rights

The Colombian government's noncompliance with the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement's Labor Action Plan calls into question not only the government's intentions but also the efficacy of human rights activism and discourse for social resistance to neoliberalism. Colombia has managed to adjust the narrative on human rights and improve its international image, paving the way for U.S. ratification of the free-trade agreement despite the fact that the human rights situation continues to be very serious. Its success in this is due to the way in which the debate on the agreement and human rights was framedwith a very narrow focus on trade unionists' rights and a discourse that did not link civil and political rights to economic and social rightsand to the ideological affinity between neoliberalism and the dominant liberal discourse on human rights.