Human rights in modern Colombian poetry

The purpose of this dissertation is to interpret, based on The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Colombian modern poetry that shows not only human rights violations in Colombia, but also how poetry is becoming a call for basic human rights for all Colombians. In fact, the Colombian human rights situation is so critical that in May 1999 The U.S. Department of State reported that human rights violations in the Americas took place “nowhere more brutally than in Colombia.” The Republic of Colombia has endured an ongoing undeclared war for more than fifty years. Attempts to reduce such abuses have had limited success and underlying social inequalities remain. Colombian poetry is currently one of the few ways to demand human rights. The First Chapter offers a general view of human rights poetry in Latin America, where the right to life, liberty, and an adequate standard of living have been neglected for centuries. The Second Chapter explains the poems that cope with the right to life in Colombia, since threats, abductions, and assassinations occur frequently, and even animals and children are turned into bombs. Massacres in small towns are common. The Third Chapter analyzes the poems in which the right to peace is the main feature. In the final Chapter, poems reflecting the lack of adequate living standards are discussed. Colombian poets, through their poems, convey what no one else attempts to say. They raise awareness about the situation in Colombia, reflect the lives of the most needy, portray injustices, seek to change many forms of prejudice, and uncover human rights abuses. Finally, this study establishes that poets often reflect their surrounding reality, and their works defend, indeed, demand human rights