At the end of 2015, the Colombian government launched its Plan de Acción de Derechos Humanos y Empresa, designed to domesticate the international standards on business and human rights. It took partial inspiration from the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which, among other things, demand that states implement effective remedies for business-related human rights abuses, in particular through judicial avenues. Moreover, states should actively endeavour to remove barriers to the access to judicial remedies.

In its 10 years of operation, the Colombian Caravana, a London-based charity, has conducted advocacy work in relation to human rights lawyers and defenders at risk because of their work. In some cases, the Caravana has intervened in support of individuals whose right to access remedies, as posited by the UN Guiding Principles, was not implemented effectively, therefore endangering the safety of petitioners claiming redress for or protection from business-related human rights violations. One case in particular has made the front page of several newspapers not only in Colombia but also worldwide. That is the case of Gilberto Torres Martinez. We met Gilberto in 2016 through his attorneys Sue Willman and Daniel Carey, at the UK law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn, while he was on a speaking tour around the UK. At that time, Gilberto was living in exile, first in Spain and then in the Dominican Republic, having fled Colombia in 2002 after he had been kidnapped by the paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia and, in an almost unprecedented way, released after 42 days of captivity as a result of intense pressure from the international community.

Gilberto Torres Martinez is a former leader of Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), a leading trade union in the Colombian oil industry. USO has campaigned against the privatization of ECOPETROL, the major Colombian oil company and one of the largest oil companies in the Americas.

Oil explorations in the region of Casanare, where Gilberto was based, began in 1987 under the lead of BP, the most prominent British oil company, through its subsidiary companies, BP Exploration Company (Colombia) Limited (‘BP Exploration Colombia’), now Equion Energia Limited (‘Equion Energia’), and BP Colombia Pipelines Limited (‘BP Colombia Pipelines’), the latter subsidiary being controlled by the former company pursuant to a series of association contracts with ECOPETROL.